The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke

Careers | Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience (CAPE)

CAPE CAPE (Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience) is a year-round program offered by Duke University Medical Center and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center to female athletes on Duke University's twelve collegiate varsity athletic teams. The program provides participants with a wide variety of clinical experiences that provide exposure to the world of Medicine. CAPE is designed to engage some of the nation's highest achieving young women in medical science and to help them onto the path toward careers in Medicine.

Success in medical school and in a medical career hinges on precisely those character attributes demonstrated by college athletes; these individuals, if engaged and well supported, would thus be likely to succeed in medical careers – that is, to provide quality patient care, function as valuable team players in the health system, take on leadership roles in their institutions and fields of specialization, and contribute to the advancement of medical science.

CAPE targets female undergraduate athletes who express potential interest in careers in Medicine. The program facilitates participants' entry into medical education by introducing them to many elements of medical education and practice, and providing them with well-rounded, advanced-level experiences. CAPE provides student-athletes with the opportunity to assume significant (supervised) responsibilities in medical care through independent study, lectures, discussion groups, and one-on-one mentoring. One of the program’s goals is to attract and support a pool of future physicians and physician-scientists who will prove to be outstanding in their careers and chosen fields.

Another avenue of admission to the program is through our cross-program exchange with the Baldwin Scholars Program, an affiliation which will benefit students in both programs. In addition, CAPE will broaden this exchange to include one student per year from the Minority Association of Premedical Students (MAPS) sponsored by the Duke Chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA).

Curriculum

The core curriculum for CAPE participants consists of both school year and summer activities.

School-year activities

Consultations: For one semester each year, students at the sophomore level and beyond shadow physicians as they perform new patient consultations at The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke Medical Center. They learn the essentials of conducting a history and neurological examination, and very rapidly they are given primary responsibility as the first healthcare provider to see a new patient, take a history, do a neurological examination, and report to the attending physician. The attending and the student then return to the room for completion of the consultation. Each student performs at least one consultation weekly throughout their clinical semester; additional consultation opportunities may also be available. During the other semester the student participates in activities (defined below) offered monthly throughout the academic year. During the semester in which a CAPE student is not seeing brain tumor patients, she is given the opportunity to attend weekly clinics of CAPE faculty members in areas of practice outside of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. Seniors typically spend both semesters with faculty member’s practice outside of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.
Monthly Activities:

a) Journal Club: At the monthly journal club meetings, CAPE students discuss assigned readings which address a broad span of issues in the medical field.

b) Role Model Dinners: The CAPE students host female medical students, housestaff, attending physicians and other healthcare providers. They are given a real-world, rigorous exposure to the path they seek to follow.

c) Leadership Sessions: CAPE students meet with leaders both inside and outside of Medicine to gain understanding of the skill sets necessary to develop and provide leadership in the medical, academic and community arenas

Observation of craniotomies: Throughout each year students are given the opportunity to observe operating room craniotomies conducted by Dr. Allan Friedman, while patients are awake or asleep.
Support group: On a weekly basis students have the opportunity to attend one of the support groups organized and sponsored by the Duke Tisch Brain Tumor Center for children, adolescents, or adults with malignant or benign brain tumors.
Independent studies: Students have the opportunity to pursue academic-credit, independent study related to their specific medical-related interests and majors. Previous independent study topics have included Coping with Life Threatening Illness, Organophosphate Poisoning/ Mercury Poisoning, Introduction to Human Disease, Consequences of Radiotherapy, and Ethylated Resistance in Human Cancer. These independent studies have been particularly meaningful and have, in some instances, substantially influenced the lifework decisions of the CAPE students involved.
Academic Resource Center: Students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with science learning specialists and other learning experts in the Academic Resource Center on Duke’s East Campus. At the beginning of each semester, students may request a formal academic assessment to determine individual learning styles and the match between their repertoire of academic skills and the particular academic skills and strategies required to succeed in their current course schedule and their intended academic pursuits. The outcome of this assessment is a highly individualized plan designed to meet a student’s unique academic needs. Each plan may include an array of interconnected services, including course tutoring, writing support, and academic skills instruction. Students can learn to read with improved focus and efficiency, to learn how to improve note-taking and to develop highly discipline-specific learning strategies for mastering challenging course material. The professional staff at the Academic Resource Center understands that living and learning are deeply interconnected, and hence their goal is to help students to achieve and maintain a correct balance among their academic, athletic and personal commitments and interests.
Focused lectures: Dr. R. Sanders Williams, Dean of Duke University School of Medicine, meets with the CAPE students at the beginning of each school year to discuss changes in medical knowledge and practice, addressing issues such as genomics, personalized and anticipatory health care (which uses individual history and genetic information to guide pre-illness preventive care), and the role of the laboratory in steering and supporting clinical medicine. All CAPE students attend these lectures and have the opportunity to discuss topics of interest with the Dean following his presentation.
Hoop Dreams Basketball Academy: Students are offered the opportunity to participate with the personal trainers and therapists who operate and support the Hoop Dreams Basketball Academy. This not-for-profit organization uses athletics to teach successful life skills to children with chronic and, often terminal illnesses. Program areas include basketball skill lessons, physical training, and informal and formal psychological support for the children as well as for their parents and siblings. CAPE students work in small groups or one-on-one with these children in planned exercises designed to enhance physical and emotional well-being.

