FACES programs foster mentorship opportunities between high school scholars and professionals in healthcare.  A particularly special mentorship program is the partnership between FACES Hayward and Samuel Merritt University’s Physician Assistant department.

FACES for the Future Scholars from Hayward recently had several opportunities to meet with their mentors, all of whom are graduate students from Samuel Merritt University (SMU) Master Physician Assistant department (PA).

“This is an important step for SMU in terms of our community engagement and in terms of the development of health workforce pipeline models within our local community,” said Chair of the Samuel Merritt University Physician Assistant (PA) Department, Dr. Mike De Rosa, “The high school students we are mentoring have the interest and potential to become SMU students and alumni and return to their communities as health care providers if adequate supports are in place.”

For the SMU graduate students, the mentorship program outline includes weekly phone call check-ins with their FACES students to keep in touch with what is going on in their day-to-day lives, participating in the field trips, working with the students during their internship rotations at St. Rose Hospital, and a series of monthly workshops/activities at St. Rose Hospital that includes training in clinical skills, professional development and life skills. Most importantly, through their own experiences, SMU PA students are able to help FACES for the Future scholars understand how to best navigate the often complex pathways that lead to careers in the health care industry.  Read original article.

(February 2014)

The FACES Coalition’s Summer Medical Academy, hosted at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, CA, was featured on NBC’s Bay Area Proud television program.

Dr. Tomás Magaña says, like most physicians, he began his career believing that treating illnesses would be the way he would save his patients lives. But then Dr. Magaña, a pediatrician, began practicing medicine in inner-city Oakland.

“The leading cause of death for adolescents is trauma, followed by homicide, followed by suicide,” Dr. Magaña says. “That’s very hard for a pediatrician, because I’m trained for pathology.”

Dr. Magaña soon realized if he was going to save lives, he would have to broaden the ways he did it.

(July 2013)