New Visions is a full-year program that offers seniors from around the region a non-traditional and academically challenging senior year. Students divide their week between the classroom and experiences in which they work with professionals, graduate students, or college professors that work in their field of study. Students participate in one of three programs during the school day: Medical (at the Cayuga Medical Center), Life Sciences (at Cornell), or program new to this year, Engineering (at Cornell).
The New Visions Medical program has just started their rounds at the Cayuga Medical Hospital after weeks of training. This training included CPR, first aid, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) training, a field trip to Upstate Medical University, a two-day rotation through the laboratory at Cayuga Medical Center, a vital signs workshop, infection prevention training, and a medical research workshop.
The class is now prepared to use what they learned during their rounds. The Medical program has students all over the hospital, witnessing everything from MRIs to childbirths, learning more and more about what medicine has to offer. They are all very excited to continue with their rounds and to discover what future paths they will come to pursue.
New Visions Life Sciences graduate Bella Culotta ’17 spent the summer in Nepal, an opportunity she found through the Life Sciences program. Each year, Mrs. Kline, the teacher of the Life Sciences program, mentors students in writing an essay and encourages them to participate in the New York Youth Institute at Cornell University. Bella took advantage of the opportunity and won an all-expenses paid trip to the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa in the fall of 2016. Accompanied by her teacher, Bella spoke with world leaders about policy, malnutrition, education and other factors that affect food insecurity. As a delegate to the World Food Prize, Bella applied for the Borlaug-Ruan internship. During her internship, she spent the summer in Nepal working at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Culotta will join the 23 other 2017 Borlaug-Ruan interns from around the country in October for the World Food Prize laureate ceremony and Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, where she will present her research findings and share her experience.
This year’s Life Sciences program has already formed a tight-knit group. They spent a day touring farms during which they saw the Sweyolakan dairy farm, Laughing Goat Fiber Farm, Glenwood bison farm, Stick and Stone vegetable farm, and Farmer Ground Flour grain mill. Since then, the group toured the poisonous plants garden and the orchards at Cornell, and went out to a section of highway near the airport that the program has “adopted” through the Adopt-a-Highway program. They spent half the day picking up trash and collected a few trash bags full. The group is required to do work to support the community as part of the program’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) membership, and the highway cleanup fulfilled this requirement. Some students have finally started their research placements, working in Cornell labs. Thea Clarkberg ’18, working in the McArt Lab, said, “I am designing an experiment using cow blood. This week I drew blood from a cow’s tail for the first time.” Students have also just started rotations at the Cornell Vet School in oncology, dermatology, Companion Animal Hospital surgery, Farm Animal Hospital surgery, and the pharmacy.
Isabel Dawson ’18, member of the Engineering program, said, “On the first day of New Visions Engineering, I thought I’d gotten the room number wrong. When I walked into 204 and saw a large 3D printer in the corner busy printing out something that looked like a camera, I thought for sure I’d died and gone to heaven. The very fun-looking man in a bow tie at the front stood next to a board with the words ‘I promise I will not teach you anything remotely useless’ and ‘cheesy getting-to-know-your-names games’ with a line through it. I knew that even if this was the wrong room, I wasn’t leaving. Thankfully, it was the place I was supposed to be.” So far, the Engineering program has met with Cornell Engineering’s Project Teams and spent a day at the local 3D printing company Incodema. They’ve also built 100 percent functional pinhole cameras.
New Visions provides a wonderful opportunity for students who want a hands-on experience for their senior year. Underclassmen interested in medical, life science, or engineering careers should think about this opportunity as they look ahead to their senior year.
Keep up-to-date with New Visions by following them on Instagram: @tst_new_visions
CAPTION: Medical program students in the laboratory at Cayuga Medical Center.
CAPTION: New Visions Life Sciences graduate Bella Culotta spent the summer in Nepal studying agriculture as part of the World Food Prize.
CAPTION: The New Visions Life Sciences class toured a dairy farm and got to meet a newborn calf.
CAPTION: The New Visions Engineering class toured this lab in Thurston Hall at Cornell.