By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY Bordentown Regional High School sophomore Austin Kruger is a young man with a mission.
Having long dreamt of becoming a doctor, Austin eventually settled on anesthesiology. A few months ago, he was invited to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine, a 10-day summer program where some of the nation’s top students with an interest in medicine meet with high-level industry professionals and learn about advanced topics in the field.
With his keen interest in the matter, only one thing is holding Austin back: the $2,560 price tag, which includes classes, room and board, and an additional $420 in airfare to get to the program at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Austin has tackled the problem with gusto, and so far has raised over $1,000. But with the deadline for payment little more than a week away, he’s trying to reach out to any and all potential donors.
The 16-year-old Crosswicks Street resident said he settled on anesthesiology because he wants to work in a hospital setting and have direct contact with patients. His aunt, a nurse for an anesthesiologist, has been helping him raise funds through her office.
”I’m just a kid who wants to go and be a medical student,” Austin said. “I’ve been wanting to do so since I was 6 or 7. I wanted to do something in medicine where I could help people, and it turned out first it was a dentist, then an orthodontist, and now an anesthesiologist, which takes a lot longer at school. I just want to get there and this will help me completely.”
Austin has had some help in his efforts so far. Along with his aunt’s office, he has received donations from several area businesses, and the Bordentown Elks let him hold a very successful fundraiser on Super Bowl Sunday, when he raised several hundred dollars.
The efforts, he said, are all necessary because his mother, a teacher in Trenton, was assaulted by a middle school student and has been on disability since then.
”It is stressful for fundraising and everything,” he said. “If she was back working we probably wouldn’t have to be fundraising for this.”
The program itself takes only high-achieving students, and Austin fits the bill. The president of the Class of 2012 at the high school, he is a member of numerous clubs and has a high-A average. Last summer, he was given a scholarship to attend a pre-college chemistry program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
For five weeks he had the longest commute of anyone in the class, about 1.5 hours, and in the end he received one of four awards for high performance. He also works seasonally at Rita’s Water Ice on Route 206, and is active in the South Jersey Jewish Relations Council’s Adopt a Holocaust Survivor program.
Anyone wishing to donate money to help Austin go to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine can send a check made out to the NYLF to Austin J. Kruger, 115 Crosswicks Street, Bordentown, N.J. 08505.
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