OLC’s Take Your Kids to Work Day
April 24, 2025 – This week, the OLC welcomed a different kind of audience—curious, energetic, and eager to explore. As part of Take Your Kids to Work Day, the lab became a classroom of a different kind—not for residents or fellows, but for the kind of audience that asks why before they ask how. It was a rare opportunity to introduce young minds to the world of medicine, education, and innovation.
From the start, the day was built around hands-on exploration. The OLC team led a live demonstration of how broadcast production supports surgical training. With our help, participants got a behind-the-scenes look at the full setup—cameras, lighting, monitors, and live-feed projection. Then came an unexpected moment: we put their footage up on the large lab screens. Being in the spotlight, even just for a moment, brought a lot of smiles around the room.
Guided by the OLC team, the group moved through a series of interactive learning stations. At one table, they assembled full skeletal models. At another, they learned how surgeons use the C-arm, a real-time imaging tool that helps visualize what’s happening inside the body during procedures.
And with help from our tech experts, they even had the chance to safely x-ray their own hands. Seeing their bones appear onscreen in real time was both surprising and fascinating—and quickly became one of the most talked-about moments of the day.
The visit wrapped with a talk from three AAOS employees—Natasha Prosek, Amanda Bogdal and Ashley Terrell—who had each attended this very same event as children years ago. That full-circle moment wasn’t lost on anyone. It sparked quiet conversations, smiles, and more than a few whispered reactions from around the room. In the end, the day was about more than just showing how things work; it was about seeing how quickly curiosity takes over when given the space. What stood out wasn’t just how much information our guests absorbed, but how naturally they engaged with it.
They asked sharp questions, made unexpected connections, and lingered on details that even adults might overlook. It was a reminder that science doesn’t need to be simplified to be understood—it just needs to be made accessible. And for those of us at the OLC, watching that kind of joy unfold reminded us that inspiration rarely arrives with a spotlight. More often, it’s a quiet moment, a good question, or the first time you see your own hand on an x-ray screen.