Youth mentoring

Summer youth program and promotion of literacy (SYMPL)

The summer youth mentorship and promotion of literacy program provides high school students the opportunity to work closely with a physician in our pediatric health facility in Uptown to learn about careers in medicine while becoming involved in community service and literacy promotion.

This three-consecutive- summer scholarship program matches students from low income families with a physician who acts as a mentor, teaching them about medicine, taking them on rounds, and exposing them to different parts of the hospital. In turn the students act as mentors for patients in the waiting room by reading to them and promoting literacy. Students are encouraged to be creative and to become involved in the clinic's other community initiatives. To date all students involved in the SYMPL program have gone on to matriculate and graduate from college.

For more information on the SYMPL program, call Mariana Glusman, MD, at 773.561.6640.

Discovering health care careers

In an effort to introduce Chicago's fastest growing population to promising health care, we offer a six-week summer internship targeting local Latino high school students. Through community partnerships, students are recruited for this unique program where they can observe surgeries, help medical imaging staff examine x-rays and observe a day in the life of our emergency department. Students hear presentations from Children's Memorial's nationally renowned pediatric care specialists from a broad range of medical disciplines.

For more information on the health care career program, call Maria Rivera at 773.880.3001.