Drilling and filling a tooth isn't something most kids know how to do, but high school sophomores and juniors participating in the Penn Summer Mentorship Program are honing skills just like these.
Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the School District of Philadelphia, the mentorship program offers study for four weeks on Penn's campus in six different academic fields: dental medicine, education, nursing, law, medicine and engineering.
This year's 65 students were selected from a pool of 420 applicants from 32 local city high schools, and they began their study here in early July and have thus far taken part in many hands-on activities around campus.
Kwok Ng, a participant in the engineering and internet technology program, said that his group started work on Web design on Tuesday and student Lauren Strong said that her group has learned how to make sure that all programs, including virus programs, are up to date.
The engineering program was added this summer, as were the nursing and dental programs. The law, education and medical programs existed last year.
Some of the highlights of last summer's program included students in the medical program dissecting different types of brain tissue, education students developing a curriculum for grade school students, and law students visiting local court rooms, according to the Office of the Provost.
All of the students also receive guidance on college admissions and preparation.
Program administrative director Jessie Burns said that the students "are getting a lot of college preparation and learning a lot of writing skills and public speaking skills."
She added that the program was trying to host speakers from admissions and local college access programs to "emphasize what these students need to be doing at this stage of their high school career . and show that college is a real option for their future."
And the students seem to be getting the message.
Dental student Khaula Chaudhry said that the program "definitely helps in the future and looks good on a resume."
Still, some of the other students are simply enjoying the eye-opening experiences.
Dental students Dhan Thomas and Yasar Awan said that they now are "a lot more cautious" and "actually brush twice a day" after they examined each other's mouths and found tartar on their teeth.
Thomas even added that after the experience in the Penn Summer Mentorship program he is "100 percent sure" he will become a dentist.
The high school students "are getting exposure to fields they're interested in that they wouldn't get any other way unless they did on the job shadowing," added Burns.
