October 2, 2019
Minority & Small Business Week
Bringing Diversity to Health Care
Program reaches
out to young
people of color
How do you draw more young
people of color like Carlos Her-
nandez-Morfin into health care?
With a little HOPE. Legacy’s
Health Occupation and Profession
Education, called HOPE, is now
in its 20th year. It was created to
increase the ethnic and racial di-
Program, provides experiences
through paid summer internships
to influence students of color to
choose health care majors in col-
lege.
“The health care profession
would benefit from greater cul-
tural diversity to better reflect the
growing diversity in our com-
munities,” says Cathy Reynolds,
Legacy Health’s director of em-
ployment and workforce planning.
“Students work up to 400 hours a
year, mainly during the summer,
Carlos Hernandez-Morfin, a recent Portland State University
graduate and aspiring medical student, participated in a Legacy
Health program to increase ethnic and racial diversity in the health
care professions.
versity in health care professions.
“I had an amazing experience,”
says Carlos Hernandez-Morfin, a
recent Portland State University
graduate who joined the program
five years ago. “I’ve decided to
become a family practice physi-
cian.”
HOPE, formerly called the
Youth Employment in Summer
in clinical and non-clinical depart-
ments with mentors. Some return
during winter or spring break from
college.
Here are voices of this year’s
HOPE interns:
“My internship in pediatric
development was amazing,” says
Tressina Eddinger. “I worked be-
sides therapists who served the
smallest, most vulnerable chil-
dren.” Eddinger plans to become
a nurse and earn a doctorate in
nursing.
“The pace was exciting,” says
Maya Gonzalez of her time in the
ER at Legacy Good Samaritan
Medical Center. “It pushed me out
of my timidness to get nosy and
ask staff questions about what I
saw or heard.” Gonzalez plans to
study human physiology in a pre-
med track at the University of Or-
egon.
“The advice I’d give to future
interns is to push yourself beyond
your comfort zone to the unfa-
miliar,” says Zach Mendenhall
Roldan, who spent the summer
at Randall Children’s Hospital
Page 15
working with injury prevention
and wellness. “The exposure and
experiences were incredible. I’m
now leaning toward a pre-med
major to become a pediatrician.”
“I was selected because of my
interest in the medical field,” says
Stephani Carlos-Catano, who
learned about the variety of health
care professions through an in-
ternship in Legacy’s Human Re-
sources Department.
More information on HOPE,
visit https://bit.ly/2lLawzA.