Media Relations

The Health Career Pipeline

Date: Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

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Matt Garvey met Angie McKinney when he was a student at Monroe County Middle School and Monroe County High School.  He credits Ms. McKinney with nurturing his interest in health careers.  As part of the GEAR UP program, students visited many different colleges from the time they were in the 7th grade until they graduated from high school.  One of those college visits was to the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center.  Matt was able to tour various parts of the medical and dental school including his favorite part - the cadaver lab.  He also visited WKU and like most students he fell in love with the campus.  Matt enrolled at WKU in the fall of 2011 and he continued his involvement from high school with HOSA at WKU. 

WKU has one of the few collegiate HOSA chapters in the country.  Matt was an active member of the WKU-AHEC HOSA chapter under the leadership of the Advisor, Amy Wininger.  He placed first the KY HOSA Leadership conference competition for medical assisting in March 2012 and was eligible to participate in the National HOSA Leadership conference in Orlando, Florida in June 2012.  Congratulations to Matt Garvey - he placed 1st in Medical Assisting at the National HOSA Leadership Conference.  The role of GEAR UP and AHEC is a perfect example of the health career pipeline.

Amy Wininger, WKU-AHEC HOSA Advisor, Matt Garvey, Member of WKU-AHEC HOSA, and Angie McKinney, former GEAR UP Site Coordinator for Monroe County