Annual Health And Medical Careers Conference Exposes Young People To Careers In Medicine

Dr. LaMenta “Sweetie” Conway
Dr. LaMenta “Sweetie” Conway

Annual Health And Medical Careers Conference Exposes Young People To Careers In Medicine

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

On May 18th, the I Am Abel Foundation will host it’s Fourth Annual Health And Medical Careers Conference at Rush University Medical Center in the Searle Conference Center, 1725 W. Harrison St., for aspiring physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals and their parents.

This is a free event where attendees will be able to learn about college curriculum and admission criteria, attend workshops on navigating careers in healthcare, and network with physicians and other medical professionals.

The I Am Abel Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides world-class mentoring and scholarly programs that focus on preparing underrepresented youth from Chicago for careers in medicine.

“Honestly, our mission is to raise our next generation of healthcare heroes. What we endeavor to do is raise young people or help train young people to understand the connection between medicine and society. One of the things I always say is that medicine and society are inextricably tied and that there is no pill that can take away the pain of the voiceless,” said Dr. LaMenta “Sweetie” Conway, founder and president of I Am Abel Foundation.

Last year, over 350 people attended the Health And Medical Careers Conference and Dr. Conway said she expects even more this year because they have once again expanded their offerings and partnerships for this year’s event.

“We are really excited because we are partnering not only with Rush University, we are partnering with other local medical schools and many medical students from all seven of the medical schools in the Chicagoland area will be participating in this program,” said Conway.

Dr. Conway encourages students as young as middle school age to come to the event and bring their parents so they can learn together what will be expected of them as they pursue careers in the medical field.

“This year, we actually opened it up to middle school students and their parents so that they can actually come and learn about early exposures to pre-health curriculums and basically professional tracks. The tracks that we’re offering this year, which is no different than last year, are pre-med as always because that’s my thing and that’s the focus of the program, pre-nursing, and also pre-pharmacy,” said Conway.

Aside from getting exposure to medical professions, attendees will also have the opportunity to meet with medical school admissions counselors, current students, and medical professionals who are in the midst of completing their medical residency programs. All these experiences will help participants gain a better understanding of what it takes to become a medical professional.

“I’m driven by this mission to create healthcare heroes,” said Conway. “It’s been proven statistically that physicians of color and minority physicians overall tend to return to the communities that they came from or communities like the ones that they came from and so my passion is to just help inspire these young people,” said Conway.

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