Pitt students are mentoring high schoolers into health care careers

Sneha Khadka and her friends sat at long lab tables in Pitt’s Department of Plastic Surgery. Their assignment for the day was use the colorful clay before them to sculpt a perfect nose.

Sneha cut and carved and concentrated until she was satisfied. The result was tiny, “like a kid’s nose,” her friends observed.

Sneha shrugged. “Well, that makes sense, since I want to be a pediatric nurse.”

In fact, that’s why Sneha and her friends, all students at Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy, had gathered on Pitt’s campus that afternoon. They are the first mentees of a new Pitt student organization called NextGen Healthcare. The goal is to empower interested high schoolers to pursue careers in health care by providing them with guidance and hands-on experiences.  

“It was built on mentorship with the purpose of giving that gift to someone else,” said co-founder Meriem Boukaabar, a biological sciences major in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “That's what makes it so powerful, because it's not just a program, it's a cycle — one that keeps giving, keeps growing and keeps connecting people in the most meaningful ways.”

Boukaabar knows the power of mentorship. After transferring to Pitt at the beginning of her sophomore year, she joined the biological sciences department’s PEER Program. Developed in 2020, the PEER Program helps to foster community and increase exposure to high-impact research opportunities. Through that program, Boukaabar found three mentors, an internship and some like-minded pre-med students who wanted to build a similar program for high school students who would be the first in their families to go to college.

NextGen Healthcare, or NGH, was born.

Each NGH high school mentee is matched with an undergraduate mentor and attends semi-monthly workshops and field trips. In this first year, they learned to craft college essays and resumes, became CPR certified, attended a research symposium and much more. Next year, NGH is hoping to increase the number of mentees and offer a research component so students can conduct their own investigations.

Many of the mentees say they are planning to return, too, no matter what kind of programming is offered.

“The best part has honestly just been meeting the mentors,” Sneha said. “They’re more like friends, someone you can talk to every day.”

If the recent spring awards ceremony was any indication, the mentors feel much the same, praising the high schoolers for their dedication to the program, their friendship and their investment in the future.

“A career in health care, a career in general, is not something you're born with,” NGH co-founder and neuroscience major Malak Ayoub told them. “It's a path that you can choose to build at any point in your life. And the best part is that you don't have to build that path alone. Allowing us to help you with that has been a privilege.”

In a final surprise, the members of NGH gave scholarships to four of the 12 mentees, based on essays and participation. At $50, $100, $200 and $300, the scholarships are small, Boukaabar admits, but they’re meaningful. One could pay for a college application fee or the gas to drive to a campus visit.

And, of course, it’s a reminder that these high schoolers have a group of people who believe in them.

“We don’t have a pinch of doubt that you will all be successful,” Ayoub said.

Undergraduates who want to become mentors or high school students who want to become mentees can find out more by visiting nghpitt.com.