Train 16 Minority Youth in Health Careers in DC

Dear Future Health Professional Supporter,

Thank you for your continued support of the Teen Health Promoters Program at the Latin American Youth Center. With your help, 14 aspiring health professionals have learned about a variety of health topics, gained clinical skills, and are interning at area clinics and hospitals. Your donations have helped pay for TB testing, required to work in a health setting, and transportation to and from the internship sites.

Of the 14 youth in the program, seven are placed at The George Washington University (GWU) Hospital where they have supported the Emergency Room, physical therapy, and cardiology units and have frequently served as patient interpreters (Spanish). The photographs in this update are from the hospital's skills lab, where the youth reviewed protocols for administering CPR, taking vital signs, and drawing and transfusing blood.

In a few weeks, the program will end for the 2013-2014 school year. We want to thank you for believing in this group of youth and investing in their future. It has truly been a great year. Thanks to you and our clinic and hospital partners, we have provided youth a hands-on opportunity to explore a health career while learning how to keep themselves and their peers healthy.

Some of the participants are graduating high school and will go on to college; others will surely come back in the fall for another year of health careers exploration. We hope you will support the program then too.

Thanks again for your support this year!

The Teen Health Promoters Class of 2014

Dear Future Health Professional Supporter,

Thank you so much for your support to date! With your help, 14 future health professionals completed the sexual health phase and have begun clinical skills training. Your contributions helped pay for certification, practice equipment costs, and scrubs! Thank you!

Before the winter break, the Teen Health Promoters wrote and performed a three-act play titled, the Lives of Relationships: Consent, Communication, and Connection. The play presented common scenarios between young couples, including a vignette of a conversation over cell phones.

In early January, the participants started the clinical skills phase to prepare for their internships at local clinics and hospitals. Thus far, they have become CPR and first-aid certified and have learned to measure vital signs. Next, they will receive a special workshop on HIPAA regulations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Soon after, they will begin their clinical internships at The George Washington University Hospital or at several community clinics. Thanks to your support, they will look the part in brand-new scrubs. Photos coming soon!

To support their experience through the internship, we matched each youth with a health professional that shares her/his health interests. For Daysha, a future pediatrician, that means corresponding with Elizabeth, a third-year medical student at The George Washington University School of Medicine who plans to specialize in pediatrics. And Fanny, a future nurse, has begun her mentorship with Kenyatta, a registered nurse at The George Washington University Hospital. The youth will meet with their mentors at monthly events, and email or talk on the phone weekly.

Thanks again for believing in these youth. Your contributions make a real difference. Stay tuned for updates and pictures from the clinical internships.