Yaima always knew she wanted to work in healthcare. In her home country of Cuba, she graduated from medical school and was working as a family practitioner while studying for a PhD in microbiology when in 2019, she received the opportunity to move to the U.S. “If I finished my PhD in Cuba, they wouldn’t let me come to the United States,” Yaima explains. “So I decided to come here with my child to join my husband.”
The COVID-19 pandemic limited opportunities for Yaima to find work quickly in the medical field, especially with a young child at home who was not yet in school. Yaima researched training opportunities in San Francisco, and she found the JVS Medical Assistant Certificate program run in partnership with UCSF. In 2024, when her son was old enough to attend preschool, Yaima enrolled in the 5-month program.
“JVS gave me the opportunity for the first time, to get into the medical field again,” Yaima shared. “That was my first opportunity to get back into healthcare and my first job in the U.S.”
Yaima was surprised at the camaraderie and support she received throughout the program, both from fellow participants and JVS staff. “In the program there were many immigrants, like me, but from different backgrounds,” she says. “All the support that JVS gave us was incredible. I never could imagine that something like that could happen to me.”
During the 16-week internship portion of the program, Yaima was placed in the pulmonary department at UCSF Parnassus. She enjoyed working alongside other JVS program participants and alumni, and she learned new specialized skills in the department that she had not had the opportunity to develop in family practice. After her internship, Yaima learned about the new MA Academy offered at UCSF, where current employees can further their skills in an additional four-month paid internship program. She was hired by UCSF and accepted to the program, where she now works in the hepatology department. Yaima is proud of the financial contributions she now makes to her family’s budget, and she looks forward to growing her career and advancing in the medical field.
“It is not my intention to stay a medical assistant,” Yaima shared. “For me, this was the first step, the way to get inside healthcare again. I’m learning, and everything is completely new for me, but my intention is to keep trying and grow my career as a leader.”
Yaima’s story first appeared in our 2024 Impact Report. Go to impact2024.jvs.org to read the report and learn more about our work.
