LIMA—Nine Lima Senior High School students completed the St. Rita’s Medical Center Diversity and Inclusion Department’s Multicultural Summer Youth Program Aug. 12.

The goal of the program was to introduce minority students to a total health care perspective from the time the patient comes through the door until they   are discharged. Each student was treated as a St. Rita’s employee and assigned to various departments during business hours Monday through Friday.

St. Rita’s Multicultural Summer Youth Program was “very successful again this year,” according to David Turner, St. Rita’s Diversity and Inclusion coordinator.

The nine students who were thinking about careers in the health care field were selected from 37 qualified applicants for the eight-week internship and work experience. Participants included Lydia Johnson, DarQarvious Brown, Gianna Medoza, Reasha Sanders, Franklin Upthegrove, DaQuan Knuckles, Drevion Little, Ryan Johnson and Javon Smith.

To be eligible for the program, students must be between 15 and 18 years old, in high school with GPA of 2.5 or higher, participate in high school or community groups, volunteer within the local community and have an interest in the health care field.

“It was a great learning experience, and also gave me a chance to learn more about pathology which I want to go into after college,” said Ryan Johnson.

Javon Smith agreed. “We got to learn about health care fields we were   interested in,” Smith said. “I want to be a pharmacist and I got to spend some of my time in the pharmacy which I really liked.”

This is the second year for the program, which was a collaborative effort between St. Rita’s, Rhodes State College and Lima City Schools.