Last Sat., Sept. 30 was the annual Perry Outreach Program, hosted by the Perry Initiative. Forty young women, all upperclassmen in high school, were selected to participate in a daylong program built on encouraging females to join the field of orthopedic surgery.

The Perry Initiative was founded in honor of Dr. Jacquelin Perry, a highly accomplished orthopedic surgeon who was among the first ten women to join the field of orthopedics. The program is maintained by Dr. Jenni Buckley, a mechanical engineer at the University of Delaware, as well as Dr. Lisa Lattanza, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

The Perry Initiative joins with universities and hospitals to hold their annual Perry Outreach Programs in over thirty locations across the country. Saturday’s program was hosted by the Mayo Clinic, in Scottsdale, Arizona and included participants from the entire Phoenix valley. Over the course of the day, high school students had a chance to meet and speak with surgeons and engineers while participating in a number of mock surgeries. Mock surgeries ranged from bone fracture repairs and casting to scoliosis fixation and suturing and were completed using drills, screws, rods and plating alongside simulated bones.

The program was highly informational and exciting, but most importantly inspiring. Women are underrepresented in the medical and scientific fields, (only 6.1 percent of practicing orthopedic surgeons are female,) and the Perry Outreach Program gave high school girls a chance to see firsthand how women can contribute to healthcare and engineering careers.