Bringing Care Home
The Idaho Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program prepares healthcare professionals to make a difference
Growing up in Wendell, Idaho, Cindy Calderon often found herself helping her family navigate the healthcare system. She saw firsthand how difficult it could be to find providers who understood both the language and the people they served. Those experiences shaped her desire to pursue a career in healthcare.
While completing graduate school at ISU, she joined a program that was instrumental in her success. She became an AHEC Scholar through the Idaho Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program, which prepares health professions students to serve rural and medically underserved communities.
Associate Director of Idaho AHEC, Rylee O’Neill, says that between 2022 and 2026, AHEC has reached over 9,000 students and trained 308 AHEC Scholars. Federal and state funding and philanthropic partners help expand its reach. Support from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health has been key to that growth.
“The Blue Cross Foundation for Health has been instrumental in extending our reach,” said Dr. Christopher Owens, director of the Idaho AHEC Program Office. “Over the past three years, we’ve been able to quadruple our efforts in middle and high schools, providing students with hands-on experiences with real healthcare careers that build their confidence and help them to see that a future in healthcare is not only possible, but something they could really enjoy.”
For Calderon, AHEC created a sense of belonging. “AHEC brought different disciplines together and we were able to talk about healthcare from different points of view. Working alongside a multidisciplinary group emphasized that healthcare is a collaborative effort and that every profession plays an essential role in improving patient outcomes. It helped humanize healthcare.”
After earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice from ISU in 2024, Calderon returned to southern Idaho as a family nurse practitioner in Twin Falls. As a bilingual family nurse practitioner, she helps patients navigate a complex system while building the kind of trusting relationships she once wished her own family had experienced.
“I grew up here seeing the needs of the community, recognizing how vulnerable some of our communities are,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to stay local, and AHEC cemented that idea.”