MY THREE SONS: IMSA Season 4, a future doctor?

Jul 25, 2011

IMSA Season 4, a future doctor?

2011

Callahan completed his 4 year at The Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora. This was my 1st year not going to parent day (only day to get inside the school). I had a photo shoot, so Tim was able to see the school for the 1st time and was not disappointed. The annual photo disk is on order. The school takes many photos of the kids in action.

This year was Medical Mysteries, which was medical school crammed into 1 week. Cal dissected a sheep heart, learned to read a ECG and a chest X-ray. He learned all about the body systems ie respiratory, skeletal/muscular, cardiovascular and Nervous

They also learned about infectious diseases . On the 1st day each student received a patient medical chart with 7 pages of different diseases. Each day the budding doctors were updated on Patient X's condition (test results, new stats, signs and symptoms) The goal was to eliminate all disease but 1, the patients diagnoses.

The kids couldn't bring home chart and the instructors made it impossible to go home and Google the answer just by the way the daily info was given.

How intense is this for 12 year olds?

Needless to say, Cal was so intrigued that he now is considering Medicine as a career path. He never would have thought of a career in Medicine without this program. He always wanted to be one of the worlds great Physicists

Thank god for programs like these that can spark the minds of gifted children. It is a huge struggle for Callahan to enjoy school as they are not equipped to handle this small percentage of kids. Cals middle school does try as best as they can. He was able to skip pre-Algebra and go straight to Algebra ( he passed the test w/o ever taking an algebra class) I am the only advocate for him, his counselor is great and I am in constant contact with her. I got a personal phone call from the Asst Principal saying how unorthodox skipping Pre-algebra is even for the smart kids!

Callahan's latest test schools have him at a college freshman level. His dream is to attend IMSA for high school, this next year is the start of his process. He has the test scores, but so do all the kids going there. Cal needs to step up his leadership role and get involved in extra-curricular activities. He is also taking the SAT this year (at age 12) to establish a baseline and see how he ranks. IMSA requires the SAT for enrollment and kids generally out-score the average college bound student. I've been told some kids take the SAT up to 5 times...nuts! I am really nervous for him, this has been his dream and only passion since 3rd grade. To think he may not get in terrifies me as there are no guarantee's in life.

Next year his summer camp is residential...he'll live there for a week. It will give him a taste of IMSA life and he can see if that life really appeals to him