From Camper to Counsellor to Future Healthcare Leader: The Story of Medics Camp
Updated: Oct 12
Some stories explain why a business exists. Some stories show us that businesses can part of a movement. This is one of those stories.
At Medics Camp, everyone is called "Doctor." To protect her privacy, we'll call this remarkable young person Dr. C.
Dr. C was seven years old when she first joined us for summer camp. This fall, she is a Grade 12 student preparing to graduate and begin her own journey toward a career in medicine.
In between are ten summers of curiosity, growth, hands-on discovery, and a quiet kind of leadership that we have been incredibly fortunate to witness up close.
Growing Up at Camp
Dr. C started as a camper, just like thousands of children who have walked through our doors. She extracted DNA from saliva. She examined a pig heart. She learned first aid skills that even a young child can understand and use including how to help a friend use an EpiPen and when to call 911.
In Grade 8, she completed our FALCON First Aid Leadership program for teens and was invited to become a junior counsellor.
She has been part of the Medics Camp team ever since, helping younger campers discover the same medical science concepts and hands-on experiences that once captured her own imagination.
Over the years, she didn't simply grow up at Medics Camp. She grew into a leader.
At the end of this summer's camp season, Dr. C sent me a thank-you note that I will forever treasure. She wrote:
"I really really appreciate the care and opportunities you gave me. I always enjoyed your camp, it continued to spark how much I enjoyed medical science."
That last line is one of the greatest gifts a founder could receive. It is also the reason I started Medics Camp.
Why We Do What We Do
Medics Camp was created to give children a STEM experience that feels different from the usual — it’s hands-on, imaginative, age-based, and rooted in the fascinating world of health and medical science.
The goal was never simply to keep children busy for a week.
It was to spark curiosity, make science tangible, introduce lifesaving first aid skills, and help children see themselves in the world of healthcare.
And, perhaps most importantly, to show them early that medicine and science are places where they belong.
Because sometimes a child's future begins with something as simple as being given the opportunity to ask a question and explore the answer.
Hands-On, With a Purpose
At Medics Camp, our activities are intentionally designed around learning outcomes.
Take our eye model. At first glance, it might look like a craft. But there is much more happening. Campers identify and label the parts of the eye, building medical vocabulary as they learn what each structure does and how the parts work together to make vision possible. They are introduced to conditions that can affect vision and to the healthcare professionals who care for eyes, including optometrists and ophthalmologists.
For our older campers, that foundation leads into a second hands-on experience where they step into the role of an optometrist, using real medical equipment to test vision and explore how light and lenses affect what we see.
The model is also an introduction to a skill used by engineers and scientists every day: building a model to represent a system and understand how its individual parts relate to one another.
And throughout our programs, children are learning through more than one pathway — listening, observing, discussing, building, experimenting, and doing. That's intentional.
Research has found that children's science vocabulary is associated with differences in their science knowledge, suggesting that developing scientific language early can play an important role in how children build their understanding of science. One study of children ages 3 to 11, for example, found that science vocabulary was a significant predictor of science knowledge even after accounting for general vocabulary and demographic factors.
We don't have a study following Medics Camp campers into high school, and we would never claim that our camp caused a particular academic outcome.
But we hear something encouraging from former campers who later became counsellors. They tell us that when concepts and terminology appeared again in Grade 10 biology, they recognized them, had seen the structures, and had held the ideas in their hands.
Suddenly, the classroom version had something to connect to. That's the kind of learning we hope to create.
Why It Matters Now
The need to inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals is not abstract.
The World Health Organization currently projects a global shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030, with the greatest shortages expected in low- and middle-income countries.
Canada faces its own workforce challenges. Health Canada's 2025 Caring for Canadians: Canada's Future Health Workforce study reported that Canada produces just 7.5 new medical graduates per 100,000 people, compared with an average of 14.2 per 100,000 across 38 developed countries. These figures refer specifically to new medical graduates, not the total number of practicing physicians.
The same Health Canada modelling identified a family-physician supply-demand gap of more than 22,000 physicians, with that gap projected to grow over the following decade.
And according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, an estimated 5.7 million Canadian adults did not have a regular healthcare provider in 2024.
Behind every one of those numbers is a person. It could be a child waiting for a doctor or a parent trying to find a family physician. And every healthcare professional who will help meet those needs was once a child who was curious about how the human body works.
We can't know which seven-year-old will become the next family physician, nurse, veterinarian, physiatrist, otolaryngologist, gerontologist, researcher, pharmacist, forensic pathologist, or other healthcare professional. But we can help make sure they have the opportunity to discover that possibility.
Our Vision, in Practice
In our first ten years, more than 4,500 children have participated in Medics Camp programs, and more than 300 instructors, counselors, volunteers and co-op students have contributed to our programs in some capacity.
We don't know how many of them will ultimately pursue careers in healthcare. And we don't need to know because our vision isn't about predicting a child's future. It's about changing the trajectory of a child's future by introducing them to STEM and the medical field early, and giving them the knowledge, confidence, and passion to imagine themselves making a difference.
When one person's future changes and they choose a path in healthcare, that impact can extend far beyond one individual.
It can mean another healthcare professional caring for patients, a scientist making a discovery, or maybe veterinarian helping animals and the people who depend on them. And perhaps another child deciding, "Maybe I could do that too."
That is what our vision looks like in practice: To inspire meaningful change in the lives of others by introducing children to STEM and the medical field at an early age, equipping them with the knowledge and passion to make a transformative impact on global healthcare in the future.
What Comes Next
When Dr. C graduates this year, her journey into medicine continues. And we could not be prouder.
She will always be part of the Medics Camp family. We hope that one day she returns to us — this time as an instructor — and inspires the next seven-year-old who walks through our doors with big questions, a big heart, a curious mind, a love of learning and a desire to help others.
Because that's how a movement grows: one curious child, one opportunity, one future healthcare leader at a time.
Dr. C, thank YOU for your care, your curiosity, your leadership, and your commitment to Medics Camp and our vision. We can't wait to see what you do next!
Do you know a curious kid who would love a summer of hands-on medical science?
Locations and dates for our 2027 camp season will be available by December 1, 2026, at www.medicscamp.com
