Calvin College Holds First-Ever Health Camp

Ilzhe Hernandez fastened the blood pressure cuff on Calvin College campus safety officer William Corner’s arm.

Following directions from nurse practitioner Joanne Rozema, Hernandez then used a small rubber bulb to pump air through a tube into the monitoring device.

“Pump it, babe! Look at how strong you are!” said Rozema to the young student, who was attending Calvin College’s first-ever summer health camp.

When she finished, Hernandez checked results on the machine and passed them on to her teacher. “It’s 100 over 60,” she said softly.

“You are absolutely right,” said Rozema.

Before taking Corner’s blood pressure, Hernandez checked her volunteer patient’s heart rate with a stethoscope, took his temperature, and used her forefinger and thumb to count his pulse.

“You’ve done everything and got it right,” said Rozema, giving her student a hug. “And you kept looking him right in the eyes and making him feel comfortable.”

Hernandez was one of 49 elementary and middle school students—all of them girls—from the Grand Rapids, Mich., area who attended the recent weeklong, H.E.A.L.T.H. Camp at Calvin.

H.E.A.L.T.H. stands for Health Education and Leadership Training for a Hopeful future.

Along with the hands-on exercises such as testing blood pressure in the college’s health services unit, campers peered through microscopes to see human cells, made healthy snacks, and gathered in the Calvin sports complex to learn about the benefits of exercise.

They also had a chance to hear about jobs in such fields as nursing, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medicine, and social work.

“We want to teach them about health and introduce them to healthy lifestyles and how to prevent chronic disease,” said Adejoke Ayoola, an associate professor of nursing at Calvin and codirector of the health camp.

“We also want to expose them to Calvin and help them imagine one day going to college.”

Since the early 2000s, Calvin College has been working on health-related issues in targeted neighborhoods of Grand Rapids. Calvin nurses and others have gone out to offer health care services and information to people, especially women, in area clinics, homeless shelters, schools, and community centers.

After completing a survey of needs, they found that the women with whom they work wanted their children to have the chance to learn about their bodies and the basics of the health care profession.

Coming up with the idea of a health camp, organizers brought a proposal to college officials, who threw their support behind this year’s pilot project, said Barbara Timmermans, associate professor of nursing at Calvin.

“They believe that holding this camp matches Calvin’s vision of service to the community and mentoring the next generation,” she said.

Calvin provided transportation and meals for the students as part of the camp.

“It has been wonderful to see the girls come back every day. They have been asking questions and learning. We are hoping this will have a big impact on them for years to come,” said Timmermans.

After her hands-on session with her volunteer patient, Hernandez joined other students in testing for nerve damage caused by diabetes. In diabetics, sugar particles can build up and destroy cells in the feet, leading to eventual numbness and neuropathy.

A medical student explained how to do the exam and gave each of the camp participants a monofilament, which is a single-fiber nylon thread.

“Make sure your partner’s eyes are closed, and then run it across their feet to see if they feel it,” said the medical student. “In diabetics, the feet can go numb in a few places and then we find that it can spread.”

As her partner closed her eyes, Hernandez gently touched places on her foot. “Can you feel that?” she asked.

The other girl smiled and nodded, wiggling her foot.

After the microfilament testing, Hernandez went off with fellow students to do a peak-flow breathing exam, in which she would use a hand-held device to measure air flow as someone exhaled.

But before she went, she answered a question about whether the  health camp had inspired her to consider a career in medicine, especially given how well she had done conducting her tests on Corner, the safety officer.

Breaking into a big smile, Hernandez answered, “Yes, I think so.”