July 29, 2024

By Emily Gallagher

From July 22-26, 2024, the Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH) welcomed high school students for the fourth annual Public Health Summer Institute. These highly motivated rising junior and senior high schoolers were able to explore college life and learn about future career paths in public health.

The weeklong institute included speaker sessions, guided field trips to DSPH’s partner organizations throughout the city, and opportunities to connect with professionals in the public health field.

Tariem Burroughs, PhD, MSEd, MSODL, executive director of external partnerships at DSPH, leads the annual institute and Cindy Ngo, student engagement and events coordinator at DSPH, helped to ensure all the logistics of the week went smoothly. The institute was recognized in 2023 as Innovative Curriculum honorable mention from the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health.

Among the speakers were Drexel faculty, staff, students, and researchers as well as Philadelphia community leaders who are working to improve environmental health, access to affordable housing, public transportation, violence prevention initiatives, workplace injury prevention, and more.

Kicking off the week, participants were welcomed by Gina Lovasi, PhD, MPH, Dana and David Dornsife dean and professor, who introduced DSPH’s mission broadly and the future of public health. DSPH faculty members Jennifer Kolker, MPH, clinical professor, and Gabriel Schwartz, PhD, assistant professor, also spoke on day one. They shared health management and policy career choices and demonstrated how the work can have impact. Schwartz also constructed a case study for participants.

Naida Montes, PhD, community organizer at Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM), was the first of the community partners to present at the institute. Specifically, Montes discussed housing and security as well as APM’s mission. APM is a Latino-based health, human services, community and economic development nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia.

Day two participants heard from Amy Verbofsky, manager of health and resilient communities at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), who discussed community health programming and initiatives throughout the region. Participants then learned about Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and the role public transportation plays in helping communities thrive. Will Herzog, MS, information design project lead at SEPTA, led this portion of the institute from the inside of a retired trolley.

The next day, participants toured the Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia which aims to share stories of medicine and public health through robust collections of rare books, archives, historical objects, and biological specimens. While there they had a lesson in viral pandemics like COVID-19 and the fake news surrounding the outbreak. After breaking for lunch, Jourdyn Lawrence, PhD, MSPH, assistant professor at DSPH, presented about her research which explores how interpersonal and structural racism are embodied and act as determinants of healthy aging and cognitive-related outcomes using interdisciplinary theories and advanced epidemiologic methods.

This day wrapped with a Q&A style session led by current DSPH undergraduate students, Victoria Rodríguez Villarreal, Madeline Plummer, and Shailly Verma. They shared stories about studying public health, their involvement with students organizations, and competing in the school’s annual Public Health Case Competition which was helpful for the participants working on solutions for the week’s case study.

During the final two days, Katie Kantor, MA, associate director of admissions at DSPH, led a campus tour which gave participants a better feel for college life. They then met Sandra Bloom, MD, associate professor and co-founder of the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice at DSPH, who shared her career trajectory and wove in the history of public health.

Other speakers included Jennifer Taylor, PhD, MPH, CPPS, Arthur L. & Joanne B. Frank professor, director of the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST), and interim associate dean for public health practice; Yvonne Michael, ScD, SM, professor and interim chair of the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Arthur Frank, MD, PhD, professor; and Erin Durkin, MS, executive director for student events and engagement. In these final sessions, participants learned more about careers in occupational health, practical learning outside of the classroom, community-based research, environmental health advocacy, and higher education.

To close out the institute, participants shared reflections from the week in a closing ceremony. They detailed what they discovered about public health, how the institute helped expand their ideas about college, and what they envisioned their futures outside of high school to be like. They were each presented with Public Health Summer Institute completion certificates before parting ways.

Learn about the Summer Institute