RAPID-IL Hosts Health Career Fair for Youth
On Saturday, June 29, Resources and Programs for Increasing Diversity in Health Professions in Illinois (RAPID-IL) hosted a Health Career Fair with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Metropolitan Chicago at UIC’s School of Public Health, helping introduce various health careers to youth. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a nonprofit organization focused on cultivating mentorship relationships between youth and role models within their communities.
The attendees (“Littles”), ranging from 10 to 18 years of age, along with their mentor or parent (“Bigs”), had the chance to visit a multitude of tables, where representatives from across UIC’s health sciences colleges, UIC’s Urban Health Program, and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, were all available for discussion with Chicago’s future health leaders! Later in the day, breakout sessions in dentistry, medicine, and kinesiology and nutrition allowed students to dive deeper into specific professions and explore career options.
Dentistry breakout sessions were led by Braulia Espinosa, Director of Student and Diversity Affairs for the UIC College of Dentistry Urban Health Program, Ms. Natalie Mendez, and second year dental student, Christian Gomoll. Medicine breakout sessions were led by Co-Founder of Sneakers to Scrubs and M.D. Student at Rush Medical College, Lord Hyeamang. Fellow Rush Medical Student Solomon Isi and Pre-Meds Abraham Ailemen (Cornell University '26) and Joshua Kelley (UIC '28) also joined in leading the breakout session. Kinesiology and nutrition breakout sessions were led by Eduardo Bustamante, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition for the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences.
Other events throughout the day included a health career fair icebreaker bingo, reflection and bonding time for Bigs and Littles, and even raffles, a photo booth, lunch, and dessert.
The mission of RAPID-IL is to build and sustain increased representation of racial and ethnic diversity and other historically marginalized groups in the health profession workforce in Illinois. RAPID-IL serves as a resource hub and has an online database of more than 100 health career pathway programs throughout Illinois for underrepresented students from elementary school through college and beyond. Youth can begin their career exploration journey in medicine, dentistry, public health, nursing, pharmacy, and applied health sciences by visiting https://www.healthcareerpaths.org/
Funding support for RAPID-IL is provided by The Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute.