By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Build 2 Lead, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth and their families, will host its third annual Melanin and Medicine event on February 22 at Thomas Jefferson High School. The event, held in collaboration with the school’s Black Student Union, Build 2 Lead’s Legacy Initiative, and healthcare partners known as the P.O.W.E.R. Council, aims to inspire BIPOC youth to explore careers in healthcare through meaningful conversations with professionals who share their lived experiences.
Attendees will enjoy a variety of activities, including keynote speeches, youth performances, networking opportunities, and hands-on workshops with healthcare providers. The event’s focus is clear: to create introductory pathways to healthcare careers for BIPOC youth while highlighting representation and opportunity within the field.
According to Najmah Messiah of Virginia Mason, a founding partner behind Melanin in Medicine, it is no coincidence that Melanin and Medicine takes place during Black History Month.
“We purposely planned this in February, to highlight and celebrate some healthcare pioneers specific to this area,” Messiah said. “We wanted to make sure that we recognize and acknowledge that it is Black History Month and to have it also be a celebration of the past. So, we selected the event date pretty intentionally.”
The idea for Melanin and Medicine emerged from deeply personal experiences for Build 2 Lead founder Jimmy Brown.
“My father passed away from heart failure and that impacted a lot of what I thought about healthcare because I saw how they treated the situation and the lack of attention. They attributed everything to the fact that it was just his lifestyle that led to that, but there was more to it.” Brown said. “I don’t think there was an advocacy on his understanding of what was going on, and I don’t think he went out right. That played into just the lack of healthcare conversations that I had growing up because health was not talked about enough.”
Build 2 Lead Program Manager Natorious Ezell says that the organization is very intentional with the students that are invited to attend the Melanin and Medicine event, so they introduce students the interest and/or skill set to potential career paths that they might enjoy.
“We know every student that attends may not be interested in health care, but we also want to make sure that the students who are interested are the main ones participating in one of the workshops so they can gain some knowledge,” Ezell said. “We have a lot of students who are very undecided about what their next step is, so we need to be intentional with the students.”
“The main thing is we want to put people that are in healthcare in front of the students, so they are able to ask questions,” added Ezell.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, less than 6% of United States doctors are Black. Build 2 Lead strives to change statistics by targeting high school students from underserved communities to consider pursuing a career in the medical field.
“It is open to all, but BIPOC students is our target area of focus. We have created one-hour programs for BIPOC 9th and 10th graders that may be having behavioral problems, or having trouble creating a vision for themselves,” said Ezell. “Healthcare is booming, we always talk about 11th and 12th graders, but we need to also target the underclassmen. This is so important because we can prepare them early for the higher ed classes in college, rather than waiting until they graduate to try and play catchup.”
According to Brown, the end game for Build 2 Lead is to provide at least 40% of the participants with a direct connection to an internship, mentorship, or pathway connection.
“[We want them to engage with] Virgina Mason or any one of our P.O.W.E.R. partners around a real track to health care, whether that is continued conversation directly with the professionals they interact with or through a continued education program that some of our partners have,” Brown said. “But the focus for us is that we really want to walk side by side with the youth who have the most disparities in healthcare right now, to take those pathways.”
Ezell says that the event for many of the students is not only eye-opening, but inspiring.
“The kids in these areas have little to no access to some of these things. With Virginia Mason being one of our partners, we were able to take them to an event Virginia Mason was hosting last year and the kids got a chance to see how robotics is playing a part inside of the medical field and during surgery,” Ezell said. “Without events like that and Melanin and Medicine, some kids wouldn’t know these things. But, they are talking to these professionals to find out the work behind it, and they now have access to know how to do it.”
“I had a student tell me how she loved the event last year because it let her know that it was possible to be in healthcare through many different entry points. She didn’t realize all the different things you can do besides being a doctor, nurse or surgeon. Some things take two years or less depending on what it is,” Brown said. “Melanin and Medicine shows students that you don’t have to go through the eight-year window to be actually engaged in healthcare careers.”
With over 30 years of experience in the healthcare field, Messiah said she has not seen any change in the representation of Black folks and wants to change that as a part of her lasting impact.
“I want to be able to change that representation. I think that is my whole motivation and drive, and knowing that Build 2 Lead is in the schools working with these students making changes is the impact that I want to be part of. I call myself the connector, I want to be able to connect who I can with these students,” Messiah said. “One person ends up getting a high-paying job and changes the trajectory of their generational possibilities forever. So, our focus is not only creation a representation, but creating wealth through this opportunity,” Brown said. “We really feel that if we can get the right youth inside of those healthcare positions, it will give them not only the opportunity to gain wealth, but to also utilize their experiences to help change the healthcare system from the inside out.”
