The Westchester County Press Post Office Box 152, White Plains, NY 10602
County Press
97
The Westchester
YEARS
VOL. XCVII NO. 24
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID WHITE PLANS, NY PERMIT # 5069
“Documenting Our History for the Future.”
ISSN 0043-3373
THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2026
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Kylie Jewelz Robinson was in the room when everything changed. She watched her mom experience a frightening episode during a prenatal appointment — a complication that could affect a woman’s pregnancy condition. Kylie was not yet a teenager. But in that moment, something crystallized. She would become a doctor. She would make sure no woman in her community faced that kind of fear without someone fighting alongside her. That clarity of purpose has carried Kylie, now 15 and a rising junior at the Mount Vernon STEAM Academy, all the way to Rochester, Minnesota — where she will spend two weeks this summer as one of just 100 high school students in the nation selected for the inaugural PreCollege Healthcare Academy, a new program hosted by the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science at the University of Minnesota Rochester. She earned her spot on a full scholarship with the support of her parents, who researched programs that supported Kylie’s dream.
MEMBER OF NNPA proper care is during pregnancy. It inspired me to become a doctor to understand better why it happened.” She continued: “I am aware of the disparities in healthcare. Many women in my community lack proper healthcare support. I am determined to help change this by providing equitable care. In the future, I hope to open a birthing center where women feel safe and respected throughout their pregnancy journey.” The vision is precise and personal: a birthing center rooted in her own community, where the women who look like her mother are never an afterthought in their own care. What makes Kylie’s profile especially striking is that she is not pursuing medicine alone. This year, she enrolled in the Advanced Computer Program offered by Environmental Leaders of Color (ELOC), a Westchester County-based environmental justice nonprofit dedicated to fostering diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. ELOC focuses on empowering young people to become leaders and change-makers
KYLIE ROBINSON
From Mount Vernon to Mayo Clinic:
How One Teen’s Family Crisis Became Her Life’s Mission By Dr. Diana Williams and Marvin Church It is, by any measure, an extraordinary achievement. Mayo Clinic is consistently ranked the No. 1 hospital in the world. The Pre-College Healthcare Academy is the first of its kind. And Kylie Robinson — the second of four children born to Jamal Robinson and Stephanie Clarke, a Mount Vernon native who attended Pennington Elementary School and
now carries honor roll status at the STEAM Academy — is one of the young people who made the cut. In her application essay to the Academy, Kylie described her motivation with a directness that belies her age: “My goal is to become an OBGYN and reproductive scientist to support women who are expecting
or trying to have children. I have always been passionate about medicine and helping others, especially women. My interest in this field began when my mother developed preeclampsia while pregnant with my youngest sister. During a medical appointment, she experienced an episode that frightened me. That moment showed me how important
in their communities by providing access to quality education and professional development. Kylie is enrolled in the AI Machine Learning and AI Infrastructure track, which places her at the frontier of how artificial intelligence is
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MOUNT VERNON, Cont’d. on page 9