Four High School Seniors Inspired by HOPE to Attend Stony Brook

Four High School Seniors Inspired by HOPE to Attend Stony Brook

The faculty-mentored educational program exposes students from underserved school districts to careers in healthcare

Judith Berhannan, center, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, with the four high school seniors – all from Longwood High School – bound for Stony Brook University. From left: Jocelyn Adams, Nusrat Jahan, Dilsa Perez, and Rubie Palma.

Stony Brook, NY, May 15, 2015 – Sixteen high school seniors from underserved communities on Long Island who completed Stony Brook’s Health Occupations Partnership for Excellence (HOPE) Program celebrated their “graduation” from HOPE and are on their way to college. A ceremony took place at Stony Brook Medicine to honor their accomplishment on May 12. The students are from the Brentwood, Longwood and Wyandanch school districts. Four students will be attending Stony Brook University in the fall.

Under the mentorship of Stony Brook University faculty, the two-year program fosters the academic development of 11^thand 12 graders and preps them for future careers in the health industry. Since its inception in 2005, HOPE has helped open new avenues for some 140 promising high school students from underserved and racially and ethnically diverse communities.

During the 2014-15 academic year, Stony Brook faculty and community members instructed students, with educational venues that included lectures, hands-on demonstrations and shadowing professionals from multiple areas in medicine such as nursing, cardiology, anatomical sciences, and respiratory care.

“This is a special day for young people we are here to congratulate and support,” said L. Reuven Pasternak, MD, Chief Executive Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital. “HOPE is much more than an afterschool program. Through our doctors, nurses and many other healthcare professionals, it teaches students life lessons and exposes them to the broad field of healthcare.”

Each of the 16 students expressed how much they learned from the HOPE, frequently citing the thrill of shadowing doctors, seeing medical technology in action, learning from nurses about patient care, and the “amazing” breadth of the healthcare field – one that they anticipate holds many opportunities for them after they complete college.

Completing the two years of HOPE inspired all four students who will attend Stony Brook University to major in a health science-oriented field (three have decided Biology).

One of those students, Dilsa Perez, of Longwood High School, has an interest in medicine and social work, inspired particularly by the work of physicians and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and OB/GYN Department.

“Participating in HOPE made me understand I can achieve anything if I put my mind to it,” she said. “Seeing the doctors and nurses at Stony Brook in action also made me see first-hand the impact you can have on people’s lives if you work in the medical field.”

Some of the other colleges these HOPE graduates will attend include: SUNY Binghamton, Penn State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester, Suffolk County Community College, Mercy College and Molloy College.

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Greg Filiano
Media Relations Manager
Stony Brook University
School of Medicine
631-444-9343

Gregory.filiano@stonybrookmedicine.edu