Saint Joseph's University (SJU) in Lancaster, formerly the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, hosted an event for high school juniors on Feb. 9. The college teamed up with the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce's Discovering Paths Program to host the students and their 150 mentors for a campus tour and activities intended to familiarize students with health care careers. The goal of the event was to help fill the growing number of job vacancies in the health care sector by reaching prospective health care workers early on in their academic careers.

The students and their mentors participated in a handful of informational sessions around the university's core areas of study, including nursing, pharmacy, radiography, surgical technology, sonography and sports medicine. Students also participated in a hands-on activity in the campus' simulation lab to showcase how experiential learning is incorporated into all the university's health care curricula. The simulation lab consists of more than 20,000 square feet of immersive, interdisciplinary, hyper-realistic clinical simulation space.

SJU and chamber staff members leading the event included Tom Wallace, director of business development at the chamber; Bill Rhinier, assistant vice president of enrollment management at SJU; Nicholai Best, simulations operation manager at SJU; Maryglo Stroik, program director for medical, vascular, and cardiac sonography at SJU; and Evelyn Potoka, coordinator for the Division of Nursing at SJU.