AHN Young Scholars introduces local high schoolers to careers in medicine

A pilot program at Allegheny Health Network called AHN Young Scholars aims to get more young people, particularly minorities, to become doctors. The students are meeting three days a week for six weeks this summer. In just their second week, the students have already worked on special mannequins for medical students, learning CPR, intubating a person and helping struggling newborn babies.

The students even got to watch an open-heart surgery.

Incoming eighth graders from Urban Pathways and Manchester Academic Charter School are learning from a dentist how to put sealants in teeth at Allegheny General Hospital.

“It’s teaching me personally a lot,” says Cara Mitchell, an 8th grader from the Hill District. “We have hands-on activities and actually get to try stuff before we actually get into the real medical field, so that’s helping me a lot.”

Student Saniyah Jefferson-Berry from the West Side says what she’s learning about the medical field is “really catching my attention.” She’s realizing that working in medicine and helping others “might be something that I’d like.”

Other students are enjoying the experience, as well:

“We saw somebody get their heart stuff get opened and learned from Dr. Bailey how he did it,” says student Lamont Maxwell from the West End.

Seeing medicine practiced up close can be “a little nasty at first,” says student Zyannah Jacobs from Northview. “But then once he actually started getting into it, I was like really paying attention — like, so this is how you do that, that’s how you do this. It was interesting to me.”

The program also hopes to recruit more minorities to become physicians.

“We know when patients have providers that look like them, they have better outcomes so that’s very important to us,” says AHN Young Scholars Program Coordinator Nnenna Ukpaby.

Takayah Durham, director of AHN’s First Steps and Beyond program, agrees: “So if I go into a health care system, maybe that doctor knows a little more about what I’m going through — maybe there’s a different way of thinking, a different way of treating.”

The plan is for the same cohort of students to return to Allegheny General Hospital every summer starting as they approach 8th grade this summer, and continuing all the way through high school. They’ll also meet periodically throughout the school year.

This summer, they have programs on etiquette, mindfulness, health equity and community service, and as they get older, the students will also get help preparing for college applications with things like standardized testing and writing.

Student Zyannah Jacobs says she’s considering becoming an obstetrician and is grateful to learn about the various aspects of medicine. “I’m really just experimenting because I want to know what I want to do when I’m older,” she says.

For more information and to see if your child might qualify for future cohorts of students in the program, email program coordinator Nnenna Ukpaby at nnenna.ukpaby@ahn.org.