Jennifer Opitz (2002):
Jennifer graduated from the Academy in 2002 and continued on into Baylor University, Texas. She has been involved with Baylor's Medical Service Organization, providing medical services at university and community events such as Race for a Cure, inter-collegiate sporting events and more. She has chosen to specialize in Emergency Nursing, and recently finished an intensive internship in a level I trauma emergency department at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX. She also is employed at a local Baylor’s Medical Center emergency department through a nurse externship. She will complete her degree in May 2006 with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. Upon graduation, she hopes to obtain a residency at a level one trauma center.


Erin Moniz (2002)
Erin graduated from the Academy in 2002 and recently graduated from San Francisco University in Fall 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She is working as a Job Coach for adults with disabilities through the Janet Pomeroy Center and working for a prior professor of hers on her Twins, Adoptees, and Peer Study as a Research Assistant. Erin recently spoke at the California Partnerships Academy Conference and stated “I learned so much in the academy that was EXTREMELY helpful in the field I'm going into!” This spring she will be applying for Doctoral Programs in Clinical Psychology focusing on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Emily Boyd (2003):
Emily was a graduate of the Health Academy in 2003. She received over $20,000 in scholarships and grants her senior year. She was accepted to many universities and she would decide to begin her college experience at Chapman University. Her first year at Chapman was “awesome!” As a Biology major, she took several biology, chemistry and calculus courses. During her first year she volunteered at a community for cancer patients and their families in Santa Ana. So far her second year of college it has been tough with three lab sciences, organic chemistry, animal physiology, and ecology & evolution and calculus II. She also works 4 hours a week and still manages a nice social life (which is unusual for most other science majors!). In addition to her course work, she has started researching pancreatic cancer under a professor. They are researching not a “cure” for the cancer, but a treatment of suppressing cancer growth through the use of soluble type II Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Receptor-Fc (sTβRII-Fc). She has also made connections with a local pediatrician for job shadowing opportunities. Next semester she will be studying aboard at the University of Sussex in Briton where she hopes to enroll in their pre-med program.

Erin McNally (graduate 2000):
Erin graduated from the Health Academy in 2000 and went straight on to California State University of Long Beach on a Governor’s scholarship. She has had the opportunity to work for the campus' Physical Therapy Department. There she made connections that got her into an Anatomy cadaver course which is a class within the physical therapy program (a graduate program) that prepares cadavers for all the Anatomy lab courses. She has been working at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange as a nursing assistant in the float pool, seeing just about all of the departments. Last semester she finished her critical care (ICU & ER), and psych rotation. This semester she will be taking public health and will spend one day a week at Orange County Health Department, and then another half-day at another facility. She is close to graduation with just a year away, and has begun to study for her RN boards.

Natalie Nokoff (graduate 2002):
Natalie was accepted into the Program of Liberal Medical Education 8-year continuum at Brown University in which only 70 students are accepted a year! She is currently in her third year in the program and loves it. It was a big change from sunny south Cali to snowy winters in Rhode Island, but she has adjusted well. She has been having a wonderful time taking Gender Studies and Humanities courses. She has had the opportunity to job shadow an oncologist and neonatologist as well as volunteer every Friday at a nursery where the children are either victims of abuse or born of drug addition, or AIDS. This semester she is studying abroad at the University of Stockholm in Sweden.