Photo: Nhi Tran
A new program introducing Worcester area high school students to careers in health, science and racial health disparities research kicked off on Wednesday, Jan. 15, with an opening ceremony at UMass Chan Medical School.
The 2025 Pipeline Dreams high school cohort is being overseen by the UMass Chan Collaborative in Health Equity and includes 33 juniors and seniors exploring careers in medicine, research and public health; and meeting in-person and online with scientists, clinicians and college undergraduate teaching assistants over 12 weeks.
Cherise Hamblin, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology and director of URiM community workforce development and capacity building for the UMass Chan Collaborative in Health Equity, emphasized the need for high school students to be exposed to a variety of health careers. Dr. Hamblin anticipates high student attendance, parent engagement and community support for the program.
“There are all these resources here at UMass Chan and in the Worcester area. We produce doctors, nurses and scientists. Our focus in this program is to activate these students in the local community, remind them that they belong here and have something to contribute, and then follow through to help them speak the language of medicine and science,” Hamblin said.
Dr. Hamblin is the founder and director of Patients R Waiting, Inc., a nonprofit organization that works to increase diversity in medicine and eliminate health disparities. Patients R Waiting, which is co-sponsored by UMass Chan, will serve as a longitudinal support system for the students in the cohort beyond the 12-week program and into college. Additionally, the program brings a health equity book club, a monthly community call and the Annual Diversity in Medicine Conference to the UMass Chan community.
“We have so much to offer students and we have so many places of connection but we want to see where this line of the path to a career in medicine becomes much straighter,” Hamblin said.
In her opening remarks, Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, MD, professor of obstetrics & gynecology and population & quantitative health sciences and executive director of the UMass Chan Collaborative in Health Equity, acknowledged UMass Chan’s longstanding history of outreach and pathway initiatives, including the High School Health Careers Program and the Summer Enrichment Program, designed to encourage, educate and challenge young people from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine.
“We want to bring in more learners from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine and support them throughout their journey so that they can not only survive but thrive. We aspire to also retain them so that when they are done with their training they can be inspired to join us right here in Worcester, becoming Worcester’s future doctors, nurses, researchers, educators and leaders,” Dr. Johnson-Agbakwu said.
The ceremony included a speaking program, interpretation services and professional headshots for students in the program.
The students come from North High School, Doherty Memorial High School, South High Community School, Worcester Technical High School, Claremont Academy, Abby Kelley Foster Charter School, Wachusett Regional High School, Clinton High School, Gardner High School, Saint John’s High School and Mystic Valley Regional High School.
The program is sponsored by UMass Memorial Health, the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the Schwartz Charitable Foundation.
