JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The general public well being workforce has been strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a wave of retirements is anticipated. NPR’s Pien Huang experiences on a brand new supply of assist – excessive schoolers studying to turn out to be neighborhood well being employees.

PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Eighteen-year-old Bithaniya Fieseha spent her complete summer season taking on-line courses on persistent illness, psychological well being and call tracing.

BITHANIYA FIESEHA: Like, I really feel like individuals are like, oh, my God, you wasted your summer season and issues like that. However, like, I loved that. I actually loved assembly up with everybody, going by all of that, the wrestle, you realize, doing the modules.

HUANG: It took 90 hours of a curriculum designed by the Morehouse College of Medication adopted by an internship at a neighborhood well being clinic. She practiced taking weight and blood strain readings on her household.

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HUANG: Now, on a Saturday morning in December, Fieseha is among the first 14 highschool college students to graduate from the Youth Public Well being Ambassador program in Fairfax County, Va. The Fairfax County Well being Division is coaching college students to turn out to be neighborhood well being employees. Edu-Futuro, a neighborhood nonprofit, helps. Director Jorge Figueredo says it takes minority college students with an curiosity in medication, and it provides them a head begin on a profession path.

JORGE FIGUEREDO: On the finish of the day is that they efficiently enroll in a school or a postsecondary establishment the place they are going to be capable of get a level in a health-related profession.

HUANG: This system focuses on Hispanic, African American and African college students from low-income households. That is as a result of in Fairfax County, as in a lot of the nation, these teams of individuals had been hardest hit by COVID. Anthony Mingo from the county well being division says one cause was not getting good info in the beginning of the pandemic…

ANTHONY MINGO: When there have been already problems with distrust. And it simply created a depressing stew of misinformation, as I name it.

HUANG: One method to handle the distrust is by coaching native youngsters as well being influencers for his or her friends and for his or her households. And the brand new youth ambassadors are very enthusiastic about public well being. Fieseha says it was eye-opening to be taught that not having wholesome, reasonably priced grocery shops shut by can result in hypertension and diabetes.

FIESEHA: You do not understand that these, like, issues that construct up inside our neighborhood, like how we entry our meals, how we make earnings – we do not understand how a lot of an impression that makes to our psychological well being and our bodily well being.

HUANG: Nayla Bonilla, a 17-year-old junior, says she realized how the medical subject has misplaced belief with some teams.

NAYLA BONILLA: But in addition, it was speaking about moral issues which I actually did not take into consideration. Like, it was speaking concerning the most cancers cells from a affected person that was used with out their consent. And it simply made me suppose how, like, minority teams had been actually taken benefit of for medical analysis.

HUANG: Bonilla thinks she may turn out to be a pediatrician to higher serve Spanish-speaking children and oldsters. Fieseha desires to work on HIV/AIDS in Africa and particularly Ethiopia, the place her household’s from. Each are among the many first graduates in a pilot program that goals to coach 90 college students by subsequent summer season. It is only a small sliver in a Fairfax County-wide challenge to spice up well being literacy and create a extra numerous pipeline of public well being employees. Mingo from the Fairfax County Well being Division informed the scholars that they’ve a protracted highway forward.

MINGO: The flame that was ignited on this program – carry it forth. Public well being wants you.

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HUANG: For now, in a sunny nook of a highschool library after some bleak pandemic years, everybody was glad to be a part of a commencement celebrating teenagers entering into public well being.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So first, Nayla Bonilla.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Bithaniya Fieseha.

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HUANG: Pien Huang, NPR Information.

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