Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic offers new opportunity for students pursuing community medicine

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Students interested in community medicine are getting a new opportunity thanks to the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Health Clinic.

The nonprofit is now offering a new physician assistants program.

This is a partnership with ATSU to help students become physician assistants.

The new program provides a chance for people to pursue a health education while enhancing quality of service at the clinics.

One of the clinic’s current medical assistant is getting ready to pursue new program.

"Help the people I saw growing up not getting help and that’s kind of why I got into medicine … is that I wanted to be able to help people that are under voiced and under served," said medical assistant Gabriel Estrada of the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic.

"I think it’s really important for Community medicine to be known with people wanting to go into healthcare," said chief medical officer Dr. Ali Javanbakht of the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic.

Doctors at the neighborhood health clinic believe this program can benefit the local clinic as students often return to the clinic to help with community medicine.