Elevate HTM Celebrates a Year of Turning Career Exposure into Opportunity

Elevate HTM is celebrating a milestone year, one in which career awareness began turning into education, internships and employment for the next generation of Healthcare Technology Management professionals.

During its 2025–2026 fiscal year, the New Orleans-based nonprofit introduced more than 4,000 students across Greater New Orleans and the Northshore to HTM careers. Through 11 career events and presentations, 11 hands-on demonstrations and activities across six schools and partner sites, students discovered an essential healthcare profession that most had never heard of.

Of the more than 4,000 students reached, only 10 were already familiar with HTM before their exposure to Elevate HTM.

“Young people cannot choose a career they have never heard of,” said Bryant K. Hawkins Sr., founder and CEO of Elevate HTM. “Our goal is not only to tell students that HTM exists. We want to build a pathway that helps them move from first exposure to first paycheck.”

This year, that pathway produced one of the organization’s most important outcomes: its first student entered HTM employment.

One Opportunity That Changed a Career

Jovan Ervin was 16 years old when a school counselor connected him with a paid internship through YouthForce NOLA. At the time, Ervin planned to study finance or business and pursue a career in banking. He had never heard of biomedical equipment technology.

His internship placed him inside the biomedical equipment department at Manning Family Children’s in New Orleans. Although he could not work directly on medical equipment as a high school intern, he observed technicians, asked questions and learned how HTM professionals support patient care.

That experience changed his direction.

Today, Ervin is back at Manning Family Children’s as a Biomedical Engineering Intern with Trimedx. He is also pursuing an associate degree through the College of Biomedical Equipment Technology.

His journey represents what Elevate HTM was created to accomplish: introduce students to an overlooked profession, keep them connected to education and mentors, and help them progress toward a career.

“This was the year the pathway started producing paychecks,” Hawkins said. “Jovan’s journey proves what can happen when exposure is followed by encouragement, education and another open door.”

Building a Complete Pathway

Elevate HTM’s work extends beyond career-day presentations. Its pathway connects five stages of student development:

• Career awareness and first exposure
• 4A Scholars
• CABT certification preparation
• HTM apprenticeships and work-based learning
• HTM education and employment

The organization formally launched its 4A Pathway on November 3, 2025. Four students entered the structured program during its first year, with two continuing as active scholars.

Elevate HTM also supported two students, Emily Olsen and Cynae Pierce, through a six-week summer internship created in partnership with Manning Family Children’s, Trimedx and YouthForce NOLA. The students explored hospital departments, practiced repairing medical equipment in a simulated environment and learned from healthcare and HTM professionals.

Both returned to school for their senior year with HTM firmly on their career radar.

Additional progress included biweekly pre-CABT preparation, mentorship, family engagement, scholarship assistance and continued work toward establishing a formal apprenticeship opportunity.

A Community Behind the Mission

Elevate HTM’s progress was made possible through partnerships with schools, healthcare organizations, employers and community groups.

Key education and workforce partners included Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans, YouthForce NOLA and the New Orleans Career Center. Employer and industry partners helped provide career presentations, equipment demonstrations, workplace experiences, internships, mentoring and employment connections.

The organization also partnered with AAMI to launch the Elevate HTM Poster Series, a national career-awareness campaign designed to place the HTM profession in front of students and communities beyond a single event. Posters have appeared in hospitals, schools and HTM departments in cities across the country.

While the organization is beginning to share its model nationally through the HTM Forward initiative, Hawkins emphasized that Elevate HTM remains firmly rooted in New Orleans.

“New Orleans is the heart of our work, the place where our mission began and where we will continue creating opportunities for generations to come,” he said.

Celebrating Progress, and Building What Comes Next

Elevate HTM is celebrating more than a year of impressive numbers. It is celebrating evidence that sustained career exposure can change the direction of a young person’s life.

More than 4,000 students now know that HTM exists. Two students completed meaningful summer internships. Young people entered structured career and certification preparation. Most importantly, one student moved into HTM employment.

As Elevate HTM enters its next year, the organization plans to expand enrollment in the 4A Pathway, move students from CABT preparation into certification testing, develop apprenticeship opportunities and introduce more students to the professionals responsible for keeping medical technology safe and ready for patient care.

“Every student starts in the same place, not knowing HTM exists,” Hawkins said. “Our responsibility is to make the profession visible and keep the door open long enough for that student to walk through it.”

For Elevate HTM, that is the milestone worth celebrating: the pathway is no longer just an idea. Students are beginning to walk it, from first exposure to first paycheck.

Learn more here!