Walt Whitman High School Senior Jacob Philip is getting the chance to take a very close look at the challenging medical career he’s chosen even before he gets to med school - neurosurgery. He’s been shadowing a neurosurgeon at North Shore University Hospital, and has even been in the operating room during a surgical procedure. It’s part of a select program offered by Northwell Health that gives handpicked students an immersion experience to explore various careers in health care.
“Ever since fifth grade, I've been wanting to be a neurosurgeon, and I've been infatuated with anatomy. So I figured this is my opportunity to learn how things are actually in the operating room and get a hands-on feel for everything,” said Jacob.
The High School Short Term Shadowing Program requires top grades and a guidance department recommendation, plus students have to submit a 250-word essay describing why they’re interested in participating in the program and what they hope to gain from the experience. Students get to shadow health professionals for 20 hours in two specialty areas for a total of 40 hours.
And even if they’re accepted, there’s no guarantee the student will get placed in their area of interest. Jacob got lucky. “I was astounded because it's not a guarantee that you're going to be shadowing a neurosurgeon. It can be any physician. But for me to shadow a neurosurgeon, which is my future career, hopefully. I was really shocked and I was really thankful too.”
Then came the day Jacob got the call to put on scrubs and observe an actual surgery in the operating room. The patient had a serious condition where part of his brain was outside his skull. “The surgeon was trying to basically push the brain back into the skull, into the cavern, where it's located. And she had to open the skull in order for her to gain access for that. And I literally saw her pushing the brain back into its original location because it was misplaced,” described Jacob. The surgery lasted about four hours.
Jacob had already gotten a jump on his medical education by taking Whitman’s very unique anatomy course in his junior year. The course uses what’s called an “Anatomage Table” to explore human anatomy without using actual cadavers. The tables provide students with highly accurate 3D virtual dissection ability just as they would on a fresh cadaver. The South Huntington School District is the only Long Island district to have these tables in both the high school and middle school. Jacob said it was the perfect class for him because “even though I had preexisting knowledge about anatomy, that course really elevated my overall understanding of the human body.”
As he prepares for about another 10 years of school including undergraduate classes, medical school, several years of residency and then a fellowship before becoming a full-fledged neurosurgeon, Jacob has his sights set on attending SUNY Stony Brook, where he’s already been accepted. He has this advice for students who find their career passion early in life like he did: “I would say don't be timid. Try to go out yourself and actively seek opportunities to expand your knowledge. Because one thing I actually regret is waiting on contacting the neurosurgeon when I could have done it a lot earlier. So I suggest that young students with passions like mine reach out to doctors or whatever profession it is that they want to go into as early as possible. Because the longer you wait, you're kind of throwing away time and you really don't want to be doing that in such a tough profession.”