PHOENIX, Ariz. Oct, 12, 2023 – A weeklong health sciences camp that introduces high
school students to health care career paths will double its size thanks to a gift from the
Burton Family Foundation.
Hosted by Creighton University Health Sciences Campus – Phoenix and Arizona State
University’s College of Health Solutions, the Burton Family Foundation Summer Health
Institute’s annual enrollment will grow from 48 to 96 students for the next three years,
with the possibility for continued funding later.
In July, Burton Family Foundation co-founder and board chair Christy Burton and CEO
Glenn Wike visited this year’s camp, where, they said, they found a program investing in
young people, taking action against a statewide health care workforce shortage and
serving the future of Maricopa County and the surrounding rural areas.
“I was so excited to see the work and enthusiasm of the learners and the teachers,”
Burton says. “The students are receiving such a broad range of exposure to professions
vital to the wellbeing of our communities.”
The students themselves solidified Burton’s support of the program. They told her what
the opportunity meant and how it introduced them to different careers, fields and
futures.
“It’s clear that this program is doing exactly what it sets out to do every year: opening
students’ eyes to new potential paths in health care,” Burton says. “I could see that
investing in this program was just the right thing to do.”
Every summer for the past decade, the program has invited students from across the
nation to spend a week at Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus.
Campers now also conduct interactive activities three hours each day at
the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Health Sciences Building, home of the Creighton
University Health Sciences Campus – Phoenix.
There, the campers immerse themselves in the hands-on, everyday realities of multiple
health care career pathways. They suture, inject, intubate and place IV lines into
mannikins. They interview and examine standardized patient actors. They research
genetic disorders and present their findings to a panel of experts. They meet and
network with physicians and nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists and
occupational therapists, professors, professional students and each other.
The only cost for students is travel to and from the camp. The Burton Family
Foundation’s gift ensures that this will remain the case, says Nate Wade, PhD,
Assistant Vice President of Operations for ASU Health, assistant research professor for
the College of Health Solutions and the creator of the Burton Family Foundation
Summer Health Institute.
Some past camp alumni, Wade says, didn’t even think college was possible before
participating in the program.
“It is truly rewarding,” he says, “to know how positive of an impact the camp has had on
the personal and professional journeys of so many participants.”
Students in the Burton Family Foundation Summer Health Institute come from a variety
of socioeconomic backgrounds. Nearly half are the first in their families to pursue higher
education. Many are eligible for Pell Grants.
“The program’s focus is on students whose parents didn’t graduate from college or who
come from communities traditionally underrepresented in medicine,” says Jaya Raj, MD,
Assistant Dean of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging with Creighton’s School of
Medicine.
“The program helps students feel like this is something they can achieve. It helps them
envision a future in which they are a physician, nurse, physical or occupational
therapist, physician assistant or another health care professional.”
Many past campers have made that vision a reality. Over the program’s first four years,
96.9% of Burton Family Foundation Summer Health Institute participants went on to
enroll in college. Most enrolled in four-year institutions, including seven of the top 20
institutions ranked in U.S. News and World Report’s Best National Universities.
Early program participants are now graduating college, applying for medical school and
embarking on exciting careers.
Burton Family Foundation Summer Health Institute 2016 alumna Julia Jackman, of
Chandler, Arizona, said the program changed her life.
“I was only 17 years old at the time,” Jackman says. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do
next, and the program gave me the skills I needed to start on the right foot in college.
That experience continues to shape my trajectory today.”
Jackman went on to graduate from Arizona State University, with degrees in
biochemistry and global health, and the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, with a master’s degree in global health. She earned the latter degree as a
Fulbright Scholar.
She is now a Global Research Associate for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center in New York and will soon head to Nigeria for a year-long research fellowship at
a cancer hospital. After that, she will attend medical school, hoping to merge her
passions for clinical care and research into a career that addresses global health
disparities.
In 2019, Jackman returned to the Burton Family Foundation Summer Health Institute
itself, this time as a camp counselor. It only felt right, she said, giving back to the
program that kickstarted everything for her.
“I will always be grateful, from the bottom of my heart, for the Burton Family Foundation
Summer Health Institute. Because it showed me what’s possible.”
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ABOUT CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY
Creighton University, founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1878, is one of 27 Jesuit
colleges and universities in the U.S. The Omaha campus has more than 8,000
undergraduate, graduate, and professional students among nine schools and
colleges. No other university its size offers students such a comprehensive academic
environment with personal attention from faculty-mentors. The new health sciences
campus in Phoenix, which will accommodate nearly 1,000 students by 2025, is the
largest expansion outside of Omaha in Creighton’s history and positions the
University as one of the largest Catholic health professions educators in the
country. Creighton is ranked in the top third of National Universities by U.S. News &
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