NWH’s Expo Highlights Career Choices for Students in Health Care

More than 350 high school students came to Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) last Saturday in what could be a positive life-changing experience for them.

Those students from around Westchester and the Bronx attended the hospital’s sixth annual Medical Career Expo where they could speak not only to doctors and nurses but all the specialists and other workers needed to help make the health care industry function.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Victor Khabie said when he was in high school his knowledge of different career possibilities was nearly non-existent.

“The only thing I knew about being a doctor was going to the pediatrician,” said Khabie. “That’s all I knew. I knew the idea of helping people, but I didn’t know anything about different fields within medicine and different parts of the health care system.”

That’s what the medical professionals and the non-medical staff at Northern Westchester Hospital are trying to change for future generations, especially with ominous warnings about various aspects of health care being short staffed.

A 2024 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a shortage of up to 86,000 doctors in the U.S. in the next 12 years. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is cautioning about nursing shortages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is estimating the need for at least 177,000 additional registered nurses by 2032.

Amy Rosenfeld, NWH’s senior programming manager who oversees the Medical Career Expo, said research shows that if professionals can engage with students about possible careers, the more likely today’s students are to pursue the path and stick with it.

And with health care, and hospitals in particular, there is a vast array of career paths to follow. It’s not only about doctors and nurses to make the system work.

“So we really want to inspire people across the board from clinical to non-clinical because if we don’t the shortages will only get worse,” Rosenfeld said.

Some students who attended the expo have a parent or another relative in health care. Emma Seekircher, an eighth-grader from Yorktown, said she was curious about the different possibilities. Her mother, Kerry Seekircher, is the senior director of quality management and performance improvement at NWH.

“I just wanted to see what it’s about,” said Emma Seekircher, who is interested in anesthesiology, orthopedics or reflexology. “It’s fun and it’s good to know what the hospitals have to offer.”

Byram Hills High School junior Matthew Geller, part of the hospital’s President’s Junior Leadership Council, said the group organizes different events and talks for students with various health care professionals.

Although both his parents are emergency room doctors, studying psychology and the human mind interests Geller more.

“I would go more into like therapy or being a psychiatrist, which interests me,” Geller said. “I just find the human mind very interesting, understanding and learning how people think and why people think that, like what has happened earlier in their life to make them think that.”

This year, students from Vertex Partnership Academies in the Bronx made the trip up to Mount Kisco to attend the expo. Science teacher Bruce Baker said he and the school wanted to introduce their students to the vast array of career opportunities, especially those who are intrigued and are motivated by work in the sciences.

“I’m really interested for them to find out all the different fields that’s going on in health care and all the opportunities in it,” Baker said.

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/