A Public Health Summer Experience for High School Students

Abstract

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many high school students were unaware of careers in public health—that there are many options available for those interested in improving health and preventing disease beyond being a doctor or a nurse. The Rutgers School of Public Health (R-SPH) developed PHocus (Public Health: Outbreaks, Communities, and Urban Studies) to introduce high school students to the interdisciplinary field of public health as well as to promote population and individual health. The PHocus Summer Experience was designed for high school students to explore population health and learn about the fundamentals of epidemiology, the breadth of topics addressed by public health, and public health careers. R-SPH hosted PHocus as 1-week sessions in Summer 2018 and 2019, available at both the School’s Piscataway, New Jersey, and Newark, New Jersey, locations. The Newark sessions targeted recruitment from high schools with underserved, minority, and/or economically disadvantaged students, and tuition for these students was supported through external funding. Across 2018 and 2019 PHocus Summer Experiences, 130 students participated, representing 63 high schools, in four 1-week sessions. The experience was rated very highly by participants; on a 4-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree), the median score for the program being a worthwhile experience was 4.0. R-SPH faculty, staff, and students, as well as external stakeholders, eagerly volunteered to be part of the program, suggesting that this educational program can be reproduced at other schools and programs of public health.