UConn School of Medicine’s Chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Dr. Kwame Amankwah volunteered for the first ever Career Day at Horizons at Westminster School.
And you can see the joy and impact his time had on the middle schoolers from Hartford.
“It was truly a rewarding experience to be part of such an amazing event. Having the opportunity to introduce these young individuals to careers they might not have known about was very meaningful,” shared Amankwah of UConn Health who taught the summer program students more about their health, how to do health screenings like taking their own pulse, and even showed vascular surgery tools he uses in the operating room.
Horizons at Westminster provides a free academic and enrichment program each summer to close opportunity gaps for students from Hartford. Participating Hartford Public School students attend for a six-week summer program—starting in kindergarten and returning every summer through 12th grade.
Horizon students can’t stop talking about the conversations they had with the Career Day participants like vascular surgeon Amankwah from UConn. Other successful Connecticut professionals they also had the opportunity to meet and learn from included a video game engineer, TV news anchor, sports news producer, former NFL player, real estate agent, insurance expert, state legislator, forensic scientist, podcaster, police officer, lawyer, biomedical engineer, and business developer.
Amankwah added, “Even more inspiring was seeing the students realize that all of these career paths are within their reach—that there is nothing they cannot achieve.”
“It was very clear to us how much the students enjoyed this and how important it is, particularly as Horizons at Westminster will continue to grow and support our students throughout high school,” shared Katie McKinney, development director for Horizons at Westminster School.
“It was definitely fun and educational,” concluded Amankwah about the special Career Day.
“Our students loved meeting Dr. Amankwah from UConn!” applauds Patrick Owens, executive director of Horizons at Westminster School.
