Dr. Zawudie, paging Dr. Zawudie… that’s a dream that Amanuel Solomon Zawudie has had since childhood. He says healthcare classes in the Wellness, Health, and Education Academy at Shiloh HS and his internship with Peachtree Immediate Care are the next steps he’s taking toward his dream career of being a physician.
Shiloh boasts a mock pharmacy in partnership with CVS that helps prepare students for certification as Pharmacy Technicians and gives budding doctors background in pharmaceutical science. Says Amanuel, “I have learned a lot about different types of drugs and directing a patient on how to use them.”
Dr. Krystal Tomlin, who leads the program, says classroom instruction, the mock pharmacy, and work opportunities help her students envision a future in healthcare fields. She says “Hands-on experiences like Amanuel's internship and the CVS program here at Shiloh give students exactly what CTE was designed to do—real-world applications and experiences that they would not have received anywhere else.” She notes that those hands-on experiences also give students an advantage when they are filling out college applications and applying for their first jobs in the field.
The internship at Peachtree Immediate Care, a network of walk-in clinics, gives Amanuel an opportunity to apply classroom learning in the workplace. “This learning opportunity will show me how it is in the real world and how everything operates in a real situation,” he says.
Andrea Cryder, region director of operations for the clinics, says that’s exactly what Peachtree Immediate Care hoped to accomplish with CTE internships. “Peachtree Immediate Care chose to get involved with your program because we want to see students prosper and succeed in rewarding careers that also serve an important need in the community,” she says. “It is our hope that this partnership will offer the students first-hand experience and allow them to develop a sense of purpose and passion for healthcare. Healthcare offers a promising future with limitless opportunities for growth.”
That promising future is what Amanuel is working toward, one step at a time.