Nyla Hess was a senior in high school, and this summer she had been placed with Mahogany Dermatology through a new mentorship program her school had just started. The program was built on a model laid out in Dr. Kimberly Madison, DNP's book, Nursing Aesthetics: An Introductory Guide for Nurse Practitioners & Entrepreneurs. Nyla had read the first chapter before her placement interview, mostly out of nerves, and it was the first time she had seen someone write about medicine and money in the same sentence like they belonged together.
Scrubs & Stocks
Chapter One: The Meeting
Nyla sat in the waiting room of Mahogany Dermatology with her arms crossed. She was seventeen, and she still remembered the last time she sat in a chair like this one. She was twelve years old with a rash on her arm that would not go away, and a nurse practitioner had knelt down to her eye level and explained every single step before she touched her skin. Nyla never forgot that feeling. Someone had been kind, and someone had been patient, and someone had made her feel safe. That was the day Nyla decided she wanted to become a dermatologist.
Five years later, Nyla was back in that same office, but this time she was not a patient. Her mentor was a dermatology nurse practitioner named Dr. Avery Charles, DNP.
Dr. Avery, DNP, walked out and smiled. "You must be Nyla. Come on back."
Nyla followed her into a small office with framed diplomas on the wall and a fish tank in the corner. Nyla noticed the fish tank first. She loved fishing with her brothers back home in Dover, and something about watching fish move calmly through water always settled her nerves.
"You like fish?" Dr. Avery, DNP, asked, catching her staring.
"I like fishing," Nyla said. "My brothers taught me. You have to be patient. You cannot just throw the line in and expect something to happen right away."
Dr. Avery, DNP, nodded slowly. "That is actually a perfect way to think about what we are going to do this summer."
Nyla raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was here to learn about skin conditions."
"You are," Dr. Avery, DNP, said. "But you are also here because I run a business, and one day, if you become the dermatologist I think you can become, you will run one too. Medicine is not just what happens in the exam room. It is also what happens on paper, in contracts, in bank accounts. Most people never get taught that part. I am going to teach you both at once."
Nyla sat back in her chair. This was not how she pictured her first day.
"Let me ask you something first," Dr. Avery, DNP, said. "Do you know the difference between a business and a corporation?"
Nyla shook her head.
"Most adults do not either," Dr. Avery, DNP, said. "Here is the short version. If you and I decide to open a lemonade stand together, and we do not file any paperwork, we are just two people running a business. That is called a sole proprietorship if it is just you, or a partnership if it is both of us. Sounds simple, right?"
"Right," Nyla said.
"Here is the problem. If someone gets sick from our lemonade and decides to sue us, they are not just suing the lemonade stand. They are suing you and me personally. Our houses, our cars, our savings, all of it could be at risk. That is called unlimited liability."
Nyla's eyes widened. "That does not seem fair.
"It is not about fair," Dr. Avery, DNP, said. "It is about how the law separates you from your business, or does not. Now, imagine instead we filed paperwork with the state and turned our lemonade stand into a corporation. The corporation becomes its own legal person. Not a real person, but a legal one. It can sign contracts, it can be sued, it can even go bankrupt, all on its own. If someone sues the corporation, they can only go after what the corporation owns. Not your house. Not my car."
"So the corporation protects us," Nyla said slowly.
"That is called limited liability," Dr. Avery, DNP, said. "It is one of the most important ideas in business, and it is rarely explained to seventeen-year-olds. I run Mahogany Dermatology as a corporation. When patients pay their bills, when I hire staff, when I sign a lease, that is all happening in the corporation's name. Not mine."
Nyla stared at the fish tank for a moment. "So when I become a dermatologist, I would not just open a practice. I would build a corporation."
"Now you are thinking like an owner instead of just an employee," Dr. Avery, DNP, said.
Nyla smiled for the first time since she walked in. She had come here today thinking about needles and biopsies and skin conditions. She never expected her first real lesson to be about paperwork and protection. But somehow, sitting in that office with the fish swimming behind her mentor's desk, it felt like the beginning of something bigger than she had planned for.
"What else do corporations do?" Nyla asked.
Dr. Avery, DNP, smiled and closed her folder. "That is a lesson for next time. Go home, ask your family if they know the difference between a business and a corporation, and see what they say."
Nyla laughed. She had a feeling her family would not know the answer. And for the first time, she liked being the one who did.
Nyla is still in high school, but real students are already building their own version of this path. Clarence Sams, MS3, started his own self-driven mentor track years before medical school, and now shares his journey as an MS3 at Charles R. Drew University on The Melanin Initiative's "Becoming a Physician" series. Ijenna Adibe, a senior at Howard University and founder of the Howard University Undergraduate Society of Dermatology, joined the same series to share her own path. Wherever you're starting from, the door is already open.
About the Author
Dr. Kimberly Madison, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, WCC is a Board-Certified, Doctorally-prepared Nurse Practitioner, educator, researcher, and author dedicated to advancing dermatology nursing education with an emphasis on skin of color, business acumen, and digital literacy. She is the founder of Mahogany Dermatology Nursing | Education | Research™ and the Alliance of Cosmetic Nurse Practitioners™, the first dermatology nursing organization in the country built at the intersection of clinical excellence, skin of color care, and financial literacy for nurses. A selected participant in the Harvard Business School Foundry Bootcamp, Dr. Madison continues to sharpen the entrepreneurial infrastructure behind her mission. Through peer-reviewed research, published books, and a growing community of nurse entrepreneurs, Dr. Madison is building the infrastructure that makes this profession sustainable for the people who choose it.
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