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SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah on Wednesday hosted a contingent of kids from four minority-majority schools in West Valley City, aiming to demystify college and open them up to the possibility of pursuing postsecondary education.
RyLee Curtis, director of community engagement for University of Utah Health, said she overheard some of the kids Wednesday express skepticism of being future college material. The annual Imagine U Day activities, in their third installation this year, are meant to counter such attitudes.
"'I don't think I'm going to college,'" Curtis said, repeating the sort of remarks she heard. "So this is our way of trying to build capacity in the west-side communities and show them that they belong here at the university, and they can come to the university and build their careers here with us."
The issue is particularly germane in light of the U.'s plans to build a health medical campus in West Valley City, perhaps starting in 2025. The city is the most ethnically and racially diverse in Utah, Curtis said, and university officials hope to recruit talent to staff the planned facility from the community. Laying the groundwork via programs like Imagine U Day helps.
"When the hospital is built, we'll have about 1,700 open positions, and we would really love to fill that from people from that community. We know it's important for health outcomes that people are seen by people, by providers, that look like them, that are from their community, speak their languages and have shared experiences," she said.
The U.'s overarching ambitions notwithstanding, the activities the fifth- and sixth-graders took part in were meant to be fun, exposing them to the campus and introducing them to the health field and other academic disciplines. Around 200 students took part, and while University of Utah Health is the moving force behind the initiative and hosted some of them, other kids took part in activities at other departments, including the U.'s college of law and engineering school.
Kathlyn Anderson, principal at Hunter Elementary, was at the medical school with a group of students from her school. Students also came from Whittier and Hillside schools, part of Granite School District, like Hunter, and Ascent Academy, a charter school.
"There was just a general excitement to come up and be on a college campus, which is something many of our students haven't done before," Anderson said. The notion of pursuing a career in health, she added, "is something they don't often have modeled for them in their homes or their communities."
Focusing the Imagine U Day effort on minority-majority schools is significant in light of the lower representation from minority groups in health fields. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, African Americans, Latinos, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, among others, are underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis.