Human Anatomy and Dissection Laboratory Unveiled in Snyder Hall

Published: April 13, 2021

This semester, a new addition to campus was unveiled in the Snyder Hall of Sciences. Tucked away on the top floor, you can now find Greenville College's very own human anatomy and dissection lab. While excitement certainly surrounds this new part of campus, it has definitely been a project in the making.

In the fall of 2010, the Science Division faculty began exploring in earnest, the possibility of creating a Human Dissection and Anatomy (cadaver) lab in Snyder Hall. Their previous research indicated that this would be an effective approach for enhancing the quality of our biology curriculum, recruiting highly qualified students, and improving the academic quality for the Science Division as a whole.

The next year was spent researching space, costs, and necessity. The research concluded that that the college could and should add this lab, but it would require roughly $25,000 in funds to make it happen. Fortunately, around that same time, a GC alumnus called and asked the Science Division if there was anything they needed help with. He was told of the cadaver lab project, which he immediately and generously volunteered to fund.

So now, a year and a half later, the lab is up and running. Currently, eight of the College's top Biology and Chemistry students have been given the privilege of working in the lab with local Medical Doctors, doing hands on dissection and identifying structures that they have been discussing in lecture over the last semester and a half.

These students are getting clinical insight from Medical Doctors, and at the same time, getting experience of doing the actual dissections that will be expected of them in medical school. The College is very fortunate, as very few other schools of our size have a cadaver lab of this caliber, let alone the step-by-step knowledge these students are gaining through working with actual doctors.

Dr. Ryan Stork, Assistant Professor of Biology, noted, "our students have been very excited about the lab and have already benefited from their experiences using it, and we are hopeful that our medical school acceptance rates will only become larger."

For more information regarding the Science Division at Greenville College, please visit our website, www.greenville.edu.