Students Get Hands-On With Healthcare During MASH Camp

July 10, 2026
Students in medical scrubs gather around a helicopter and talk with one of the crew. One of the students is sitting in the helicopter.
MASH Camp attendees meet with the crew from a Mercy Flight helicopter and experience what it's like to sit in the aircraft.

Twenty-four high school students went hands on across healthcare disciplines at Guthrie Cortland Medical Center during the Medical Academy of Science and Health (MASH) Camp, held Wednesday and Thursday this week at the hospital.

The students, from school districts in Cortland, Tompkins, Cayuga, Broome and Onondaga counties, dove into their first day by rotating through several stations designed to simulate trauma and emergency department scenarios. These activities included triage, identification of vital equipment and accessing necessary supplies from a code cart while under pressure.  

A stint with the team in Rehabilitation Services was less chaotic but no less intense, as students had the opportunity to compete in various challenges based around patient mobility exercises, including tests of grip strength, navigating in a wheelchair and tossing a water balloon back and forth using proper form for bending and lifting.  

And in the grassy field across from the hospital, a Mercy Flight helicopter kicked up a little dust and a lot of interest from the students as they clustered around the aircraft and learned about aerial medical transport from the crew.

The two-day MASH Camp also had students learning from caregivers in the operating room, cardiac rehab, maternity, respiratory, pharmacy, imaging, laboratory and environmental services.