6 El Paso high school seniors selected for competitive pre-medical school program

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Wednesday, six high school seniors celebrated their selection into the fourth MedFuture cohort, a program that helps University of Texas at El Paso students get into Texas Tech Health El Paso's medical school.

According to UTEP President Heather Wilson, more than 30 UTEP graduates go to medical school every year.

MedFuture gives selected students pre-medical help while completing their undergraduate studies at UTEP, TTHEP said. Support includes a research class in biological sciences and orientation opportunities.

"This program helps to identify and develop the best students for medical school right out of high school so that they are more likely to stay here and serve our region," Wilson said in a statement.

Sixty-three students from 25 schools in El Paso County applied for the program, UTEP said. A joint committee from UTEP and TTHEP chose these students based on their grades, commitment to medicine and potential to become doctors:

• Shayan Arabi Mianroodi from Coronado High School
• Maya Flores from El Paso High School
• Mandana Kargar from Montwood High School
• Jazlynn Martinez from San Elizario High School
• Maite Rodriguez from San Elizario High School
• Catherine Whitlatch from Franklin High School

"I didn't really consider the program. I figured, 'It's so competittive, why would I get in,'" Maya Flores said. "I know it's cheesy -- but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Flores said it wasn't hope didn't encourage her to apply for MedFuture -- she said she got to where she is in spite of others' discouragement.

"A lot of people said I couldn't do it," she said. "In addition to all the academic work I did, there was a lot of mental undoing of barriers that came with it."

Flores said she hopes to match into pediatric emergency medicine and work in rural and under-advantaged areas.

Franklin High School senior Catherine Whitlatch said she grew up playing with doctor toys and taking care of her stuffed animals as patients. Throughout high school, she took any opportunity to learn skills that would help her the medical future she aspires to achieve.

Whitlatch hopes to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, a profession dealing with surgical procedures on organs inside the chest.

"The goal of becoming a doctor and knowing i can impact people lives in a positive way has really kept me going," she said.