UConn Health

February 19, 2025 | Mike Enright '88 (CLAS), University Communications

Undergraduate Students Get Medical Experience Through Unique Classes

Students learn to approach and engage with patients and their families in the hospital for current research projects and often shadow physicians, residents, and medical students

Students learning how to create a splint on each other

Students taking these classes gain experiences that include an interactive classroom setting and real-life experience. (Contributed photo)

UConn students who are interested in various medical careers are able to enroll in two innovative courses that provide them with clinical research opportunities unique to undergraduates.

The courses are under the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and taught by Elizabeth Kline and Dr. Sharon Smith.  Kline is an assistant professor in molecular and cell biology and Smith is an affiliate professor at UConn Health and the associate program director of the pediatric residency program at Connecticut Children’s (CT Children’s) in Hartford.

By name, the courses are Molecular and Cell Biology 3100 and 3189 and called the University Research Assistant Program (URAP). In practice, students taking these classes gain experiences that include an interactive classroom setting and real-life experience at CT Children’s.

Students learn to approach and engage with patients and their families in the hospital for current research projects and often shadow physicians, residents, and medical students. Many UConn students develop and conduct their own capstone projects through these courses.

Program participants have also presented their research at regional and national pediatric medical meetings, another rare opportunity for an undergraduate.

The courses started with a simple email that Smith received from a UConn student about 20 years ago.

“I was a new faculty member at Connecticut Children’s and I got an email from a student on the UConn campus,” says Smith. “She said she wanted to go to medical school and heard that I did research and she wanted to work with me. I told her she could but I could not pay her and did not have any grant money to offer her. She was able to do the work as an independent study and joined me on campus every Friday for a semester. She was awesome.

“Then I got an email from two more UConn students with the same story, and I had them come and work with me and then my inbox got flooded.”

The class became a formal University offering in fall 2008, and Smith has been impressed over the years by how motivated and interested the students are. She has used student feedback about what to teach and what they find helpful.

The introductory class enrolls 12 students a semester, with many continuing with the senior course. Students can take this course several times and some transition into independent studies as seniors.

“The students present the research projects they are working on to the rest of the class,” says Smith. “It might be a subject like increasing physical activity among children, or how to approach families in the hospital setting. We break out in groups in the classroom and discuss how to go through study documents and how to be motivational.”

Students who take the classes have a lab requirement of working at CT Children’s four hours a week.

“The students enroll people in research projects and actually learn how to knock on the door of a hospital room, introduce themselves, and develop what we call soft skills by working with patients and families,” says Smith.

Smith says students also get to learn what life is like at nursing stations.

“It is a real learning experience for them,” says Smith. “It helps them decide if they want to go on to medical or dental school or maybe do research, go on to a Ph.D. program, or become an advanced-level provider.

“It’s a really cool class that I am very passionate about. The students get to do so many things. It’s a huge potpourri of research and ideas,” she adds.

Almaas Ghafoor ’26 (CLAS) is a molecular cell and biology major from Monroe who is enrolled in these classes. She hopes to attend medical school.

“I learned about these classes from a recommendation I received as a freshman in the STEM Scholars program,” says Ghafoor. “It’s a great way to get into research and work on my capstone project. We get some great shadowing opportunities and see what different departments of hospitals are really like.”

“I really value interacting with the patients at CT Children’s. It’s different than practicing with each other in class. We get to see families that are going through so much and having an impact on them. It’s a very unique experience.”