Summer Can Be a Time for Students to Learn About Careers in Healthcare
By Andrew Wilson
One of the most daunting questions a teen can face is “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Most times, the answer is shaped by the experiences that teen has had. At a minimum, a child of a healthcare professional may have a better understanding of what it takes to have a career in healthcare than a child of a parent from a non-healthcare occupation.
But there are other pathways to a career in healthcare than just being born into a family of caregivers. There are numerous summer workshop or camp opportunities to learn from healthcare professionals in the field for students in western Pennsylvania who think they might be interested in a career in healthcare.
“Our passion is finding students who don’t know how to get into a health career,” said Lynne Williams, MD, PhD, executive director of the Southwest Pennsylvania AHEC - which stands for Area Health Education Center.
Karen Narkevic, MA, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Career Scholars Academy agrees with that sentiment.
“We want to encourage young people to go into healthcare,” she said. “The goal of our program is to expose them to a wide variety of career opportunities. Healthcare is not just doctors and nursing.”
Indeed. Even teens who respond “doctor” or “nurse” to that daunting question of what they want to be may be surprised to learn how many career paths are available under those two broad categories, as well as the career fulfillment that might await them in fields such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant, or pharmacy, to name just a few.
Carlow University’s Prepare to Care workshop is a two-day program that features opportunities to learn from faculty and staff.
“The format of the entire workshop is focused on helping students learn about healthcare career fields, and we'll be partnering with Nursing, Perfusion, Intraoperative Neuromonitoring, Respiratory Therapy, and other program faculty,” said Meredith Weber, associate director of Dual Enrollment and School Relations for Carlow. “It's highly interactive as we have set up lab activities with each program, so students experience hands-on learning.”
The interactive or hands-on experience is important to all the programs, too. It is understood that no students want to spend their summer days being lectured about what a career in healthcare is like. If possible, they would like to experience for themselves what a certain career involves.
To that end, Pitt’s Health Career Scholars Academy may have representatives from pharmacy lead a lab where they create their own ChapStick, someone from nursing might show them what to look for when they strike a patient’s knee with the reflex hammer, or they might get the opportunity to put sutures into a pig’s foot, bought from a local market. The AHEC summer program also includes suturing pig’s feet, as well as using a mannequin to demonstrate how to intubate a patient, an ophthalmologist’s slit lamps for examining eyes, and activities at the Pitt Dental School and the WISER simulation center. Carlow’s Prepare to Care also features the opportunity for students to observe an actual open-heart surgery.
The programs vary in cost and duration, but the goal is the same: encourage students to explore the numerous healthcare careers available to them.
Here is a bit more information about the programs mentioned above as well as a few programs found via a quick search on the internet.
Southwest PA AHEC
Southwest Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC) holds an annual Summer Health Career Academy. The academy is designed for current ninth and tenth grade students who are interested in learning about opportunities in various health careers and the academic preparation necessary for these careers. Students meet with and talk to practicing health care professionals, engage in health career activities, learn to monitor vital signs, engage in hands on medical procedures, learn basic medical terminology, and receive training in leadership skills.
Applications are accepted from current 9th and 10th grade students who reside in the seven southwestern Pennsylvania counties (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland).
For more information or to apply, please visit: https://www.southwestahec.org/hca
Carlow University – Prepare to Care
Explore nursing and healthcare careers through interactive learning experiences with Carlow faculty.
Learn from internationally renowned scientists and healthcare professionals.
Engage in hands-on lab activities.
Observe an open-heart surgery.
Monday-Tuesday, July 14-15, 2025
9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (daily)
$250
For more information or to register, please visit https://admissions.carlow.edu/portal/summer
University of Pittsburgh Health Career Scholars Academy
This residential 4-week academic summer program introduces and exposes participants to a wide variety of opportunities in the field of health care. Applications for the 2025 program are still being accepted until April 11. It takes place in Pittsburgh from June 29-July 26, 2025.
Applications are available on the How to Apply page. Tuition is $3600. The program accepts applications from current high school sophomores and juniors. If you have additional questions, please contact the Health Scholars Academy office at pgshc@pitt.edu.
For more information or to apply for the program, please visit https://www.hcsa.pitt.edu.
Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) Healthcare Careers Academy
The CCAC Healthcare Careers Academy is a two-week summer experience that is designed to expose 10th–12th grade students from the South Hills and Mon Valley areas to family-sustaining career options in health care, enabling them to discover that today's health care careers extend well beyond careers as physicians and nurses—and that many of these careers can be attained with a CCAC education. This project, which is funded by the Jefferson Regional Foundation, aims to empower students to increase their own economic mobility, and on a larger scale, improve the economic health of our region.
For more information about CCAC’s program, please visit: https://www.ccac.edu/academics/partnerships/healthcare-careers-academy.php
Duquesne University – Pharmacy Exploration Day
The Duquesne University School of Pharmacy hosts a one-day summer camp, sponsored by Walgreens, for high school students and current college students thinking about transferring to explore pharmacy and the many career paths a Doctor of Pharmacy opens. Camp participants arrive in the morning and are done with all activities including a free lunch and ice cream social later that afternoon.
For more information or to register, please visit: https://www.duq.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/pharmacy/special-events-and-programs/pharmacy-exploration-day.php
For college students interested in healthcare from mathematics and data perspective:
Carnegie Mellon University – United Health Group Bridges to Healthcare Technology Program
The Bridges to Healthcare Technology Summer Program provides participants with hands-on experience working with real data, on real problems, in a stimulating, collaborative, and supportive environment. College students will work in small groups under the supervision of faculty and graduate students on real-world Healthcare challenges while building industry-valued technical, computing, and analytic competencies. There will also be mentoring and advising specific to navigating graduate school and industry employment opportunities, with specific emphasis on professional skill development.
For more information, please visit: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/statistics-datascience/engagement/summer/bridges-to-healthcare-technology.html
Editor’s Note: This program is not accepting applications for this summer, but this may be important for future information.