Maria Ruiz

Medical assistant, Highland Hospital Women’s Clinic | HeathPATH mentor

I always wanted to be a teacher. When I was in college, I was taking classes for being a teacher, but then I stopped. I tell my HEAL students don’t stop just because you think you can take a path that’s easier. Later on you’ll regret it.

I started off with one HEAL student and started liking to teach them about what I do. I try to teach them what I know, and if I don’t know I ask someone. I have them see me at least doing blood pressures. The students actually love doing that. And I always have my students learn about birth control.

I sometimes speak in Spanish with the students, especially because we have a lot of patients who speak Spanish, so the students can also understand what I’m telling the patients. They’re here to learn and observe and they can see how we communicate with the patients not only in English, but other languages as well. They see that they can help the community by different types of communication.

Highland does a lot for the community. I always said I want to work here at Highland because we never turn a patient away. We always try our best to help them out. We do a lot for the community and patients come and tell us, “Thank you so much for helping me.”

I love teaching the students from HEAL. I love working with patients. I love working with women.