Lebanon – October 14, 2026 -- Medical and physical therapy students at Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) in Oregon are mentoring rural high schoolers twice a month through the MIKE Program, a workforce-pipeline pilot that began in Sweet Home in 2020.
Sweet Home request in 2018 led to the 2020 rural pilot
MIKE is a non-profit that educates and mentors youth on healthy living and health care careers. It started in the Portland area and now serves urban and rural communities across Oregon and Southwest Washington. Sweet Home asked in 2018 for a peer-to-peer program linking its high school with the medical school. The partnership launched two years later as a pilot for rural communities.
Students from the Heatherington College of Osteopathic Medicine (HCOM) and the College of Health Sciences-Northwest (CHS-Northwest) volunteer as mentors. Physical therapy students have since joined the original medical student cohort.
Curriculum follows Oregon health standards and covers social determinants
The curriculum aligns with Oregon Department of Education Health Standards. Classes cover nutrition and exercise, mental health and other social determinants of health. Teachers at participating schools work alongside mentors to tie lessons to student needs and add health education and career exploration to classroom time.
Di Lacey, WesternU Senior Executive of Strategy, Growth, and Transformation, helped bring the program to the university. She said the aim is to give future health professionals hands-on learning and real-time feedback for any community where they practice.
Student leads run campus tours and lesson plans
Second-year physical therapy student Haven Wagner is a program lead. She organizes mentor visits to Sweet Home High School, facilitates tours of the CHS-Northwest campus building and develops interactive lesson plans. One activity simulates physical impairments, such as taping popsicle sticks to fingers to restrict grip.
Second-year HCOM student Erin Foley has served as both mentor and program director. She said the program connects students to resources they might not otherwise have.
MIKE Executive Director Justin Zellinger said the most effective mentors are those who share the less-than-perfect parts of their own paths to medicine.