At 17-years-old Anisha Parvez is laying the groundwork for a future in medicine and already blending into the neurology department at Mount Sinai Hospital.

“Medicine has been something that I’ve been interested in for a very long time, and I know that I like interacting with patients,” Parvez said. “Once my brother [got] diagnosed with autism, I got interested in learning about how autism occurs.”

Heading into her senior year at Staten Island Technical High School, she’s among roughly 300 public school students in the city that are taking part in Mount Sinai Health System’s Center for Excellence in Youth Education or CEYE. It’s a program designed to increase diversity in STEM fields by giving underrepresented kids a chance to have hands-on experience.

“Anisha and I have spent a lot of time learning to decipher the squiggly waves on the screen,” Dr. Madeline Fields said, a neurology professor and co-director of Mount Sinai’s Epilepsy Program. She’s serving as Anisha’s mentor this summer, instructing her in the study of brain waves or electroencephalograms.

“[These] students are by far the most enthusiastic learners that I’ve interacted with. In my experience, they are engaged [and] they come on time prepared,” Fields said.

This is Parvez’s fourth year of participating in the program. She hopes it will give her a leg up on the long path to a career in medicine where she can give back.

“I plan on doing pre-med,” she said, who plans to go on to help children with autism in underserved communities.

The CEYE program launched back in 1975. Since then, it’s been working with high schoolers across the five boroughs.