Glendale Campus Hosts Arizona High Schoolers for Health Sciences Career Day
Nearly 1,000 AZ students explore MWU's healthcare career programs
Midwestern University’s Glendale Campus hosted its annual Health Sciences Career Day (HSCD) on March 3, 2026, welcoming a record number of 997 high school students. The event brings teens from across Arizona to explore what a future in healthcare could look like. Midwestern faculty and students from every college and program hosted presentations and hands-on activities, which gave the younger students the opportunity to discover new career paths and envision themselves working in the medical field.
“This event means opportunity for the students,” said Shawn Stenzel, Home Health Aide Instructor at Independence High School. Ms. Stenzel explained that her students come from low-to-middle income backgrounds, so HSCD is the first time some students hear about varying careers in healthcare.
The interactive day included more than 30 workshop choices highlighting Midwestern’s eight colleges and 24 degree programs. Each high school group attended four of the offered classes and was accompanied by a current Midwestern student ambassador to connect with high schoolers and answer their questions about healthcare careers.
Ambassador Ryan Yifang Tan (CDMA ’28) said, “If I had been able to attend something like this Health Science Career Day, I would have had a lot more experience with the different programs that I was considering. A lot of motivation for your future career comes from enjoying what you do on a day-to-day basis. If they’re able to find something that fulfills them here at Health Sciences Career Day, that would make my day!”
New Presentations, New Experiences
To broaden the students’ learning, three new class topics were introduced this year: Agra Gel Immunodiffusion, Graduate Nursing Careers and Germ Safety, and Surgery & Laparoscopy Training. In Agra Gel Immunodiffusion, Adebayo Molehin, Ph.D., M.S. (CGS-Glendale), Assistant Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, taught students how to test for viral infections using samples from hypothetical patients.
Of the experiment, Dr. Molehin said, “It’s a real-world, real-life experience. That’s why I chose this topic. We’re always having patients come into clinics showing similar symptoms. You want to figure out whether they have contracted the same kind of virus or pathogen. The students will do this if the come to medical school or in their clinical lab.”
Interactive labs such as the Immunodiffusion Lab gave students a hands-on experience of what their day-to-day life in a future healthcare career might be like and helped them envision themselves in that future.
“This experience at Midwestern helped prepare me for a future career in the medical field as it gave me multiple opportunities to personally talk to medical professionals or medical students,” said Valeria Garcia Gomez, a junior at Independence High School. “Getting first-hand experiences helped boost my interest in understanding that there are multiple pathways in the medical field.”
