Americorp, a federal agency for volunteerism, sends a representative to Naugatuck High School’s Careers Center every Thursday, for the Medical Careers Club to connect students with different medical professionals, and introduce them to a variety of professions in health care.
Marcela Charles is a volunteer from the Americorp agency, who spends time with NHS students. According to Charles, the Americorp’s goal is “…trying to advocate for students to have more exposure to health professions… healthcare fields… [and] have more education and more resources to really pursue the (medical) track if they are interested.”
The Medical Careers Club meets every Thursday at the NHS Career’s Center. The club is led by Charles, and the club officers: Kaitlyn Swindon, Wendi Castaña, and Eileen Chabla, who share the same interest and passion about the medical field.
“A plan for the club that a lot of us officers here would like to see is a lot of community outreach opportunities like volunteering at different organizations in the area, as well as connecting students to virtual, or physical experiences where they could shadow real people in the medical field.” When asked about what her and the other officers’ goal for the club, the club president Kaitlyn Swindon, who is a junior at NHS, stated.
The Medical Careers Club shines light on different careers in the medical field that are not always thought of when medicine is mentioned, such as different branches of health sciences: psychology, general surgery, dentistry, and so much more. It also goes over some courses someone may need to study for their wanted profession (and it is okay if one is undecided). The club also features guest speakers from different medical backgrounds, plans field trips, and offers volunteer opportunities to those who are interested.
In the past meetings, the club introduced Pathful to its members. “Pathful is a virtual job shadow that is a very dynamic platform that connects students to videos of different professions it could be specifically healthcare but it could also be all different types of industries…” Charles said.
The club also talked about different unique professions in the medical field, and also discussed about some upcoming events such as a presentation on sports medicine, physical therapy, athletic training with a guest speaker on Thursday, November 9th at the College and Career Center (S171) from 2 pm to 3pm.
Charles mentions that “…there are three categories that students could benefit from getting more exposure in general to different types of professions, [being] able to hear from different speakers that are going to come in and talk about their journey and what they had to do to become the profession that they are and have more opportunities to volunteer and serve the community, [as well as build] more skills of being a leader, being a team player, and just also being able to take initiative overall for your education, your career track, and your college track too.”
Charles also volunteers at other schools apart from Naugatuck, such as Wilby High School, Danbury High School, and soon at Western Connecticut State University, which is where she is currently studying.
For students who are interested, email Eileen Chabla for more information about club meetings and what you might have missed. The Medical Careers Club meets every Thursday, from 2 pm to 3 pm in the College and Careers Center.