Summer Activities

Internships: The cornerstone of the summer program (typically for students between their junior and senior year) is participation in either one of the two six-week internships. Students rotate through the clinical practices of CAPE faculty and participate in inpatient rounding, outpatient clinics, and any didactic sessions that occur during the students' time with their respective physicians. Those students who have a particular interest in laboratory work and who are considering careers as physician-scientists have the opportunity to intern in the laboratories of the CAPE basic science faculty.
Journal Club: Students participate in a journal club. Each student reads assigned articles and participates in formal weekly discussion sessions.
Weekly Invited Speakers Luncheon: Each Friday an invited speaker discusses his/her professional activities at Duke University Medical Center. In particular, female attending physicians are asked to discuss their activities and how they balance the many hats that a female physician wears. Female faculty members serve as outstanding role models for CAPE students.
Weekly Teaching: Steve Silverman, Associate Director of CAPE, with invited CAPE faculty participation, teaches weekly sessions which address the essentials of clinical medicine, including history and physicals, specific diseases, and symptom complexes.
Guatemala Mission Trip: CAPE members and director will be traveling to Guatemala to work a medical mission trip with HELPS International. The students will work in a clinic in rural Guatemala, conducting brief physicals and histories then present to attending. They may also have the opportunity to work with the HELPS Community Development team working in the small villages to upgrade the villager’s stoves and water retention systems. The students will be chosen from CAPE students that have worked in the weekly clinic and finished a summer internship. Eight students will be chosen every summer to participate in this opportunity.

The Tim McGraw Medical Education Scholarship

The Tim McGraw Medical Education Scholarship has been established to provide partial support for a graduate of Duke University and Duke’s Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience (CAPE), to attend Duke University Medical School. Johanna Bischof has been selected as the recipient of the first Tim McGraw Medical Education Scholarship. This award will provide $25,000 a year for four years toward the cost of medical school. Read more...

Administration/Program Leadership

Rather than a single director, CAPE has an administrative structure which apportions responsibilities to the Duke Faculty members with the most relevant experience. This structure is designed to maximize efficiency and to garner participation from those in the best positions to inspire and assist potential medical school applicants.

Co-Directors: Henry Friedman, MD, James B. Powell, Jr. Professor of Neuro-Oncology and Allan Friedman, MD, Guy Odom Professor of Neurological Surgery
Associate Directors: Terry Kruger, Program Director of CAPE, Neuro-Oncology Program and Steven Silverman, Physician Assistant, Neuro-Oncology Program
Co-Principal Investigators for program-related grants: Dr. Henry Friedman and R. Sanders Williams, MD, Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine
Liaison to Duke University School of Medicine: R. Sanders Williams, MD, Dean
Liaison for Undergraduate Studies: Rebecca Bach, PhD, and Steve Baldwin, PhD
CAPE Senior Advisor: Courtney Ryon, Patient Relations Coordinator, Special Constituencies Patient Program
Faculty Advisor for CAM (CAPE Alumni Mentors): Richard Wallace, Associate Director of Admissions, Duke University School of Medicine
Liaison to Department of Surgery: Michelle Fisher, Chief of Staff for Chairman of Dept. of Surgery.

Mission Statement/Board of Advisors

The CAPE Board of Advisors is charged with generating financial support for the program as well as creating network opportunities that expose CAPE students to the diverse medical and other educational venues available to them.

Chair – Lanty L. Smith, JD, Former Member of The Duke Endowment and Duke Board of Trustees; Director and Manager of Duke Management Corporation (DUMAC)
Staci Arnold, Pediatric House Staff, Duke University
Sammy Arthur, New York Giants, New York, New York
Georgia Beasley, Duke Graduate 2001, Medical Student, Duke University
Johanna Bischof, CAPE Duke Graduate, 2005, Medical Student, Duke University
Myles Brand, President, NCAA
Sara and Bruce Brandaleone, retired investment bankers, and donors of scholarship funding to Duke University
Keith Brodie, MD, President Emeritus, Duke University
Ann Brown, MD, Director, Academic Program of Women’s Health, DUMC
Jennifer Brusstar, President and CEO, Tug McGraw Foundation
Ruth Dzau, Durham, North Carolina
Laura Gentile, Vice President, ESPN
George L. Gordy, Retired, Global Strategic Alliance, Procter & Gamble
V. Janet Hill, Vice President, Alexander and Associates, Inc.
Kristina Johnson, PhD, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs,
Johns Hopkins University
Chris Kennedy, PhD, Associate Athletic Director, Duke University
Donna Lisker, PhD, Director, Women’s Center and Baldwin Scholar’s Program, Duke University
Scott McCune, Vice President Worldwide Sports, Entertainment and Media, The Coca-Cola Company
Larry Moneta, EdD, Vice President for Student Affairs, Duke University
Michael Morsberger, Vice President, Development and Alumni Affairs, DUHS
Molly O’Neill, MHA, Chief Strategic Planning Officer and Vice President for Business Development, Duke University Health System
Benson and Francine Pilloff, Durham, North Carolina
Jacki Silar, Associate Athletic Director, Duke University
Jean Spaulding, MD, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, Duke University
James Stockman, MD, President, American Board of Pediatrics
Jo Rae Wright, PhD, Vice Dean for Basic Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
Gwynne A. Young, Shareholder - Carlton Fields, P. A., Tampa, Florida

Faculty

CAPE faculty mentor students during their summer internships, as they rotate through the clinical practices of the faculty. We base student-to-faculty matching on the stated interests of each CAPE student.