HPH NOW, Sept 15, 2006, High School Students Learn about Public Health First-Hand Through Research Apprenticeship Program

Litong (Lilly) Zhao (left) and Thu Nguyen

Eight high school students joked nervously with each other as they found their seats in an HSPH classroom. They waved to smiling family members and to HSPH faculty and staff seated behind them. On this August 24 morning, the students presented details about their participation in the seven-week HSPH Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) at the program's closing ceremony.

For 22 years, RAP has brought Boston high school students to HSPH to participate in the paid internship. To be eligible for this competitive program, which is designed to encourage a new generation to work in public health, the students must demonstrate interest in the health sciences, be 15 years or older, and either attend a Boston city school or live in Boston. Over 150 RAP applications poured into HSPH this year, with only eight internships open. The Human Resources office, which manages RAP, offers support, seminars, and outings geared toward expanding the interns' appreciation of public health's many facets.

This year's RAP students, who will all graduate high school in 2007, sought links between environmental agents and reproductive health, studied health disparities in the African-American community, and looked for connections between stress and asthma, among other issues. The students worked in HSPH labs or offices, assisting with experiments and entering data. Each student also went into the field, lending a hand with subject interviews, gathering air pollution samples, even vacuuming homes for an asthma study. And all of the students excitedly shared their experiences, and their newfound knowledge, with their audience during the August "graduation" ceremony.

One of this year's RAP students, Tanya Harrison (John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science) pursued two projects through the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. Harrison studied the state of overweight and obesity among youth, both locally and nationally. She also helped plan the 2006-07 Youth Task Force, a group of high school students who assist with research related to nutrition and physical activity.

Lisa Saunders

"I created an educational packet including nutrition information on the major fast food chains," Harrison noted.

RAP participants also found that their HSPH mentors helped them strategize about higher education. Ader Jean (Prospect Hill Academy) noted, "My mentors were all very down-to-earth people. I know now how to get where I want to go in a science career."

To underscore RAP's strong record of inspiring high school students to pursue public health careers, former RAP student Amina Khawja spoke to this year's group. Khawja participated in the program in 1999, and went on to study community health and international relations at Tufts University. She now works as a project coordinator with the HSPH AIDS Initiative.

"Public health allows us to address the social, political, and environmental factors influencing health, which in turn help us create policies for the greater good," said Khawja, who plans on graduate studies in international health.

—EM