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Students and staff from the Pathways Academy of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences take a group photo June 24 at Southeast Arkansas College in Pine Bluff during the closing ceremony of their two-week summer intensive camp. The students are part of the Pathways Program for Research Academic Mentoring Pathways for Underrepresented Minorities (RAMP-UP).
| High school students who participate in Pathways Academy’s Pine Bluff program spent two weeks learning about leadership, health and nutrition during a summer intensive camp.
Pathways Academy — part of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — is an educational and community engagement program that focuses on preparing low-income and underrepresented students from kindergarten until 12th degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Health Sciences (STEM-H) opportunities.
Macia Terry (left) chops vegetables as JaVoni Jackson purees black beans to form a burger mix June 20 during a visit by Pathways Academy scholars to the Culinary Medicine Kitchen at UAMS’s Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging.
The first-year program operates pilot sites in Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Springdale and plans to expand to other areas of the state.
Pathways Academy’s goals are to encourage the pursuit of STEM-H careers and to improve lives and communities, said Katina White, the program’s education coordinator. “This summer, we saw the young scientists come alive as they learned about the different health care career opportunities available to them,” she said.
Pine Bluff-area teenagers in the Research Academic Mentoring Pathway for Underrepresented Minorities (RAMP-UP) program got a chance to put their cooking skills to the test June 20 in the Culinary Medicine Kitchen at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. The students split into two groups: One made black bean burgers and quinoa tabouli salad with chickpeas, and the other made spaghetti and meat sauce, as well as salad and vinaigrette.
The event started with a kitchen safety lesson. The students watched a demonstration of the proper way to use a knife, and the group that made the meat sauce learned how to properly handle raw beef.
The students divide their duties among themselves, with some cutting vegetables and others working on the stove. When they finished cooking, they cleaned their work stations and their dishes and washed the floor.
The culinary effort “helped build teamwork and that will help us later,” rising 12 saidth grader Cadence Williams.
It also boosted their confidence in the kitchen. As students poured their spaghetti sauce into a pot of noodles, one said he felt like celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
Shanea Nelson (left), executive director of the Pathways Academy program, helps students make spaghetti and meat sauce in the Culinary Medicine Kitchen at UAMS.
After the food was prepared, the students gathered for lunch, trying a little bit of everything. The taste of the black bean burgers received mixed reviews from the teenagers, but they were nevertheless proud of their presentation.
“The food was excellent,” Rising 10 saidth grader Kamura Boykins. “We are five-star chefs.”
The students also received a nutrition lesson. They split into groups for an activity where they created meal plans that contained the right types of protein, carbohydrates and fats, known as macronutrients. They also learned how to read nutrition labels on food packages.
“I already had some prior knowledge about nutrients, but this broadened my understanding,” Rising 11 saidth grader Landon Rhodes.
The day’s activities were tied to one of their final projects at the two-week camp: creating recipe books based on the Mediterranean diet and their own culture. The teenagers presented their recipe notebooks to parents and Pathways staff during the camp’s closing ceremony on June 24.
“It’s the culmination of everything they’ve learned in those two weeks about food, nutrition and preventative measures related to your health,” said Shanea Nelson, Ph.D., executive director of Pathways Academy.
The students’ other capstone project required them to research health disparities and present their findings using the PhotoVoice research technique from the UAMS Translational Research Institute Community Research Academy. Topics include mental health, access to healthy foods, and the lack of black Americans in health care careers.
“African-Americans are underrepresented in the medical field,” Pathways Scholar X’zaeviun Sims said as she presented her project. “We make up less than 5%. This is a problem.”
Pathways Academy scholars prepare a quinoa tabbouleh salad with chickpeas.
Pathways consists of four programs: Junior STEM Academy for kindergarten through fifth grade; Senior STEM Academy for grades six through eight; and the RAMP-UP program and the Student Athlete STEM Academy, both covering grades nine through 12.
Each program has a summer camp that serves as the entry point for students to Pathways Academy. Students will continue to participate in the program throughout the school year, meeting one Saturday a month for sessions that expand on the knowledge they gained over the summer and provide access to a variety of health care careers.
In addition, students in grades nine through 12 will meet once a month with instructors from Usher’s New Look, a nonprofit leadership program founded by recording artist Usher Raymond. These sessions will focus on topics such as the college admissions process, scholarships, financial literacy and mental health.
Pathways and Usher’s New Look kicked off their partnership with a Powered By Service event held June 15 at UAMS. RAMP-UP students from the Pine Bluff and Little Rock programs participated in the day-long leadership session where they learned about the different types of leaders and how to establish their personal brands. They also received a lesson in financial literacy.
“We’re doing this to change our future before it happens,” said Derion Graydon, a student in the Pine Bluff program, during an exercise where the teenagers learned how to set a budget.
Katina White, education coordinator for Pathways Academy, offers advice to a student chopping vegetables.
Pathways also held events this summer to benefit its younger students. The Junior STEM Academy in Hot Springs is partnering with the University of Arkansas System Cooperative Extension Service in Garland County to host their first Parent Advocate Engagement Session on June 15th. About 40 families watched a healthy food cooking demonstration and each received a meal kit that included the ingredients needed to prepare that meal at home.
Nelson noted the important contributions Pathways partners have made to enhance the student experience. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service displayed a rainfall simulator to show how the gardens are treated, and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission provided masks for the camps.
“I am grateful for the support of our community and the partnerships that have truly made Pathways Academy what it is,” Nelson said.
Domestic partnerships were also vital. These include the UAMS Culinary Medicine Program, the Translational Research Institute, the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and the university’s regional campuses.
Nelson said she is pleased with Pathways’ progress in its first year. “I can see that we’re already making an impact in the lives of our scholars and in the lives of their families, and that’s extremely meaningful,” she said. “I am excited about the future of working with our cohorts of scientists, exposing them to additional career opportunities in healthcare and preparing them for success.”