Little Hands Big Hearts: Serving with Heritage’s Nurses
Little Hands Big Hearts: Serving with Heritage’s Nurses
Written by Doreen Li December 1, 2024
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Every Wednesday after school, my friend Nicholas and I head to Mini Medics, an afterschool enrichment program at American Heritage Schools. We are teacher assistants who help the school nurses teach students from PK3 to 1st grade about the fascinating world of medicine. It’s my favorite part of the week— not just because I get to share what I love, but because I get to see the kids light up with excitement as they learn how their bodies work.
I started volunteering at Mini Medics last year with Nicholas. We were both sophomores interested in science and medicine, so when we saw the club announcement looking for helpers, we knew we had to join. Since then, we’ve been assisting the nurses in teaching kids about systems such as the circulatory and respiratory system through fun, hands-on activities.
Our most recent lesson was the digestive system, which we spent 2 weeks on. After watching a video that explained what the digestive system was and how food travels through our bodies, we reinforced the students' understanding by asking them questions based on the video, followed up with various activities.
For example, to model how food gets digested by enzymes in our stomach, we gave them each a Ziploc bag filled with water and a piece of cotton candy to put in it. In addition, we printed out the path of the digestive system and gave the kids some playdough to mold into the organs and parts involved in the digestive system. We also had a string the length of real small and large intestines laid out on the floor for them to visualize just how long the intestines are. My favorite activity was the crawl-through play tunnel we had for them to crawl through, reenacting the path food takes through their intestines.
“Giving lower school students the opportunity to learn medical knowledge in a creative environment really fosters their academic growth” Nicholas shares. “Seeing them understand scientific topics shows me real-life changes that Mini Medics has created, impacting them forevermore.”
Mini Medics has become more than just an afterschool program for me— it’s a place where I can inspire young minds and spark curiosity that will grow for years to come. Every week, I leave knowing I’ve helped these kids see medicine as exciting and possible. Who knows? Maybe some of them will grow up to be doctors, nurses, or even teachers who inspire the next generation, just like the nurses and mentors here.
For now, I’ll keep showing up, helping with lung balloons and clay stomachs. After all, Mini Medics isn’t just about teaching medicine — it’s about building confidence, curiosity, and dreams for the future — and I feel so lucky to be part of that journey, one Wednesday at a time.
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