City of White Plains Youth Bureau Gets Insightful Look at NYMC

The youth bureau, which works with youth ages five through 24 to provide educational and professional experiences, worked with the College to raise the awareness among their college-age members about careers in medicine and health professions, especially for underrepresented groups in medicine (URM). Mill Etienne, M.D. '02, M.P.H., FAAN, FAES, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, associate dean of student affairs and associate professor of neurology and of medicine, embraced the idea and rounded up several medical students to lead the tours and offer guidance to the group members.

“We are pleased to be able to support Frank Williams, director of the White Plains Youth Bureau and a highly respected community leader, in this important pathway initiative to encourage youth to prepare for careers in medicine, speech-language pathology, physical therapy and public health,” said Amy Ansehl, DNP, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, associate dean of student experience, director of applied practice experience and associate professor of public health.

The group met with speech-language pathology (SLP) faculty members Vikas Grover, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, assistant professor of speech-language pathology and Kathleen Franklin, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, chair and associate professor of speech language pathology, where they learned about the basics of what SLP entails and what kind of patients they help. The group also learned about the wide array of challenges and opportunities that come with the profession. “I fall in love with this profession every single day in a different way,” Dr. Grover told the students.

A campus tour organized by Michelle Novotny, M.A., associate dean for admissions and enrollment management, and Nick Sekkas, M.S., director of recruitment, in the School of Health Sciences and Practice, helped the visitors gain an understanding of what study tools students have access to at NYMC. Amy Brown, M.D., M.Be., assistant professor of pediatrics, also invited the group to participate in a summer academy for children's environmental health at the Children's Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley.

The youth group also visited the Alumni Gross Anatomy Laboratory and Janet P. Dolot, M.S., D.P.T., Dr.P.H. ’14, PT, OCS, interim director of the department of physical therapy and assistant professor of clinical physical therapy, facilitated an in-class exercise for physical therapy students that the group got to observe. Their visit concluded with a tour of the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC) organized by Katharine Yamulla, M.A., CHSE, senior director of Competency Based Assessment and Clinical Skills Education and director of the CSSC. With the help of Jeanne M. Wilson, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and course director for foundations of clinical medicine, the group had the opportunity to use the simulation rooms and check vitals on the Center’s high-fidelity mannequins.

All in all, visitors from the City of White Plains Youth Bureau were grateful to have a gained a better understanding of what obtaining a degree in health sciences may entail and what careers they can pursue in the future.