The Rural Youth Public Health Summit: A Pilot Pathway Program for Rural Adolescents

Abstract

There is a pressing need to increase the health care and public health workforce in rural communities across the United States. In Colorado, many of the rural communities are medically underserved, lacking resources and employment prospects to appropriately address the health needs of its communities. A potential strategy to address these medically underserved areas and the public health workforce shortage is to develop pathway programs for rural adolescents into health-related careers. The Rural Youth Public Health Summit (Summit) was a pilot pathway program for rural secondary school students hosted at a 4-year public university. The planning and formation of the Summit were done through the collaboration of school administration and teachers, university faculty and staff, educational non-profits, and health care and public health professionals. The Summit’s goals were to increase awareness and interest in public health careers and to further partnerships between a university and rural secondary schools. Participants included 22 secondary school students and 10 chaperones from rural schools. Throughout the 2-day Summit, participants engaged in campus tours, a keynote speaker, workshops facilitated by faculty and public health professionals, and an overnight stay in the dorms. Despite some limitations, the Summit showed promising results as a pilot program in its ability to conduct planning, outreach, recruitment, and facilitation of a pathway program to connect rural adolescents to college education and career opportunities in public health.