Day 36 - Medical Students

I probably mentioned in a past post that NMAA has about 40 or so cadets each year that are pre-identified for medical school. I audited their CompSci core class today (CS-1). We discussed formatting in MS Word, which seems to basic for college Freshman, but when I asked them, only about 8-10 had ever touched a computer before coming to NMAA. The year is about 2/3 of the way done for them, and I must admit, they pick it up quickly.

The med school cadets come to NMAA for one year, then go on to medical school after that, usually Kabul University. Most of them speak English quite well, and they are the select few Freshman students at NMAA that are given laptop computers. This year, 12 of them are female. Currently, the only women at NMAA are tracked to become doctors, vets, or nurses. Interestingly, I've been told that many practicing human doctors in Afghanistan are actually trained as Veterinarians. It's more medical education than I have, but it still seems like not quite enough for me if I was their patient.


After class I asked if could take a picture of them and they all agreed enthusiastically. They do love to take photos. I tried to take one serious picture and one goofy picture. The students here always seem so serious. Well, you can see the result. This first picture is their "serious" one, and the second picture is their "goofy" one. Not much difference huh? I didn't think so either.


Later in the day, COL Rahman (the CompSci department head) invited us to a feedback session with the senior CompSci majors. We do this at USAFA too. It is a chance to provide an open forum for students and instructors to comment on how things are going. This one was a bit different than ours though. COL Rahman started things off by reading the names aloud of all the cadets that had failed their mid-terms. And I was warned many times before I came that they didn't take criticism well, especially public criticism. He softened the blow by encouraging them, and before the session I had privately told him that he should appeal to the other cadets doing well to be sure and help their classmates. I think they got the message.
After starting on the down note, the top students and instructors were then announced, and then things were opened up for question and discussion. I was impressed with the bearing and professionalism of the students. They asked some pretty tough questions. COL Rahman shot a few questions down though. He has a bit of a tough demeanor with the students. He reminds me of my department head at USAFA when I was a student (Col William Richardson). Tough, but fair. After the whole event we posed for a picture.

I made it a point to embed myself in the back with the cadets. I was expected to stand in front with all the other instructors, but I love doing the un-expected, especially here. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but the cadets seemed to love the idea, and COL Rahman is still my buddy.