by Lexy Sullivan

On October 17, nine Annie Wright Students trekked up to the Seattle Children’s Hospital to attend the Perry Outreach Program. The Perry Initiative is all about women empowerment; the program aims to inspire young women to become leaders in orthopedic surgery and engineering.

Our very own Red, Yellow, and Blue Ties made up almost a quarter of the program! Junior Jasmine Kennedy commented, “The Perry Initiative was an amazing opportunity to gain real time experience of orthopedic surgery with real doctors in the field. It was insightful, hands on, and loads of fun! I’m excited to see how I can mix computer science and medicine in the future.”

This program, which travels around the country hosting daylong programs for high school students, accepts only 40 participants based on a long application and essay. Participants hear from important women engineers, surgeons, and medical students. They then perform mock surgeries; the Annie Wright girls learned how to suture a pork belly, apply a cast to a broken wrist, use a bone saw and drill, and repair a broken femur using many different tactics.