SMU Partners with Nationally Acclaimed Youth Program to Change the Future of Healthcare

Tiffany Farmer knew as early as high school that she wanted to become a forensic pathologist, a physician who determines the cause of death by examining a corpse.  Her decision was confirmed when the East Bay teen was introduced to her first cadaver during a gross anatomy course at the FACES for the Future Summer Academy at Samuel Merritt University (SMU) in 2012. 

“Understanding and coping with death was very impactful for me, and not being afraid to talk about that process,” said Farmer, pictured at right.

Farmer, now a pre-med college student, is one of three alumni of Faces for the Future programs who have returned to Oakland to work as student advisors and mentors for the 2016 Summer Medical Academy — a program founded in 2005 to expose high school students to the fields of medicine, nursing, and allied health professions.

Forty high school students from across the Bay Area are attending the program at SMU, where they will spend the next two weeks learning clinical skills and gaining insight into the complexities of medical practice through lectures, hands-on training and patient simulation workshops taught by physicians, nurses, and other health professionals.

Simultaneously, FACES is holding its first-ever Behavioral Health Undergraduate Summit at SMU for 30 recent high school graduates and college students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds interested in careers in mental health. The program is supported in part by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services.

Dr. Tomás Magaña, a pediatrician and the founding director of FACES, told the students that the Summer Academy would challenge them to ask questions and think deeply about what it means to be clinicians in a complex world.

“FACES is about building a new healthcare workforce,” said Magaña, assistant professor and medical director in SMU’s Master Physician Assistant Program. “Healthcare is going through a lot of changes. There are problems, no doubt, but the only way we’re going to solve them is from within.”

The tuition-based academy helps to support FACES’ work throughout the academic year, providing minority students across California with internships in hospitals and clinics guided by the belief that greater diversity among healthcare professionals can contribute to improved health outcomes. FACES recently received a federal grant to expand nationally.

Farmer said she stays in contact with the health professionals she met through FACES and SMU, who provide her professional and emotional support.

“They have opened doors for me,” said Farmer.