Pipeline programs have opened doors for people such as Jonah Damian.
High school students in San Bernardino and Riverside counties continue to gain healthcare career knowledge with Loma Linda University Health's immersion programs that offer them exposure to careers in healthcare and areas of the industry they may not have known about.
LLUH’s summer Discovery Program draws more than 70 participants from under-represented and first-generation groups every year. For many of these students, college was not necessarily the expected next step in their lives or if it was, there was little guidance or mentorship available on navigating access to college. The program involves visits and presentations by Discovery Program alumni and staff, faculty, and administrators from LLUH.
The program was launched in 2005 and has inspired over a thousand students to consider higher education or help narrow down their area of interest to the health professions. Many of the participants have gone on to become first-generation college students.
“We know the Discovery program works,” says Siquem Bustillos, the Discovery Program manager. “The students really resonate seeing someone who was in their position and are inspired to hear from faculty and staff who come from similar backgrounds.”
The summer Discovery Program is one of several health pathway programs offered by Community Academic Partners in Service (CAPS) under LLUH’s Institute for Community Partnerships.
The program has opened doors for people such as Jonah Damian, who was one of the many high schoolers who sat in a Discovery Program classroom and learned about medical research. Today Jonah is about to graduate from UC Riverside with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. He has also returned to the Discovery Program as a mentor, teaching 3D modeling to program participants.
Jonah is now interested in regenerating heart tissue, a goal made deeply personal since he lost a family member and a high school teacher to cardiac-related deaths.
“The purpose isn’t to come out of the program knowing exactly what you want to do,” Jonah said. “It’s to show you more areas of healthcare sciences that exist that you might not have known about beforehand.
Jonah has recently been awarded three years of graduate school funding from the National Science Foundation. Damian recently accepted a graduate school offer from UCLA, and he recently thanked LLUH for the support over the years.
“Thank you for all of the immense support that [the team has] provided me over the many years. I cannot imagine the lengths that your letter of recommendation travelled. But I genuinely don’t think this would have been possible without the team’s support.”
To participate in next year’s Discovery program or learn more about how to support health pathway programs, please email Taylor Pope at [email protected] or Siquem Bustillos at [email protected].