Over the course of the summer, the METEOR students were able to interact virtually with their mentorship teams to discuss their roles during the pandemic and subsequent changes to their research plans while also developing research questions for future student projects. In addition to developing plans for future projects and conducting preliminary research, students were able to attend 25+ live online lectures led by a number of Children’s faculty. These online lectures touched on a range of topics including cultural competence in care, advocacy and policy in child health, basic immunology and virology, applications of telemedicine, clinical trial development, pandemic surge planning, emergency contingencies and PPE, creativity and leadership during calamities, the realities of medical school, and so much more. The lectures, combined with weekly online discussion board posts, online web links and articles, and weekly assignments culminated in a final presentation to members of the varied mentorship teams. The METEOR students gained a deeper understanding of COVID-19, CNH's response to the pandemic, as well as an expanded understanding of research methodologies.

While developing virtual programming may have been an unexpected challenge to our team, it was very well received by the METEOR students. During end-of-summer debriefs, students expressed excitement and appreciation that a robust, structured program was still able to happen despite the changes brought on by COVID-19. The students really enjoyed having the opportunity to dive deeper into the world of the pandemic, as the range of lecture topics touched everyone’s interests, and appreciated the thought-provoking weekly deliverables. Most   students expressed interest in participating in the METEOR program again in the future. None of this summer’s success would have been possible without your support and advocacy, and our team and the METEOR students cannot thank you enough for everything you have done.

2021 METEOR Students Final Presentation Topics

“Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion in Medicine”

“Cross-Validation of Presence of Wheeze in Pediatric Lung Sounds”

“Can Digital Pathology completely supplement the need for physical human analysis?”

“How does the cause of epilepsy affect the likelihood of seizure freedom after a hemispherectomy?”

“How were sleep study rates impacted by tonsillectomies both before and during the pandemic?”

“We’ve hypothesized low SOGi data demographic rates, and data collection. Our goal to increase both rates and data to better health care for sexually and gendered youth minorities.”

“Investigate whether gene therapy or exon skipping therapy is more effective in improving the quality of life and outcome in subjects with DMD.”

“Is 3D MRI imaging just as sufficient as 4D MRI imaging when calculating flow rate and wall shear stress?”