Diabetes is common in the Rio Grande Valley, and it's known to cause foot problems.

There's a need for foot doctors and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine is working to fill the gap.

Catherine Flores is a high school student, but she's already thinking about her future in the medical field.

"When I, eventually, start my first year at UTRGV, because I've already been accepted, I can work on the side as a phlebotomist to kind of save up money while I'm doing my basics," Flores said.

That's why she and her father were part of an open house held by the UTRGV School of Podiatric Medicine. They wanted to learn more about their academic program. 

Colton Warren also hopes to be one of the dozens of students accepted in the program next year.

"Not many people think about, like why do you want to do that?" Warren said.

He's a UTRGV athlete and wants to follow his dad's footsteps by being a podiatrist surgeon. It's also a way to help patients, like his grandparents, who suffered from complications from diabetes.

It'll take Warren seven years before he can accomplish his dream. He'll have to spend four years in medical school and complete three years of residency.

"This is my dream, to come here especially," Warren said.

On Saturday, he learned about reviewing bone samples under a microscope, an important step to detect different types of foot problems.

"When you perform a surgery and, sometimes, it is related to a disease, you have to remove a piece of the bone and send this to diagnostics for biopsy and for doing a diagnostic analysis," UTRGV School of Podiatric Medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Claudia Biguetti said.

If he gets accepted to UTRGV's program, Warren would also be learning at their anatomy lab, where life-size animations can help him be more precise and meticulous. That way, he can give his future patients a better diagnosis.

"I didn't know it was technologically advanced that much towards you can go and look, so that was really awesome," Warren said.

UTRGV School of Podiatric Medicine Dean Javier La Fontaine says these tools are essential to not only prepare the future podiatric surgeons, but to also keep them here in the Rio Grande Valley.

"So they don't have to leave the Valley, right? They don't have to leave our families, so we can go to school here, so that's why we hope to change the Valley. We also started a residence program, in the Rio Grande Valley, so most of the students that go to residency, they end up staying," La Fontaine said.

Watch the video above for the full story.