Diego García

Adia Harrison

Adia’s smile is nervous at first, but soon warms to a friendly, welcoming grin. She’s a drummer in a band called BFC that also features her twin sister, Earnestine. The band “plays the songs of artists [they] like, such as Korn and Papa Roach, just for fun,” explains Adia, declining to indicate what, exactly, BFC stands for. “It was something very cheesy so we abbreviated it to an acronym,” she says mischievously.

Like Diego, Adia Harrison learned about FACES from Dr. Magaña, who visited her high school to speak about the program. “He came with a resident, and the fact that they came to us made me understand how passionate they were about it and how much they wanted it to succeed,” Adia remembers. “Their passion really made me want to be a part of the program and see it succeed, too.”

Her mom and dad, an elementary school teacher and a lawyer respectively, were happy for their daughter. “They thought it was a good step in preparation for college and would help me with medical school,” Adia says. The program also helped answer her fundamental question: What am I going to do with my life? Adia wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.

“I want to be involved in surgery,” Adia says, “because I am really excited about being able to see and work inside a living person and help fix something so they feel better. I didn’t know whether I would be an anesthesiologist or a surgery technician, or what.” Her rotations through Children’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab and Highland Hospital’s EKG department helped her decide. A personal component contributed to her choice of career, too: Adia’s grandfather has had a heart attack and strokes, leaving him unable to do the things he used to.

Speaking about surgery with the excitement of a scientist-explorer, Adia balances intellectual curiosity with a vision of medicine that extends beyond simply “fixing a problem.” “I could see that the people who work at Children’s and at Highland have a special mindset,” Adia notes. “They are not doing what they do for the money. They know their patients and they know that many of the patients would not be able to receive care if it weren’t for these hospitals. People have a purpose, and it is to help.”

Adia enjoys the benefits of working in a medical setting, but points out that the FACES program offers more than just preparation for a career: it also provides a community and an environment of support. “When we had problems—at work, at school, at home—the FACES staff helped us solve them.” Adia says. “When we got excited about what we were learning or going through, they got excited with us. When we needed time off or flexibility, they were lenient.”

The Future
Diego and Adia are among the 26 out of 30 kids enrolled at FACES’ inception in 2000 who completed the program and graduated this spring. Thirteen young people have been accepted by University of California schools. All graduates plan to pursue careers in healthcare; most dream of training as physicians.

What’s next for Adia?

Adia will be attending her father’s alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, where she is planning to study earth sciences in preparation for medical school. She’s proud to report that most of her friends will be attending college. The twins will be separated for the first time: Earnestine will pursue her bachelor’s degree in music industry at the University of Southern California but still dreams of becoming a neuropsychologist some day.

To FACES founders and co-directors, Dr. Magaña and Barbara Staggers, MD, the program’s premise always made sense: “Give youth the opportunity to be what they want and can be and they’ll do it,” Dr. Staggers said at the beginning. “They will also deliver valuable health services to the underserved communities they come from.”

Dr. Magaña echoed this sentiment: “Teenagers are desperate for adults to take interest in who they are and in their future, and they have responded to FACES wholeheartedly.”

Three years after FACES for the Future: Health Professions Internship Partnership at Children’s Hospital & Research Center of Oakland was launched, their vision has proven true. Congratulations to all program graduates, who have good reason to be proud; and to their mentors at Children’s and at Highland Hospital, who can take pride in the efforts which contributed to the success of the young men and women of FACES.