For two years the Health Scholar program has provided aspiring health professionals from the community an opportunity to expand and supplement their training at Dignity Health’s California Hospital Medical Center. The program combines real-life experience, professional development, and a chance for Scholars to give back to the community while pursuing a career in health care. One recent success story worth highlight is Debby Mendoza.

Debby started the program in January 2016 as part of the second Health Scholar cohort at CHMC. While in the program, she focused on gaining clinical experience that would complement her theoretical knowledge of nursing. Debby graduated from the Health Scholar program in May 2017, completing 310 hours of clinical experience. She graduated from the Los Angeles Trade Technical College Nursing Program in June 2017 and was accepted to the New Grad RN Program at CHMC! Debby credits a portion of her success to the Health Scholar Program “I believe if it wasn’t for my experience with COPE, I wouldn’t have been offered this wonderful opportunity. Being a Health Scholar will help me become a better nurse.”

This success story showcases the transformative ability of the our workforce pipeline programs. Through these stories we witness the strength of the program to connect aspiring professionals with  life long careers in health care. We look forward to continuing to showcase the success and progress of our Health Scholars community.