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View Larger ImageTwo students at the UAMS MASH Camp at Conway Regional learn to draw medicine from a
MASH Camps Fuel High School Students’ Interest in Healthcare
By Andrea Hooten
Aug. 21, 2026
| More than 450 high school students explored healthcare career paths this summer at one of 29 statewide Medical Applications of Science for Health (MASH) camps, sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Regional Campuses and Arkansas Farm Bureau
Since 1988, UAMS Regional Campuses has hosted MASH camps to expose high school juniors and seniors to healthcare careers. The goal is to spark an interest among high school students in hopes that they will pursue a career in healthcare and serve rural areas
Quin Farmer, a senior from Bauxite, sutures a pig foot at the MASH Camp at Conway Regional.Bryan Clifton
Quin Farmer, a senior from Bauxite, learned about MASH Camps from her mother and signed up for the camp at Conway Regional Health System. She wants to be a surgeon or anesthesiologist, a dream of hers since she was 4 years old
“I want to help people,” said Farmer, who has battled several serious health issues, all of which have fueled her desire to help others. She wasn’t diagnosed until she was 12 and regrets the years of suffering, going from specialist to specialist in search of an answer
“I wasn’t helped as much as I should have been, and I just want to do better than what was done for me and make this a better place,” she said
During the two-week camp, Farmer and her campmates became certified in CPR and toured a Survival Flight helicopter, pathology lab, pharmacy, emergency room, and intensive care unit. They also learned to draw medicine from ao got to see a healthy lung versus a diseased lung, learn how to care for wounds, and experiment with the robotic da Vinci Surgical System
Farmer particularly liked the simulation lab, where the students could diagnose health scenarios using manikins. She also enjoyed placing IVs in model arms, something she’s been practicing for seven years
“Actually, for my 10th birthday, I asked for an MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) study book, an IV-practice arm, and a suture kit. Man, I practiced on that IV arm until there were holes in it,” Farmer said with a laugh
Just as IVs attracted Farmer, other students enjoyed the hands-on activities, too. One of the camp’s top activities is learning how to suture. Many of the camps prefer to use pig feet for this activity because it mimics human skin, although Grace Walker, a 16-year-old from Perryville, said she didn’t care for the “pig juice” or its squishy texture
Christopher Phillips from Pine Bluff High School laughs with John Makary, M.D., as he pries open his cast.Evan Lewis
Arm casting was another favorite activity. At Pine Bluff’s MASH Camp — site of the original camp in 1988 — students paired up to learn casting techniques from Jefferson Regional orthopaedic surgeon Roy Burrell, M.D. Once the cast of plaster and netting dried, students signed each other’s casts and kept them as souvenirs, including 16-year-old Christopher Phillips from Pine Bluff. When asked about a career, he said he wasn’t settled on healthcare, but one lecture had him pondering a new path: radiology.
“We went to Southeast Arkansas College, and the instructor was showing us X-rays. One was of the rib cage from the front and side angle, and the patient had swallowed a quarter. When I saw that, I was like, ‘I love it,’ because I’m going to look into the smallest details of everything,” said Phillips
The junior said he was looking forward to learning about phlebotomy and touring the emergency room, intensive care unit, and the operating room
“I’m actually very excited to go to the operating room and nervous all at the same time. They have it on the screen while they’re doing the surgery, so we’re going to be seeing inside of the person, and I’m like, ‘Oh, boy!” Phillips said
Trista Sneed, director of the MASH Camp at Conway Regional, instructs students on their suturing tools
Conway and Pine Bluff were two of 27 Arkansas cities to host the free camps, covering the state from Texarkana to Blytheville and Berryville to Lake Village
Arkansas Farm Bureau has supported MASH camps for decades. In 2023, it pledged a $500,000, five-year grant, forming the Farm Bureau Fund for Excellence, which supports health career recruitment programs for Arkansas students
Besides the two-week MASH camps, UAMS Regional Campuses also hosted one-week mini-MASH camps and Community Health Applied in Medical Public Service (CHAMPS) camps, which lasted three to five days for ninth and 10th graders
Admission is competitive. Trista Sneed, LPN, camp co-director and Conway Regional’s central sterile manager, said she had 10 students her first year in 2016. This year, she had more than 80 applicants from 30 schools, but she could only take 36
She and Lori Reynolds, RN, her co-director, said several former students have attended medical school while many others have graduated from nursing school. Sneed said she encouraged one of her students to learn more by volunteering, and he is now studying dentistry
Simariah Pearson signs the cast for Nathan Taylor, a former MASH camper from White Hall who now attends the UAMS College of Medicine.Evan Lewis
Danielle Harris, Pine Bluff camp director and education coordinator for UAMS South Central Regional Campus, said she had three MASH Camp graduates who were helping teams with the casting. One of them was Nathan Taylor, who will be entering his second year of medical school at UAMS. He graduated from White Hall High School in 2021 and wants to pursue pediatrics
MASH Camps are supported by the Health Re of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Arkansas AHEC Point of Service Maintenance/Enhancement (POSME) Program. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views or endorsement of HRSA, HHS or the U.S. government
A broader look at UAMS’ rural healthcare and pipeline programs that impact the health and well-being of rural Arkansans can be found atUAMS Rural Health Hub
Haven Simpson (Rison High School) and Montessa Elkins (White Hall High School)
Texarkana’s MASH students line up, wearing their scrubs.
Danijah Patillo from White Hall High School signs a cast.
West Memphis MASH students hear about the Pafford Air One helicopter at Baptist Memorial Hospital in West Memphis.
A glowing gel allows students to see hand germs with a black light.
Male MASH student tries on air tanks at Eureka Springs firefighter demonstration.
Students at the hands-on table at Conway.
Suturing pig feet is a favorite at MASH Camps.
The MASH Camp at Rogers allowed students to resuscitate a manikin and check its vital signs on a screen.
Two students with MASH backpacks.
Students do shoulder injections at Clinton’s Mini-MASH Camp at Ozark Health Medical Center.
Students wrap a manikin at Malvern’s MASH Camp.
A camper writes on a patient chart at the Malvern MASH Camp.
MASH Camp students at Cabot doing a hands-on activity with gauze.
Hot Springs MASH campers line up for surgery.
A boy puts on a glove inside an ambulance at the Mini MASH Camp in Monticello.
MASH campers learn about resuscitating a manikin at Fort Smith Mercy.
