Six Milwaukee students are graduating from high school with a head start on a career in the medical field.
The students, who hail from Rufus King High School, Marquette University High School, Golda Meir School and three other schools, recently completed a grant-funded K-12 Medical Assistant pathway program. The program was created through an innovative partnership by MedCerts, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and Froedtert Hospital.
The students were honored during a graduation ceremony at the Ready Center, 518 W. Cherry St., on May 27.
Jennifer Kolb, vice president of partnerships and workforce development at MedCert, said the students learned medical skills like how to test blood pressure, took classes such as human anatomy and got clinical hands-on experience at Froedtert Hospital. They participated in the pathway while still enrolled in their full-time classes.
“They graduate from high school with their high school diploma and a certificate,” Kolb said. “They could go work at hospitals, at clinics, at long-term care facilities; they could work in a variety of places.”
Kolb said Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee also provides support to students in the pathway with material needs like food and housing.
After high school, some students plan to stay near and others are going far – but all are interested in pursuing a career in the medical field.
Meet some of the graduates
AJ Egerson
Alexander “AJ” Egerson, a senior at Marquette University High School, said he is passionate about mental health in his community.
“In Black communities mental health often gets overlooked,” Egerson said.
He wants to make an impact by becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner and opening his own clinic.
“I saw (the medical pathway) as an opportunity to get my foot in the field,” Egerson said.
Egerson is moving south to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham to get a bachelor’s degree in nursing, where he can also earn his master’s degree in psychiatric nursing at the same time.
Before he leaves, Egerson will continue to work in the field this summer with Froedtert Hospital.
Aubree Cathey
Hearing about her grandma’s experiences as an anesthesiologist for the Army made Rufus King High School senior Aubree Cathey want to follow in her footsteps into the medical field.
“I really wanted to be in the operating room,” she said.
“But I don’t have much of a steady hand.”
She saw the medical assistant pathway as an opportunity to get hands-on experience beyond job shadowing. She said she enjoyed meeting students from other Milwaukee schools and learning alongside a supportive community.
Cathey will attend the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the fall to pursue a degree in biology. She’s also looking forward to playing on the school’s tennis and softball teams.
She said her school’s campus clinic is hiring a medical assistant and the certification from the program sets her up well to apply.
“I’m really excited to hopefully get into there,” Cathey said.
Maryan Mohamed
Maryan Mohamed said the Medical Assistant pathway program taught her about ethics and laws in the medical field and showed her what it’s like to work in a hospital.
She said it took a lot of work to balance the rigors of the program with her other obligations.
“Balancing high school, work and extracurricular activities while being at medical assistant school,” Mohamed said. “It was hard juggling all of those at once.”
She said that throughout her time in the program her classmates helped motivate her when the work got hard.
Mohamed plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to pursue a degree in radiology.
Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
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