"There were times that I felt that there were things that didn't belong to me; a doctor, a lawyer, a businessperson, or the CEO, that belonged to other people," Dr. Ikenna Okereke tells ClickOnDetroit.
Then he got life-changing advice from his dad.
"My dad told me every day, 'Don't sell yourself short, don't sell yourself short,' and I want to be that voice to some of the young kids today," says Okereke, who moved to Detroit from Nigeria in middle school and is now the VP of surgery and system director of Thoracic Surgery at Henry Ford Health System.
Now he's bringing his mentoring program, which he started in Texas, to Detroit.
Okereke has already spoken at high schools and invited students to visit the hospital, where they got to do some of the hospital's simulations.
"The thing I see the most because I'm trying to evaluate them, try to motivate them, is how energetic they are afterward and how much they can say I can do this," says Okereke.
Each of the 10 students accepted will receive a $1,000 stipend during the summer as part of the internship program.
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