Camp Cornerstone offered a weeklong emersion in medical careers for 14 area high school students in June. It’s a unique Cornerstone Foundation program with an endowment from the High Point Community Foundation.

Students involved were predominantly rising Juniors from The Academy at Kearns, T. Wingate Andrews High School, Ledford High School, Southwest Guilford High School and Wheatmore High School. The schools serve Guilford County, Davidson County and Randolph County, all communities in which Cornerstone Health Care has a presence.

Camp Cornerstone partners with Northwest Area Health Education Center and Wake Forest School of Medicine.

The camp curriculum consists of one full day of orientation where subjects such as HIPAA, Infection Control, Professional Appearance & Behavior and writing an effective college application are all covered. The classes are presented by Cornerstone Health Care professionals and High Point University personnel. 

Each participant is afforded first hand experience by being placed into Cornerstone Health Care facilities to shadow medical personnel based upon their expressed career path interests, i.e., nursing/with a nurse, physician/with a physician. Shadowing is approximately 20 hours. It is the shadowing experience that sets Camp cornerstone apart from any other camp of its kind in the state.

One full day is spent at Wake forest School of Medicine. This year students visited the primate facility for half a day and the other half was in the simulation lab where they worked to resuscitate the state-of-the-art, monitored mannequin. Additionally they got to perform robotic surgery and learn about and actually “handle” different organs in the body. These activities are the same as used by medical students at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.    

The High Point Community Foundation is proud to be a supporter of Camp Cornerstone. It’s an excellent example of the power of public-private partnerships in delivering valuable extracurricular educational experiences. For more information, please call the High Point Community Foundation at (336) 882-3298.