Ask a young person on the Eastern Shore what they want to be when they grow up, and if they mention healthcare, chances are they’ll say a doctor or a nurse. Those are wonderful callings, but the healthcare field is vastly larger than those two roles suggest, and most of our students have no idea. That gap in awareness is exactly what led us to found Introduction to Careers in Healthcare (ITCH).
ITCH is a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting middle and high school students across Maryland’s Eastern Shore with the full spectrum of healthcare career possibilities. From medical technologists and physical therapists to health information specialists, community health workers, and dozens of roles in between — the opportunities in this field are wide-ranging, and many lead to stable, meaningful, well-compensated careers. We believe every student who is curious about healthcare deserves to know all their options, not just the most visible ones.
We do this through a network of Career Clubs currently operating in all five Eastern Shore counties, where dedicated volunteers — working healthcare professionals and retirees who care deeply about this community — meet with students to share their experiences, answer questions, and serve as mentors. The programming is experiential and hands-on, designed to bring healthcare careers to life in ways that classroom instruction alone cannot. We begin with middle school students and continue to support them as they move through high school, helping them understand not just what careers exist, but also the educational and vocational paths that lead to them.
We are grateful to share that ITCH has recently secured a financial contribution that will allow us to hire two part-time Program Coordinators. This is a meaningful milestone for our organization. Until now, our Career Clubs have run entirely on the goodwill and effort of our volunteers, and we are enormously proud of what they have built. These new coordinators will give those volunteers the support they deserve, strengthen programming in all five counties, and expand our ability to reach students who might otherwise never find their way to us.
The three of us came to this work through decades of caring for this community. Dr. Judi Gieske spent her entire career as a pediatrician on the Eastern Shore, tending to its children and watching them grow. Ruth Ann Jones retired as Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at University of Maryland Shore Regional Health after years of leading clinical excellence across the region. Cynthia Watson brought specialized expertise in intensive care and pediatrics and spent fifteen years teaching nursing before retiring. Together, we recognized that the Eastern Shore’s next generation of healthcare professionals needed something that didn’t yet exist: a structured, community-rooted program to spark their interest and set them on a path.
We are also fortunate to have the support of Rivers & Roads Consulting, which has been an invaluable partner in building ITCH into a sustainable organization. Rivers & Roads provides support across administrative operations, strategic planning, organizational development, marketing, and communications, and has guided us through the many complexities of establishing a nonprofit from the ground up. Their expertise has allowed us to stay focused on our students.
We write to you today because ITCH belongs to this community, and its success depends on it. If you are a healthcare professional willing to share your story with a curious student, we would love to hear from you. If you are a school counselor, educator, or administrator who sees this need in your students, please reach out. If you are a parent or guardian wondering where to point a young person interested in healthcare but unsure where to begin, we are here for exactly that.
The Eastern Shore has always taken care of its own. ITCH is another way we can do that: by making sure the young people who grow up here have every opportunity to build a future in healthcare, in whatever form that calling takes.
Sincerely,
Dr. Judi Gieske
Co-Founder, Introduction to Careers in Healthcare (ITCH)
