Joshua Robinson wants to be a paramedic.
Mack’Kya Broadway is interested in neurosurgery.
Both still have a ways to go. But UNMC is helping them take the first step . . . up.
UNMC is hosting 12 interns this year as it again welcomes the Step-Up Omaha program to campus, the largest number at UNMC since the program began.
Step-Up Omaha recruits, trains and places prepared Omaha youth and young adults, ages 14 to 21, in mutually beneficial paid summer jobs and work experience opportunities.
Robinson, a junior at Northwest High School has worked with Step-Up before, but this is his first time working on the UNMC campus. He said he is looking forward to the experience, great opportunities and mentoring the program provides.
Broadway, a student at Metropolitan Community College, is another Step-Up veteran who is at UNMC for the first time.
“I like the experience, getting to go to different jobs and learn about those jobs,” she said. “Miss Evelyn (Grixby, UNMC’s Step-Up coordinator) is great, and I work with Dr. Faye Haggar, and she’s great, too.”
Broadway said the opportunity to work on the UNMC campus allows her to see how doctors work.
Aileen Warren, assistant vice chancellor for human resources, said that UNMC has proved very welcoming to the program.
“Every year we have more departments that reach out to us and want to be a part of the program,” she said. “That says a lot in terms of the importance and the value that UNMC finds in having these young people on campus.”
Warren said she is proud that UNMC hosts the interns, “exposing them to different opportunities and encouraging them to be their best in terms of whatever they decide to do after they leave here.”
Moniki Cannon, Step-Up Omaha! employment director, called UNMC an amazing host site.
“Each year we have more and more interns express interest in the medical field, so this provides an opportunity for them to get firsthand experience of what the medical field brings,” she said. “As a site, UNMC is growing and constantly adding on departments, which is always helpful. The orientations, welcome reception, and graduation ceremony at UNMC — those are all really nice touches that we actually use to model best practices. They really help to create an experience.””
Step-Up interns will be on campus through Aug. 2.