With one arm in a sling, Highlands seventh grader Emily Svorcek struggled to put her socks on using only her other hand.
“I was pretending I had a stroke,” said Emily, 12, of Harrison. “It makes the difficulty pretty real.”
The demonstration was part of a career expo hosted Friday by UPMC St. Margaret near Aspinwall. About 150 district students learned firsthand about job possibilities within the medical profession — many of which don’t require a four-year college path.
“The goal is to get the kids excited about careers in healthcare that’s more than doctors or nurses,” said Jacquie Demianczyk, human resources director.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for kids, sometimes right out of high school, to create a meaningful career.”
Nearly 30 hospital departments participated in the expo by setting up hands-on demonstrations of their specialties.
Emily was drawn to the occupational and physical therapy table, she said, because she hopes to become a neurologist.
“My grandma has dementia, and I want to help people like her,” she said. “It was interesting getting to see these careers in real life.”
At the radiology booth, students pieced together a foam skeleton; at the microbiology lab table, technician Breanna Wisor demonstrated how specimens are collected and tested.
“We can take samples from anywhere, your hair or your blood, and determine what kind of infection you have,” she told the students.
Occupational therapists Katie Oknefski and Rob Seethaler challenged the kids to live momentarily with a deficit.
Emmett Johnson, 12, hobbled around the conference room using a walker, trying not to place his right foot on the ground while classmates wore eyeglasses covered with tape, leaving only a pinhole exposed.
“We help people who might have all these different deficits to go home and live easier lives,” Seethaler said. “Imagine having a broken leg and having to get around without touching your leg to the ground for six weeks.”
Emmett said the demonstrations were “pretty cool” but a bit too realistic for his taste.
“I haven’t really decided what I want to do yet, but sometimes seeing infections or stuff grosses me out,” he said. “But I like learning about it.”
Lauren Sauerwein, a UPMC senior recruiter, said the beauty of the job fair is that it’s meant to expose teens to a variety of nonmedical paths as well.
“There are all kinds of jobs in the hospital that sometimes kids don’t even think of,” she said.
She cited housekeeping, food and nutrition, and sterile processing technicians who are charged with cleaning the drills and scalpels used in hospital procedures.
Highlands teacher Faith Foster helped coordinate the field trip as part of the district’s career and workforce readiness program. Established in 2023, the initiative exposes students, as young as kindergartners, to options that will excite and prepare them for success after high school, whether that means college, trade school, military or employment.
“We’re doing tons of things across the district to support that, like this on-site career exposure,” Foster said.
The Pittsburgh Job Corps., which is geared toward low-income students, touted trade school as an alternate path.
“Through our program, you can go to community college for free,” said Morgan Shawfield, a 2013 graduate of Valley High School.
“We have 13 career paths that include several in the medical field but also things like culinary, too.”
Student Talen Mascara seemed enamored with the up-close glimpse at what he said is definitely his future.
At the last station, he rubbed a solution onto his hands and shoved them under a UV light to view the germs, envisioning his future as a surgeon.
“I thought I wanted that as a career, now I know for sure,” he said.