Students from Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) present a "mini med school" training workshop Wednesday at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind in Spartanburg, Aryeona Freeman, center, practices CPR on a manikin with medical students Rosmery Victoria, left, and Lauren Hildebran, right, during the workshop.

A "mini-medical school" in Spartanburg Wednesday was a learning experience for students of both S.C. School for the Deaf and the Blind and Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM).

Thirteen second-year medical students from VCOM visited the SCSDB campus, teaching hands-on presentations about the heart and other organs, bones, muscles and CPR.

About 60 middle and high school students attended the extracurricular program. The mini-med school was coordinated by VCOM student Matt Fenlason.

"You're going to get to touch a real lung, a real heart and brain," Fenlason told a group of students before the hands-on activities began, using sign language as he talked.

"Eeeewww," several students responded, but curiosity won out. The students donned rubber gloves and handled the organs (covered in a preservative plastic). They also took a pulse, listened to heartbeats with a stethoscope, pumped the chest of a CPR simulator and performed jumping jacks to learn how the heart rate increases during physical activity. Students crowded around the presentation tables and spoke or signed enthusiastically as they participated.

The presentations stressed the importance of a healthy lifestyle and even impressed some of the staff members when they saw the difference between a healthy lung and the lung of a smoker.

"This benefits any teenager," said SCSDB President Maggie Park, who stopped by to check out the presentation. "While other students may be able to hear this on the radio or watch TV, our students may not. Having an interpreter here helping them access the information makes a big difference."

Fenlason, of Colorado, grew up with sign language because his mother is a professional interpreter, and he is now a sign language interpreter at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg. He chose VCOM partly because it was near the location of the SCSDB, where he volunteers as a wrestling coach.

The VCOM students have conducted mini-med schools at Dorman and Spartanburg high schools, but this was the first time they visited SCSDB. Most of the medical students had to learn some sign language in order to be able to conduct the presentation. The VCOM students arrived at the campus two hours early to practice signing, said Cora Richardson, after-school program coordinator and resident life services director for SCSDB.

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Medical students take mini-med school to SCSDB students