Health Career Pipeline Activities


Dream Makers Health Career Clubs

Dream Makers participants practice suturing.

Dream Makers health career clubs stimulate students grade 6th through 12th to pursue health related careers. The club highlights numerous healthcare professions and the college requirements, as well as the important role of health disparities and diversity in healthcare.

During the sessions, the participants have the opportunity to listen to and interact with professionals of a variety of health disciplines who share their experiences and knowledge with them.

A field trip to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and a final graduation ceremony are part of the experience for the participants, along with other fun and illustrative sessions where the students have hands-on participation in their learning experience.

In 2019-2020 school year, we had approximately 100 students participate in Dream Makers Health Careers Club in Grant and Luna Counties!

The Dream Makers program is a partnership between the UNM Office for Diversity and FORWARD NM.

Teen Academy for Health Sciences (TAHS)

WNMU professor, Dr. Hill instructs during a dissection of the brain during a summer academy lab session.

This three-week, non-residential summer academy is held at Western New Mexico University and is designed for incoming high school freshmen to seniors from southwest New Mexico. The Academy provides American College Testing (ACT) prep in Science, 4 dual enrollment credits from WNMU in Biology 101/103, Career and College Exploration, tours to regional health care facilities, guest speakers, CPR instructions and more! The Academy is free but participants must register, limited to 20 participants. TAHS 2020 dates and applications will be posted here soon.

Eligibility requirements:

  • New Mexico resident.
  • Interested in pursing a health career
  • Minimum GPA 2.5
  • Must be incoming high school freshman or greater.

Sponsored by the Center for Health Innovation’s FORWARD New Mexico and Western New Mexico University.

Health Careers 101

Health Careers 101 is a program designed to give students the basic information they need to know about healthcare careers, and what to do if they want to go into healthcare. This is typically an hour-long presentation done during school hours. We present students with statistics, tips and some educational videos on many different healthcare careers.

This program helps FORWARD NM achieve our goal of exposing school aged children to healthcare careers in rural communities. In 2019 we reached over 200 students in Grant, Luna, Hidalgo and Catron counties.  If you are interested in seeing Health Careers 101 in your classroom, please contact us!

Click here to view our Health Careers 101 presentation online!

Click here to download our Health Careers Manual!

Other Workforce Development Pipeline Activities

FORWARD NM takes pride in community involvement and supporting or sponsoring events as we see fit. We attend career fairs and annual events like Expanding Your Horizons. In October 2019, we brought approximately 100 students to the New Mexico Youth Summit in Las Cruces, NM. We also were able to reach over 500 students at career fairs!

For more information on any of our programs please contact us.

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