Community Impact UConn Health

August 19, 2026 | Lauren Woods

UConn School of Medicine Grows its Career Mentorship of Hartford Youth

More and more UConn faculty have been mentoring middle school students weekly this summer at Horizons at Westminster School.

(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

UConn School of Medicine Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Robert Arciero giving back to teach Hartford middle school students about orthopedic surgery as a future career path at Horizons at Westminster School this summer (Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

Thanks to Dr. Kwame Amankwah, chief vascular surgeon at UConn Health, this summer twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons middle school students participating in Horizons at Westminster School were mentored by volunteering UConn School of Medicine faculty teaching them about the different available careers across medicine and with hands-on learning experiences.

Dr. Maryam Hashmi (2nd year vascular resident),
(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

“Thanks to UConn School of Medicine faculty our students have learned about everything from vascular surgery, internal medicine, ultrasound, and even orthopedics. Everyone who has visited Westminster from UConn Health has been awesome and provided incredibly valuable knowledge and experience for our students. We are deeply grateful for their time and efforts,” shared Patrick Owens, executive director of the Horizons at Westminster program.

(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).
(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

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.

Dr. Kwame Amankwah at Horizons at Westminster School (Photo by Westminster School).
Dr. Kwame Amankwah at Horizons at Westminster School (Photo by Westminster School).

Last summer, Amankwah started volunteering his time to introduce Hartford middle schoolers to careers in medicine like his at Horizons at Westminster School and even also volunteered for their first ever Career Day event. For example, he taught the Connecticut youth 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.

Now Amankwah has helped expand the STEM career path mentoring program further this summer with the help of his fellow doctors on faculty at UConn School of Medicine.

(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).
(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

“I would like to recognize and thank several colleagues and industry partners who were instrumental in helping me deliver a six-week STEM program through Horizons at Westminster for Hartford middle-school students,” shared Amankwah sincerely thanking UConn School of Medicine faculty members: Dr. Robert Arciero (Orthopedics),  Dr. Scott Mallozzi (Orthopedics), Dr. Maryam Hashmi (2nd year vascular resident),  Dr. David Kull (Vascular), Mr. Lonnie Collins (Vascular Lab), and Ms. Nadejda Maseto, APRN (Vascular). “They generously gave their time, expertise, and enthusiasm to engage these young learners.”

Amankwah is also grateful to industry’s Mr. Ocetnik of Cook Medical and Mr. Dorso of LeMaitre Vascular teams for lending their knowledge and support for the educational youth effort.

(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).
(Photo courtesy of Westminster School).

Amankwah concludes, “Horizons at Westminster is an exceptional public-private partnership that advances educational equity for Hartford students through free academic and enrichment programming. By helping students explore STEM, we supported the program’s important goals of reducing summer learning loss, fostering a lasting love of learning, and promoting social and emotional growth. I am deeply thankful for everyone’s commitment and proud that our community could contribute to this meaningful effort.”