HSPH Internship Program for High School Students Marks 25th Anniversary

For 25 years, HSPH’s summer Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) has invited talented high school students to explore careers in public health through a paid internship. And the exposure has led to success. Former RAP students have gone on to become physicians, researchers, veterinarians, and high school principals.

This year, HSPH reviewed more than 100 applications, and seven students were chosen for the class of 2009. They will begin their program on July 6.

RAP was originally established with an NIH grant through HSPH’s Office of Academic Affairs. It was designed to address the disparities in academic opportunities for teens from underrepresented communities and to encourage more students to go into public health and research careers. Initially geared to high school students in the Mission Hill and Fenway areas, the program is now open to students at least 15 years old who live in Boston or who attend Boston schools.

“These students have so much potential, and through this program we can show them the full scope of what they can do,” said Faith Imafidon, RAP coordinator for Human Resources.

Students are paired with a mentor and assigned to a research project. They go on group tours to places such as the Children’s Hospital pathology lab and attend seminars given by HSPH professors. They open the summer with a barbeque and close it with presentations of their research experience to family, friends, and mentors.

“Looking back after two years of medical school, I appreciate the importance of public health and the experience I had that summer,” said Kevin Han, who participated in RAP in 2001 and is now at George Washington University School of Medicine. He worked in the laboratory of Jonathan Levy in the HSPH Department of Environmental Health on a study of air pollution and respiratory disease.

 “As a doctor I’ll be able to treat diseases,” said Han, “but through public health I could help an entire community not to breathe dirty air.” Participating in the RAP program, “definitely helped clarify for me that I wanted to go into medicine,” he noted.

Levy, whose research focuses on the assessment of the environmental and health impacts of air pollution, has twice used RAP students for projects. The students received field experience collecting measurements of air pollution and then downloaded the data in the lab. A scientific paper resulted that included acknowledgment of the RAP students who participated in the data collection.

“We wanted the students to see that research is fun, exciting, and intellectually stimulating,” said Levy. He finds it gratifying to mentor high school students: “It’s a win-win situation. At the end of the summer they’ve got something, and we’ve got something.”

“RAP shows promising kids that a career in public health is not a dream,” said Imafidon. “Research is something tangible they can do.”

For more about the program, visit the RAP website.

-- Ellen Barlow