Preparing Future Students for the Jobs of Tomorrow

Dr. Willie McKether, chancellor of the East Falls campus, notes that the programs afford local high-school students an opportunity to get hands-on training and instruction across a wide array of profession-based subjects.

“I know that participants are going to learn a great deal in a short period of time as they engage with our excellent faculty,” Dr. McKether says. “Our faculty is eager to engage with the registered students.”

Faculty and industry professionals from across programs within the College of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) will offer lessons to high schoolers in architecture, construction management, historic preservation, interior design, landscape architecture and real-estate development. The summer program runs from July 11 through the Summer Architecture Symposium Day on August 6.

The Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce is offering a trio of Design and Business Summer Programs during the week of July 11. The pre-college programs are geared toward high schoolers interested in textile design, fashion design and fashion merchandising and management.

The College of Life Sciences is hosting the virtual SummerScience@Jefferson program which enables rising high-school sophomores, juniors and seniors to participate in ongoing research projects from June 27 to July 25.

Topics include biochemistry, molecular biology, forensic science and genetics; cell biology and neuroscience; and anatomy, molecular mechanisms of disease, cancer biology, microbiology and immunology. It’s capped with the Summer Science Symposium Day where participants make formal presentations on topics researched during the program.

The Jefferson College of Rehabilitation Sciences’s Summer Training and Enrichment Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) program returns to Center City on June 6-10 for students who have completed at least one year of undergraduate college courses.

The program offers an introduction to rehabilitation sciences disciplines; classroom, lab, and simulation experiences; time management and study skills training, personal statement, and resume development, as well an introduction to the admissions process.

The College of Nursing’s STEP-UP Summer Training and Enrichment Program, which will follow a hybrid model this summer for rising high-school juniors and seniors, offers an introduction to the nursing profession and its various specialties from July 6 through 22.

Dr. Charles Pohl, Center City chancellor and the University’s vice provost of student affairs, notes that these offerings are critically important.

“The pandemic has magnified the importance of attracting bright, talented and empathic individuals into health care,” he says. “These programs at Jefferson not only expose the Philadelphia youth to a myriad of job opportunities, but also help ensure a more diverse workforce by increasing access and removing barriers that many of our children face.”