As Temple students settle into a new academic year, seven high school students are beginning the year with a clearer sense of where their own futures might lead.

In July, the students spent two weeks at the Temple Summer Institute in the Wide World of Health Professions Intensive. The noncredit pre-College intensive was taught by Barnett College of Public Health faculty members Gena Bell Vargas, PhD, CTRS, from the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Felicidad Garcia, PhD, CCC-SLP, from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Vargas led the first week, and Garcia led the second. Together, they introduced students to health professions beyond the careers they already knew.

Temple faculty members and other professionals spoke about their work and the education it requires. Students also visited clinical and research spaces. Experiences included hearing screenings at the Ellen Schwartz Speech Language Hearing Center and a visit to Temple’s School of Pharmacy.

“A lot of times when young people make a choice about a career, it’s based only on the exposure they’ve had to existing careers in their lives,” Garcia said. “A program like this allows that inventory of options to be much more expansive.”

At the start of the institute, six of the seven students expected to become physicians. By the end, more than half were considering other possibilities. The students also got an early look at college life. They lived on campus throughout the program, and a current Temple student served as their pre-College mentor.

The institute concluded with case study presentations on July 17. Vargas and Garcia plan to offer the workshop again next summer.