This SLO County student spent 2 weeks shadowing doctors at a hospital in Tanzania
San Simeon resident Shanyra Cardenas has wanted to study medicine since she was in sixth grade.
The 17-year-old got a unique look at her future field on a recent trip to Africa as part of FutureDocs Abroad, a summer honors program for high school and undergraduate students interested in careers in medicine. It’s sponsored by The National Leadership Academies..
She and 50 other students spent two weeks shadowing doctors and nurses at Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital in Dodoma, Tanzania, learning from them and getting some hands-on experience.
“We were able to do things that people in the U.S. don’t get to do until their second or third year of medical school,” Cardenas recalled. “With all the competitive environments in the field, that’s a big advantage.”
Cardenas, who’s now in her senior year at Coast Union High School in Cambria, returned with a heightened determination to pursue medicine as her career.
SLO County family works to send daughter to Africa
Cardenas said her interest in medicine was inspired in part by health issues in her family and her love of “all the medical dramas.”
“‘Untold Stories of the ER’ was always my favorite thing to watch,” she said, despite her mom emphasizing that “I was too young and the show was too graphic. But I loved it.”
Her parents support their daughter’s dreams of a medical career.
Alfredo Cardenas works as a groundskeeper at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. His wife, Maria, used to work there, too, but is now a full-time homemaker.
“Everybody else I went with to Tanzania were sons or daughters of doctors, or from wealthy families,” Shanyra Cardenas said. “There I was, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who barely scraped together enough money for me to go on this trip, to get this opportunity. ... It wasn’t easy.”
She and her family had to raise $6,300 for the FutureDocs program, which doesn’t offer scholarships.
There wasn’t enough time before the registration deadline to launch a fundraising campaign, Shanyra Cardenas said, so she and her family cobbled together savings, her wages at Main Street Grill in Cambria and other funds to get her enrolled in FutureDocs.
They also had to buy the equipment she needed for the program, including scrubs, stethoscopes and lab coats, which wasn’t covered by the $6,300 fee.
“I don’t like asking for money from my parents,” Cardenas said. “If I want to buy something, I use my own money ... or I don’t buy it.”
But her parents insisted, telling their daughter “if this is really what you want to do with your life, we’ll help you pay for it.”
Trip to Tanzania starts with lost luggage
Cardenas left for Tanzania on July 16.
Unfortunately, her trip to Africa started with a serious hitch. The airline lost track of her luggage before she even got on the New York City flight to Dubai, her interim stop on the way to Tanzania.
According to Cardenas, her belongings finally were found in Africa in September, but it took about a month to get them from there to Fresno Yosemite International Airport. As of Oct. 26, she still hadn’t gotten her luggage back.
Eli Eller, international programs admissions leader for FutureDocs Abroad, helped Cardenas and her fellow students get to and on the plane in New York.
Throughout the luggage ordeal, Eller said, Cardenas impressed him with her “maturity beyond her years ... She was very cool, calm and collected, and showed good character.”
What did FutureDocs Abroad students do at hospital?
That attitude served Cardenas well during her time at Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital, where she and her fellow students observed nine different shift rotations amid triple-digit heat.
The FutureDocs participants watched various surgical procedures being performed. They also observed emergency medicine — “which was what I was most excited about doing,” Cardenas said — and watched X-rays being done, along with CT scans, an ultrasound and an echo cardiogram.
Cardenas, who has a heart issue, underwent an echo cardiogram when she returned to the United States, she said, “So I got to see what it’s like before having it done.”
Cardenas said one of her favorite rotations was the pharmacy, where she “got to put together prescriptions,” pulling medicines from the shelves and giving them to pharmacists to fill out orders.
Other rotations dealt with microbiology, ophthalmology, hemodialysis, public health and the general outpatient and specialist clinic, where Cardenas spent most of her day studying dentistry.
Coast Union student gears up for college, medical career
After her trip, Cardenas said she’s focusing more on emergency medicine and cardiology as possible fields of study.
At Coast Union High, she’s concentrating on her three advanced placement classes — English literature, statistics and government — along with an anatomy class.
Cardenas has applied to seven universities so far, hoping to be accepted to Harvard, Stanford, UCLA or another University of California school.
The school’s principal, Edward Arrigoni, called Cardenas “a really great, amazing student. I’m super proud of her for following her passions and helping on that trip.”
His assumption is that she’ll be “a top contender to get into any UC or top university.”
When Coast Union High counselor Samantha Brossette was asked about Cardenas, she bubbled over with enthusiasm.
“I adore that kid,” the counselor said. “She’s amazing. She is inquisitive and curious, with a willingness to explore new experiences, which will take her really far in life.”
As one of “the young people who want to do awesome things in the world,” the counselor said, “she has a chance to do really great things.”
Brossette said Cardenas is one of the top ranked students in Coast Union High’s senior class. That, combined with her volunteering and community service for the Lions Club and others means “she should get a full-ride scholarship,” the counselor said.
Daniel Schalk, who leads the school’s science department and teaches Cardenas’ anatomy class, praised the student’s sense of curiosity, which he said “is delightful for learning anything about the physical world or science.
“The best part is she has a really good sense of logic, so she reads logic very well and comes to solid, valid conclusions easily,” he said, which can translate in having “really good medical diagnostic skills for the patients.”
“She’s kind of a natural scientist that way.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2022 at 2:22 PM.
