AdventHealth Gordon Hosts Surgical Outreach Program for Local High School Students

On Monday, May 6, select students from Calhoun High School, Sonoraville High School, Gordon Central High School and Georgia-Cumberland Academy attended the AdventHealth Gordon Surgical Outreach Program for students interested in pursuing a career in health care.

AdventHealth Gordon’s urologic oncologist and Director of Robotic Surgery Hak Lee, MD; Director of Surgical Services Vernon Gipson, RN; general surgeon Carl Lokko, MD; Robotic Clinical Coordinator Sharon Bass, RN, and the remainder of the robotic surgical team devoted a day to training students to develop basic suturing skills, laparoscopic surgical skills, da Vinci robotic skills and endoscopic urological techniques.

“I just wanted to do something for the students in Calhoun because they are our future,” said Dr. Lee. “One of our past students, Mark, is at Mercer right now. After this program, he wanted to go into anesthesia and decided to go for it. Having an opportunity like this pushed him further and encouraged him to find the greater things out there.”

Students enjoyed learning about the many different career paths the medical field has to offer and how this program is the perfect foundation for creating a future in health care.

“I think this is a great opportunity for us because it gives us a head start into this career path,” said Vanessa Thurman, a student from Georgia-Cumberland Academy. “I’m grateful to AdventHealth for this opportunity because it has really shown me what it would be like in everyday life in this career path I’m taking.”

“It’s really exciting to get this first-hand experience,” said Nathan Ortiz, a student from Sonoraville High School. “It has broadened my knowledge on what I may want to explore in the health care field."