Joliet West student Kassandra Caceres has earned a rare opportunity to meet with Nobel Prize winners and medical leaders next summer. It’s an opportunity that may help Kassandra achieve her goal of being a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. She will represent Joliet Township High School District 204 and the state as a delegate at the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Boston. The National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists created the event to help students fulfill their dream of entering the medical profession and overcome lack of resources and guidance. Student delegates nationwide meet with Nobel Prize winners, award-winning inventors and scientists, top medical school deans, academic leaders, patients and medical futurists, according to the program’s website. “I was able to ask them questions on how they got to their position. Maybe someday I will be able to do that for students like me. I think it’s an amazing opportunity for me,” Kassandra said. She was invited by the National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists for recognition of her outstanding grades, leadership potential and desire to contribute to the field of medicine and health, district officials said. “She’s a great young lady and student to have.” said Sheehan, Joliet West Teacher. She said Kassandra is a focused student who works a part-time job and also is a member of the National Honor Society, school student council and school health and medicine academy roundtable. “She is just a real well-rounded, put together young women,” Sheehan said. Kassandra said she wants to be a plastic and reconstructive surgeon to help people recover from wounds and illnesses that affect their appearance. “I would be turning a negative into a positive,” she said. Kassandra is thankful to her teachers in high school, including Sheehan, as well as her mother, Myra Garcia, and her brother. She said her family has “always been my backbone.” The Congress of Future Medical Leaders is a highly selective national academic honors program working in partnership with Washington Adventist University. The program selects academically superior high school students dedicated to the service of humanity through medicine. At the Congress Kassandra will meet face-to-face with Nobel Prize winners and leaders in the medical field. She will have the opportunity to observe surgery and ask questions to the operating surgeons. Kassandra also stated she recently had been accepted into Illinois College and has been selected as a finalist for Miss Alpha Omega, Joliet West’s award for best all-around senior girl.