Piner High School STEAM Certificate

Level 1 Response

Julie Bui
Career Choice Panel
Dr. Pamela Bohrer, Scott Campbell N.P, and Dr. Monica Ferguson
September 12, 2019

The medical field is a common area of interest for young adults, but it could possibly be
challenging. Dr. Pamela Bohrer, Scott Campbell N.P, and Dr. Monica Ferguson work in different
areas of Sonoma County. Each individual had a different pathway to get to where they are now.
The main topics that were introduced include their expenses for schooling, the obstacles each
one had to overcome, and how each one ended up working in Sonoma County.

For schooling after high school, expenses were not cheap. Dr. Pamela Bohrer stated that she had
numerous loans and scholarships. Scott Campbell was a family nurse who worked in China for
several years, while Dr. Monica Ferguson paid for her schooling by having a grant fund. Her
grant funding was a money payback program where that allowed her to work and study as well.

Obstacles one person may have to experience through life to obtain their career could mean that
they encounter new and different things about the best job for them. A few examples of obstacles
that were told include the rarity of being one of the only females in the workspace during the
time period, lots of volunteer work, and being lost with what careers they wanted to pursue their
lives in.

New vocabulary that were included consist of the reference to what each type of doctor or
specialist was called. Before attending the Career Choice Panel, I was only aware of a few of the
acronyms for the words, but not every single that was told. For example, “N.P” means nurse
practitioner, but I was unaware of what a specialist for ear, nose, and throat was called until
meeting Dr. Pamela Bohrer.

Dr. Pamela Bohrer is an ear, nose, and throat specialist, an “ENT doctor or also known as an
otolaryngologist” who currently has a job at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California. Scott
Campbell specializes in working with older adults that are near the end of their life. Since
Campbell is privileged to work for the elderly, he is able to get into their homes, making the
adults’ lives much easier rather than going in and out of their homes to the hospital. Lastly, Dr.
Monica Ferguson studies internal medicine and takes care of adults, which is an internist or a
“primary care doctor.”

Reflection-

While Dr. Pamela Bohrer, Scott Campbell N.P, and Dr. Monica Ferguson came to Piner to
present to us what their careers were, I was very surprised and impressed with all the effort they
put in to get to their current careers. Learning about the number of years for schooling and
training for some of them shocked me! Dr. Pamela Bohrer took 15 years to become that type of
specialist. Her life consisted of an obstacle of events before she knew what she was going to be
an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Scott Campbell was fortunate enough to take the easier way
out and only stayed in residency for three years. It is crazy to see how much impact a job could
have on your life! When I heard Scott Campbell was first wandering around as a campus pastor
who received a master’s in biology and a communications degree, it taught me that anything is
possible to happen, as long as you put your mind to it. On the other hand, Dr. Monica Ferguson
had a long 10 years of school! I learned that it is important to have other factors when going to
college, such as knowing another language or extracurricular activities. One interesting thing
about Dr. Monica Ferguson was how she took Spanish and eventually went to Spain. When she
returned to the United States, she shadowed a person, which influenced her to pursue and attend
medical school in Pittsburg! Lastly, the presentation given by the three of them was a great
experience to learn more about the medical field and I am thankful Piner was given that
opportunity.

Supporting Article- For These 3 Women, Medical Careers are a Family Affair, By Mia Warren,
Danielle Roth and Isabel Dobrin

To support the Medical Career Choice Panel, this article about a generation of African American
women addresses their obstacles to get into medical careers. The ideas that Dr. Pamela Bohrer,
Scott Campbell, and Dr. Monica Ferguson presented relates to this article due to the fact that
each individual had to make sacrifices to reach their profession. For example, in the article, the
grandmother, Ruby Brangman was one of the first black woman nurse practitioners in New York
during the time, while Dr. Pamela Bohrer said there was a time period that was rare to have
female surgeons in the workspace. This article points out the idea of wanting to pursue their own
careers under any circumstances. The daughter of Sharon Brangman, and granddaughter of Ruby
Brangman, Jenna Lester stated, "The typical person who has a long line of doctors in their family
are often white men that I sit next to in class, whose father, grandfather, great-grandfather were
doctors." For Dr. Pamela Bohrer, Scott Campbell, and Dr. Monica Ferguson, scenarios may have
differed but overall, their visit to Piner High School to present their career choices shares the
same concepts with what Ruby, Sharon, and Jenna faced.