Page 9 - March 2020 Ulupono

COPE Health
Scholars benefit from
perseverance and
quality mentorship
by Rachael K. Aquino, Cope Health Scholars Senior Program Manager
Most of the high school and college students I meet want to become a doctor
or a nurse, and my advice to them is, “you need to try before your buy.” Meaning, they need to experience health care delivery firsthand before investing the time, energy and resources into completing the extensive educational requirements needed to become a health care professional. The COPE Health Scholars Program gives students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the healthcare setting as an integral part of the care delivery team.
The COPE Health Scholars Program, offered at Adventist Health Castle through COPE Health Solutions, a healthcare management consulting company, provides pre-health students the opportunity to gain direct patient care experiences and interact directly with members of the patient
care team, in a unique hands-on learning experience available that helps facilitate their selection of future career goals.
Meet our COPE Health Scholars
Thanks to the program and the staff at Castle, students Ammon Pollister and Tiana Pittler are two COPE Health Scholars at Castle who are one step closer to realizing their health care goals.
Ammon Pollister, future surgeon Ammon Polister graduated from Kahuku High School and Brigham Young University (BYU)
in La¯‘ie. He hopes
to attend medical
school and become a
surgeon. Although at
one point his family was homeless, that did not deter him from his goal.
“For eight years I lived (with my family)
in a 20’ x 20’ easy corner tent in Hauula. The most impactful things were the cold showers and warm fire to keep us warm
at night. I would pray that it wouldn’t
rain because...it would get us wet and we wouldn’t be able to sleep through the night,” he said in his 2018 COPE Health Scholars summer graduation speech.
Ammon’s mother and father worked hard
to provide for their family and his mother eventually decided to pursue a nursing degree from Hawai‘i Pacific University. “I remember reviewing all the [prescription] drugs and anatomy. I would flip through
the flash cards with her night after night,” he said. His mother’s pursuit of a nursing degree inspired Ammon to consider a career in health care. “It will be hard and stressful, but it will pay off in the end,” she told him.
Eventually, Ammon and his family moved into a home on land they owned in Hau‘ula, he graduated high school, then earned a Bachelors degree in Biochemistry from BYU Hawai‘i. He is a valued COPE Health Scholar, and treasures his experiences as part of
the COPE Health Scholars Program and the chance it gave him to learn from Castle pulmonologist Takkin Lo, MD.
“It was life-changing to sit behind a doctor and watch him provide care to the patient. Watching Dr. Lo and his team work in unison to help the patient was really inspiring and it motivated me to work even harder,” Ammon says. “I imagine myself one day taking care of a patient and maybe even helping another student realize their potential as well.”
Ammon is now working as a nursing assistant at Castle and plans to take the entrance exam for medical school, attend the John A. Burns School of Medicine
in Honolulu and work as a physician in Windward O'ahu.
Tiana Pittler, future registered nurse
Tiana Pittler is a 2019 graduate of Kailua High School and currently
a freshman
at Windward Community College pursuing a bachelor’s
degree in Nursing. Her future did not always look bright. Tiana gave birth to her son Zach during the summer of her sophomore year. “Going back to school was a challenge for me,” she says. “I didn’t think I was
going to graduate.” However, through the encouragement of her teacher, Mrs. Heidi Unten and her love for her son, Tiana has worked to achieve more. “The thing that pushed me to buckle down on my future was having my son Zach, (he) made me realize that I need to make something of myself...”
A member of the first cohort of Junior Health Scholars that began in January 2019, Tiana helped pave the way for future Junior Health Scholars on Castle’s Medical-Surgical Pu¯lama unit and Laulima telemetry unit.
“Getting to interact with patients is one of the things I love the most,” Tiana says. “Even doing something small for them, such as grabbing socks or just having a conversation, makes me feel like I’m making a difference in their life.”
Her experiences as a new mom made her realize the need for mothers to be able
to access community resources easily.
She collected and reviewed community resources for new mothers, visited Castle’s Birth Center to learn about the resources they offered and created a website listing all the available resources in Hawai‘i for new mothers.
The COPE Health Scholars Program at Adventist Health Castle is fortunate to work with bright, patient-centered individuals like Ammon and Tiana. We look forward to continuing to be a part of their journey to become health care professionals and hope to welcome them back to Castle in the future as part of the medical center’s staff.
“In the future, I hope to give back to Adventist Health Castle and probably work here,” Tiana says. “Maybe I can help students find their passion too.”
If you are interested in learning more about the COPE Health Scholars Program at Adventist Health Castle in Kailua, please visit our website atcopehealthscholars.org or send our team an email at: ahcs@recruitcopehealthscholars.org
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