AURORA, Colo.—It was tough for Janet Mensah to sum up how she felt when she learned she’d been accepted into medical school.
She could have detailed how being a doctor had been an ambition since she was in middle school, how neither of her parents had completed high school. She could have spoken about the deep-seated desire to help people, the yearning to eventually travel to Ghana, her parents’ native country, where doctors must practice with little in the way of modern conveniences.
But the first observation Mensah made to a group of city officials, Aurora Public Schools district administrators and the U.S. education secretary during a recent round-table at Vista PEAK Preparatory high school was much more straightforward.
“Needless to say, I was really happy when I got it,” Mensah said.
Mensah’s eloquence, along with her academic achievement, is all the more impressive considering the fact that’s she’s only 18 and has yet to graduate high school. Earlier this year, the senior at William Smith High School was accepted into the University of Colorado’s Bachelor of Arts-Bachelor of Science-Doctor of Medicine program.
Mensah will receive a scholarship to obtain her bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado Denver and, as long as she maintains good grades, will automatically be welcomed into the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
“You still have to meet the requirements: honor science classes, passing the MCAT with a fairly good score. You have to stay involved in the program,” Mensah said.
Mensah found an early academic direction as part of the Aurora LIGHTS health sciences program at Aurora Public Schools, a specialized track she said helped formalize her goals in the medical field. Summer weeks spent working with doctors and researchers at the University of Colorado Hospital Anschutz Medical Campus, middle and high school courses with a rigorous emphasis on biology and science—these elements served as crucial precursors to her career decision.
“I heard of the Aurora LIGHTS program when I was a freshman at William Smith. It solidified it for me. My mom used to work at the hospital. I would go and see all the machines and people and thought it was wonderful,” Mensah said.
“Every summer, LIGHTS had a program at the campus. … Sophomore summer, we engaged in the sciences that applied to the medical field, had guest speakers. We looked at the cadaver lab, we touched the organs and everything.”
During a Feb. 28 town hall meeting that included a visit from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, administrators cited Mensah as a living testimonial to the power of the district’s budding pathways program, an initiative that seeks to connect students early on to professional training.
“We are tapping students from the local area that we wouldn’t have. … (Janet) has taken advantage of every single opportunity that we’ve had to offer her, including research internships on our medical campus, summer institute programs (and) engaging in very hard curriculum,” said Allegra Melillo, a professor at the school of medicine and director of the Aurora LIGHTS program.
“She is a stellar student and has shown what this pathway can do for our students.”
It was a story that left a mark on Duncan.
“This community, this diversity represents what the country is. This young woman has a parent who didn’t graduate from the eighth grade. She’s going to be a doctor,” Duncan said. “That’s the American dream. That’s what this is about.”
Mensah’s ultimate plans reach beyond the United States to the country of her forebears. Visiting her parents’ native country in 2005 offered a different perspective on health care, Mensah said.
“My family is relatively uneducated. They come from Ghana and there are not many schooling opportunities. They’ve supported me nonetheless,” Mensah said. “Eventually I want to go back to Ghana and offer my services there. … In 2005, I went there and it was difficult, but you learn a lot about yourself. It broke my heart and it made me mad when I saw the facilities. I can do something about this.”
