Only a short walk and a single street separate Pitt’s School of Public Health from the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy, but for many SciTech high school students and others across the city, that short distance has shaped their future goals. What begins as a summer experience through the Public Health Science Academy (PHSA) often becomes their first step toward an undergraduate degree and an eventual career in public health.
Longtime SciTech biomedical technology teacher Edwina Kinchington, also a member of the School of Public Health’s Partner Advisory Board, has championed the program since it was founded by Dean Maureen Lichtveld in 2022. She is most impressed by how the PHSA exposes students to possibilities they might otherwise never encounter. “I’ve watched their worlds open up,” she says. “They start to see how science connects to real people and real communities, and they begin to imagine themselves doing that work. More than anything, I see their confidence grow.”
A month-long summer program for 10th and 11th graders from high schools in greater Pittsburgh. the PHSA immerses students in public health in action through classroom learning, lab experiences and hands-on activities throughout the city. “It’s a great resume builder and opportunity for students to get out of the four walls of the classroom,” Kinchington adds.
Its impact is already visible. Since the PHSA’s launch, four SciTech students have gone on to enroll in the school’s Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) program, including Pushpika Basu.
Basu arrived at Pitt Public Health the summer of 2023, eager to explore the health sciences, and the experience quickly reshaped her understanding of the field. She found that the PHSA didn’t just teach her public health concepts, it revealed how social conditions shape health outcomes long before someone needs medical care. That realization made the field feel urgent, human and deeply connected to her own community. “It helped me understand the ‘why’ behind health disparities,” she said. Now a freshman in the BSPH degree program, she is pursuing coursework and projects focused on equity and community engagement, motivated by the questions first sparked that summer.
For Natalia Connor, the clarity she found through the PHSA was transformative. She arrived from Taylor Allderdice High School with a love of biology and, she admits with a laugh, zero intention of staying in Pittsburgh for college. But the PHSA opened her eyes to epidemiology, data and the power of prevention to shape whole communities. “I didn’t know what public health really was until I saw it up close,” she said. That experience stuck, ultimately drawing her into the BSPH program and persuading her to stay in Pittsburgh—where she’s now weaving together biology, research and population health while spreading her wings here at home.
According to Jeanine Buchanich, vice dean and associate professor of biostatistics and health data science, these student pathways reflect exactly what the school hopes to cultivate. “When students arrive with that early exposure, they are ready to dive deeper,” she says. “They bring curiosity, purpose and a sense of responsibility that enriches the entire program, and they get to form one-on-one relationships that last.”
For Basu, Connor and many others, the PHSA has become a bridge to Pitt Public Health, guiding students into the BSPH program and setting them on a path toward careers aimed at improving the health of communities close to home and far beyond.
-Clare Collins