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Welcome to Pathways!
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Our goal is to
serve as a resource for you as you navigate the pathway through school and,
ultimately, to a health career. Each month, you'll receive career and
college planning tips, advice and resources to help you make your
health career dreams a reality.
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News from NC-HCAP...
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 NC-HCAP 2.0NC-HCAP now has a home on Facebook. Stay connected to NC-HCAP and all the resources and activities we offer to help you make your health career dreams a reality.
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About NC-HCAP
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The North Carolina Health Careers Access Program
(NC-HCAP) is located at
UNC-Chapel Hill. Additional campus-based centers are located at Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Established in 1971 by Dr. Cecil G. Sheps, we work to increase the number of underrepresented minorities or
economically and/or educationally disadvantaged students who are
educated, trained and employed in the health professions.
For
more than 35 years, we have provided thousands of students with a
variety of programs and activities to raise their awareness of
opportunities available within the health professions and to increase
their competitiveness as health professional school applicants.
We're always here to assist you. Simply contact us at:
(919) 966-2264
nchcap@unc.edu
http://nchcap.unc.edu
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| Motivational Minute | 
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin
Allow the words of one of the founding fathers of the
United States to help further your progress towards your short and long terms
goals. Remember, it's not the destination that gives us
satisfaction, but the important journey to the goal that helps to shape us!
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| Health Careers 101 |  Get on the pathway to pathology: cracking the mystery in each case
A high school student is hurried off to the emergency room after passing out in class. She wakes up in the hospital and is complaining of a severe stomach pain. Since there are countless reasons that she may be in pain, a pathologist needs to step in to help solve the mystery!
Pathologist
A physician who studies the cause and development of diseases, explains test results to other physicians and performs autopsies.
Salary:$212,040
Education: After receiving your bachelor's degree, you must attend medical school then complete a residency program.
Want to know more? A pathologist is a specialized physician who studies a variety of natural diseases. The surgical pathologist examines organs and tissues; a clinical pathologist usually directs a hospital laboratory; the autopsy pathologist performs examinations on individuals who have died; and a forensic pathologist investigates "unnatural deaths" due to crimes. Pathologists tend to specialize in only one or fewer areas because there is simply too much information for one person to be an expert at everything.
Hot Link: Visit the American Society for Clinical Pathology Web site at www.ascp.org.
Source: NC-HCAP Health Careers Information & Enrichment Workshop manual
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Spotlight on Success |
 Johnson Blazes Trail in Transplant Surgery
By Deb Hanson
Lynt Johnson lives by the power of
the 3 D's: determination, discipline and drive. It shows. Johnson has blazed a
trail for fellow African American health professionals involved in liver
transplant surgery.
In 1991, at
the age of 31, Johnson and his Harvard
Medical School
roommate, Ed Barksdale, broke ground by becoming the first African Americans to
head the general surgical residents at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. After completing residency in general surgery
at Mass. General in 1991 and serving on the hospital staff for one
year, Johnson began his fellowship program at Boston's
New England Deaconess Hospital,
where he performed 60 liver transplants during his training.
In 1995,
the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) appointed Johnson as assistant
professor and director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery. It was there that he and his colleagues built
the region's leading liver transplantation program and helped to establish UMMC
as a highly respected center for multidisciplinary treatment of the full spectrum
of liver disease.
"I was
always fascinated with the human body," says Johnson, who holds his
undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University. "However, my grandmother's death from liver
cancer when I was a young boy had a profound impact on me and may have led me
to focus my interest in liver transplantation and liver cancer surgery. Transplantation has such a tremendous impact
on the quality of life of an individual that I found no other area in medicine
quite as challenging and rewarding."
The middle
child in a family of five, Johnson grew up in Savannah, Ga. Johnson credits much of his success to his
family and hometown neighbors who were concerned about what he did and stood
behind him. He attended the Science
Enrichment Preparation (SEP) Program in 1980, and then went on to graduate from
Harvard Medical School. He is a testament to hard work and
dedication."In this country, black kids
in particular are shown that the way to success in life is to become an athlete
or entertainer, but that's a disservice to us," says Johnson. "Their aspirations should be wide open."
Johnson's
success hasn't come easy though. "I have
had a number of challenges along the way, particularly from instructors who
would be condescending and ridicule my efforts to always be the best," he
says. "This only served to strengthen my
will. [For instance]: After I had
accepted the job as head of the liver transplant program in Maryland, I was told by the certifying body
that despite all my previous training, I was required to perform an additional
six months of training at my own expense. We went on to build one of the best transplant programs in the country
at the University
of Maryland."
Today,
Johnson is nationally recognized for his work in transplant medicine.
He currently serves as chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at
Georgetown University Medical Center. He is also passing on his
knowledge to the next generation as a professor of surgery at
Georgetown University School of Medicine.
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| Strategies for Success |
Tips for a Productive Summer Break
Ever heard the expression "lazy summer days?" When you aspire to be a successful health professional, you have little time for lazy days!
You need to make the most of your time, even during those months off from school. These five tips from the College Board will help you turn your summer break into a productive time:
(1) Get involved in activities related to your passion.(2) Find shadowing, internship, or volunteer opportunities to learn more about the career you're planning to pursue. (3) Give back to the community by volunteering your time with a local organization, charity, or non-profit organization.(4) Enroll in summer classes open to students at the college or community college level to further hone your skills and continue to learn through the summer.
(5) Read, read, read and read some more! Plunge into summer reading lists and discover a whole new world out there.Source: http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/prepare/summer |
| Resources |
Summer Program Offerings
To
research NC-based summer programs in the health sciences, visit The North
Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC-AHEC) Program at http://www.nchealthcareers.com
Find
information on summer camps, activities and programs in science, math and
engineering at http://www.cgibin.ncsu.edu/sh-bin/k12-directory/visitor.pl
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Meet Ms. Rivera
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 As
the pre-college outreach coordinator, Koyah Rivera is responsible for
planning, developing and implementing pre-college outreach
initiatives across North Carolina.
Before
joining NC-HCAP, Rivera was employed as a college admissions
counselor
at Shaw University in Raleigh. She has served as a Language Arts
teacher for Wake County Public Schools and TV news producer/writer at
two NBC TV stations. She is also the founder/executive director/TV host
of Beyond Gifted, Inc., a non-profit organization which produces the
"Beyond Gifted" television program to assist K-12 students in
developing post-secondary plans to reach school and life success. She
received dual B.A. degrees in communications and English from the
University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
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