Mid-Central Regional AHEC Hosts Saginaw Area Health Career Pipeline Program
This past Spring 2022, the Mid-Central Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in collaboration with Central Michigan University (CMU) College of Medicine hosted the third annual Saginaw Area Health Career Pipeline Program (HCPP). This program has been made possible by a trust managed by Huntington Bank and is hosted at the CMU College of Medicine Saginaw Education Building. Throughout the eight-week program, 20 Saginaw County students in 9th and 10th grade from 7 regional high schools participated. A third of participants were first-generation college students and all from Health Resources and Services Administration primary care shortage designated areas. Participants met weekly to explore health careers through virtual and in-person experiences, engage in leadership characteristic development activities, and discuss educational pathways and resources with college mentors to foster their interest in the health profession field.
Along with Mid Central AHEC staff (April Osburn, Executive Director and Jennifer Morneau-Wilson, Program Manager), CMU College of Medicine students (Cody Hall, Jake Quarles, Alexis Vicenzi, Jessica Buttinger, Jeffry Lin, and Vaishali Kapila-Kalra) assisted with development and facilitation of the weekly session activities, leadership characteristic development videos and healthcare topic segments. This year's participants were able to experience auscultation, CPR races and birthing demonstration in the Covenant Healthcare Simulation Center, a casting clinic with sports medicine professionals and hear from more than a dozen professionals regarding their health career profession and educational journey. All program participants at both the high school and college level found the experience to have influence on their career goals and found the experience beneficial to their overall health career educational journey. One participant shared, "[m]y favorite parts of the healthcare pipeline program were the simulation night and both career panel nights. The simulation lab was amazing, and I was blown away with wonder and excitement. The career panels were very interesting to me because I could ask the professionals questions and they were all very nice and knowledgeable."
Mid-Central AHEC and CMU College of Medicine look forward to hosting the Central Michigan Area HCPP this fall and supporting additional pipeline efforts that foster area youth's exploration of the health field.
Mid-Central Regional Expansion Gets Local News Coverage
The Morning Sun newspaper recently published an article about the expansion of the Mid-Central Regional AHEC. Click the link below to read about the new Western Region Community Consortium. CMU healthcare group adds 19 counties The Morning Sun Another article about the MCRC expansion was published in the CMU newsletter here: https://www.cmich.edu/news/details/area-health-education-center-expands-improves-health-care-services-in-region