OTI Junior Academy is a one-of-a-kind community outreach program and introduces high school students to the healthcare profession.

The incoming high schools seniors are from diverse, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

Over the course of 8 weeks, we will introduce the students to different sides of healthcare: professional development workshops, surgical workshops, biomechanical engineering modules, anatomy lectures, cadaver-based anatomy, journal club, and an engrossing 8-week long case study.

The most important contribution will be the shadowing hours UCSF physicians at SFGH provides the students. Between June 16th- August 10th, we ask departments to commit to a block of 4 hours/week if not more. During the program, we try to rotate all 12 students through as many departments as possible.

Job shadowing is tailored to expose students to a wide array of healthcare professions.  The students will shadow nurses and surgeons, whose roles are better known in the public eye.  They will also shadow ancillary medical staff whose occupations are not as well known to the public: CT technicians, casting technicians, physical therapists, podiatrists, physiatrists, radiologists, etc.  The healthcare space is so wide and has so much to offer and the OTI Jr. Academy will open their eyes to the other facets of the medical industry.  The healthcare system is all interconnected and, as a healthcare professional, it is important to see multiple areas of the system in order to gain perspective in your own work.

Lastly, the participants will gain hands-on experience in a lab setting with their work as surgical training scrub technicians intern.  The students work hand in hand with surgical technicians assisting and supplementing the technician’s job tasks.  OTI Jr. Academy participants gain practical working experience essential as they progress in their education and career tracks.