In recent months, high school students eager to explore jobs in healthcare had a hands-on opportunity as Lowcountry Acceleration Academy (LAA) and YWCA Greater Charleston teamed up to bring them face-to-face with people who have built their career paths around helping others.
SheStrong is an ongoing YWCA program for high school students who seek to engage with their communities and develop as leaders and changemakers. Supported by a $25,000 grant from the HCA Healthcare Foundation, announced by Trident Health and its parent company, HCA Healthcare, the YWCA teamed up with LAA to offer students a rare opportunity to explore careers in healthcare.
All the students emerged with a clearer sense of purpose and plan to study a variety of healthcare disciplines in college.
“I’m definitely going to college,” said Shay Grant, 17, of Summerville, who recently earned her diploma at LAA.
Grant and other students who completed the new eight-month program were recently celebrated at a graduation ceremony at the North Charleston academy.
“It has been our pleasure and an honor to partner with the YWCA and Lowcountry Acceleration Academy in the SheStrong Program and help give young students an opportunity to experience healthcare,” Rod Whiting, director of communications and community engagement for Trident Health, said before the ceremony began. “We all recognize, especially in terms of the healthcare needs of our country, especially with an aging population, we do need that new generation of workers in healthcare.”
The program graduates were Malayjah Gathers, of North Charleston, David Mouzone, of Dorchester, Evyn Wright, of Moncks Corner, Max Hallman, of West Ashley, and Summerville’s Isabella Castle, Zy Mazyck and Grant.
Grant said she emerged from the program with an ambition to study nursing in college and work with premature and seriously ill babies in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
“I was like, OK, I could do this,” she said. “I love babies.”
The YWCA focuses its efforts on empowering women and eradicating racism. It made SheStrong available for LAA students who identify as female and for their allies. One of them was Mouzone, a young Black man who had the opportunity to job shadow a Black male surgeon.
“I’ve learned a lot about the medical field, and I’ve learned about myself and what I’m passionate about, which is helping people and fixing them,” Mouzone said.
After earning his high school diploma at LAA, he plans to enroll at Trident Technical College to earn an associate degree as a surgical technician, then a bachelor’s degree in biology and a medical school degree.
“I have 13 years of work ahead of me,” he said. “It’s something I love, so I think I’m good. Find something you love, and it will never feel like work.”
LAA educators said SheStrong invites students to move beyond ideas about healthcare based chiefly on what they have seen in movies and on TV. During the program, professionals working in the field came to the academy to give in-depth looks at career paths, including familiar roles such as doctors and nurses and more specialized roles such as chiropractors, healthcare assistants and technicians, and administrators and supply chain managers.
“You have a huge leg up when you can experience what a job is compared to what you think it is,” LAA Assistant Director Bria Alston said.
Academy career coach Quentin Morrison said the program allowed them to “be realistic and understand what it’s going to take.”
“They are going to ask about money, which is understandable,” Morrison added. “But I try to make them understand that even if the money is good, they’re not going to stick with a job if they don’t enjoy it.”
A highlight of the program was when participants donned blue scrubs and took comprehensive tours of Trident Hospital in North Charleston and its sister hospital, Summerville Medical Center. They also shadowed professionals in the healthcare fields of their choice as they performed their daily duties.
Gathers said she was surprised to learn about the complex web of facilities and responsibilities inside the hospitals.
“I always thought it was just the doctors, but it’s not,” she said. “It all starts at the bottom with supplies — from items as basic as cotton swabs, IV needles and bedding to high-tech diagnostic equipment and surgical suites. That was mind-blowing to me.”
Gathers said she doesn’t appeal to the idea of doing hands-on work with patients and their bodies. Still, she loves the idea of using sophisticated diagnostic equipment to help chart their journey to health. She also plans to begin her medical coursework at Trident Tech.
“I want to become a radiology technician,” she said.
At the graduation ceremony, program participants presented their career roadmaps. They spoke about the paths they plan to take beyond graduation into their chosen healthcare fields. Regardless of their path, they will make a difference in their adult lives — and YWCA and Trident Health officials say they hope to continue and expand the SheStrong initiative after this successful pilot project.
“I’m immensely proud. These are some really, really resilient young adults,” YWCA Programs Director C.J. Gathers told the students of the inaugural SheStrong healthcare class. “You all are not children. You are young adults who will make your mark on the world.”
