Pilot project invites Toronto Community Housing's high school tenants to explore medical field
25 high school students from marginalized communities were selected for the program
High school students from marginalized communities don't often get a lot of encouragement to enter the medical profession but a pilot project in Toronto is aimed at changing that.
Launched by Toronto Community Housing (TCH) and the Unity Health Toronto hospital network, the program called The Next Surgeon invites students who live in TCH buildings to study cardiac surgery for a semester.
Ebla Sulaiman, a Grade 10 student, says she was introduced to the program through a co-worker while working with TCH this summer. She already had an interest in medicine and thought first-hand experience would be beneficial as she decides on what to do when she graduates from high school.
"It was just very uplifting to be able to work with mentors who know how I feel and have gone through similar experiences as me," she said.
The surgeon heading the program says it's crucial to get students like Sulaiman to consider medical careers.
"In a country of 36 million people, there are no Black heart surgeons. Not a single one," said Dr. Robert Yanagawa, the district head of cardiac surgery at St. Michael's Hospital.
"This high intensity, high stakes medicine, we want the best that our community has to offer, and that means reaching out to all the different communities," he said.
The program accepts 25 students from Grades 10 to 12. Students learn how to tie surgical knots and participate in a simulation of a procedure that connects healthy sections of blood vessels and other structures after surgeons remove the diseased portions.
The teens also got access to medical students and doctors who share similar life experiences.
"In high school, having someone say, 'One, I believe in you' and 'Two, I am going to mentor you and guide you, give you all the tools and advice and resources to make it through,' would have meant to the world, to be honest," said Lina Elfak, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Toronto.
Nobody else in Elfak's family has pursued a career in medicine and she says she's found it hard to find mentors who understood her unique struggles.
"It was very challenging to get to this point … It's very important for me to also think about how I can mentor younger students," she said.
Yanagawa says the level of care improves when there are more diverse minds involved in finding a medical solution, which can only happen when communities who've traditionally been left out of medicine are encouraged to participate.
"These issues of equity, diversity and inclusion are front and centre in my mind," said Yanagawa, who spoke to CBC News at St. Michael's Hospital.
He is hoping to grow the program further in years to come with the help of some sponsors.
On top of learning technical skills, Sulaiman says the program also improved her time management as she had to find time for it on top of her regular studies and her school athletics.
She says said she may not end up working as a cardiac surgeon, but nevertheless the program showed her what she is capable of.
"Being able to work with mentors who look just like me and understand me makes me realize my dreams are possible as long as I put the hard work and effort into it.