Western Regional Community Consortium Fall Update

West Michigan Health Careers Pipeline Program (WM HCPP) Welcomes New Medical Student Coordinator 

Western Regional Community Consortium (WRCC) West MI Health Careers Pipeline Program 2025 welcomes our new Medical Student Coordinator, Shruti Khandai. Shruti is a 2nd year medical student at Michigan State University College of Health and Human Services. 

Although Shruti is new to WM HCPP as Medical Student Coordinator, she is not new to the program. During the 2024 Spring run of the WM HCPP, Shruti and her co-instructor, 2nd year Medical student Larissa Dean, facilitated a 90-minute session where 33 high school students and 9 undergraduate students rotated in groups of 6, to meet with 7 different healthcare professionals that introduced their careers, educational paths, and a what a typical day looks like in their profession. 

The 2025 WM HCPP is currently recruiting medical student instructors from MSU College of Human Medicine. Medical students that apply to participate in the program as an instructor will commit 15-40 hours of development, implementation and instructing, depending on the session topic, towards Service-Learning hours for their medical degree program. Preparations for the 2025 WM HCPP will also include November and December recruitment for undergraduate and high school students from the Grand Rapids area that have shown an interest in a future career in health care. 

Academy of Health Sciences and Technology (AHST) Mentoring Program 

The Academy of Health Sciences and Technology (AHST) is one of the five career path focused programs housed at Innovation Central High School in Grand Rapids.  When students attend AHST, they participate in the AHST Mentoring Program. This mentoring program gives high school students a chance to connect with community members that are active in the health care arena.    

As a student with the West Michigan Health Career Pipeline Program (WM HCPP) (medical student and undergraduate), mentors are informed of additional offerings such as the AHST mentor program to help share and guide high school students along the path to careers in health care.   

 2023-2024 was the first year the Western Regional Community Consortium asked to participate. The students did not disappoint!  Three students from the WRCC area and three from CMU College of Medicine mentored AHST student groups in 2023-2024, with four from the WRCC area and four from CMU College of Medicine with a student from each region returning to the program. All these mentors are using their time and talents to help the students in AHST on their journey to learn more about health careers.