Congratulations to the 18 young high school women—all from the Chicago Public School system--who graduated from the 2012 Infectious Disease Summer Academy(IDSA) conducted by the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern. This week-long program was open to all female public school students. Eighteen out of 46 applicants were accepted.

This year’s program was led by three Feinberg School of Medicine Faculty: Patricia Garcia, MD, MPH (Professor of OB/GYN), Melissa Simon, MD, MPH (Associate Professor (OB/GYN and Medical Social Sciences), and Sarah Sutton, MD, Assistant Professor (Infectious Disease) along with medical students and program administrators who developed curriculum and served as mentors.

The academy focused on three different aspects of infectious disease: sexually transmitted disease, foodborne illness, and perinatal infectious disease. Experiences included managing a mock public health outbreak, dissecting a human placenta, swabbing hamburger for bacteria, using a birth simulator to “deliver” a baby and speaking to adolescents living with HIV.

This whirlwind ended with a graduation ceremony attended by students, their families and friends, and program faculty and staff. As part of the ceremony, the students debuted their capstone project: public service announcements they wrote, directed and filmed in teams, throughout the academy, about preventing the spread of infectious diseases within the community. To learn more about the Women's Health Science Program for High School Girls, click HERE.