RAPID CITY, S.D. — A Sanford Health program is giving Rapid City-area students opportunities to explore health care careers before making decisions about college and their future careers.

Aspire by Sanford works with students from kindergarten through 12th grade, offering age-appropriate activities ranging from classroom lessons to job shadowing and paid internships. Colleen Bsharah, Sanford Health senior career development consultant, said the program was created in response to a growing need for health care workers.

“Sanford Health started Aspire to give students the opportunity to explore all the careers that are in health care because there is a shortage of people coming into health care, but the demand is not going down,” Bsharah said. She said the need is particularly important in the Rapid City area, which continues to grow and serves as a regional health care hub.

The program launched locally last spring and was developed with input from school administrators, teachers, counselors and students. Bsharah said one message came through consistently: Students wanted more opportunities to enter health care facilities and experience the work firsthand rather than only hearing presentations in classrooms.

For high school students, Aspire offers job shadows and internships. Sanford is welcoming its first cohort of three interns this fall, with students working in post-anesthesia care, radiology and physical therapy. Interns become Sanford Health employees, complete onboarding and training and work alongside staff members for 100 hours during the semester. The internships also coordinate with the capstone course offered through Rapid City Area Schools.

Bsharah said job shadowing can help students determine whether a career is right for them before investing significant time and money in education. “I think a two- to four-hour job shadow is worth more than I don’t even know, like so many other programs, because it’s going to answer some questions for them,” she said.

Students are also encouraged to explore careers outside the jobs they initially think they want. A student interested in radiology, for example, could spend several hours shadowing there before exploring a laboratory or another department.

Aspire is also launching monthly medical programming this school year. Students will be able to visit a Sanford facility once a month, meet employees from different specialties and participate in hands-on activities, tours or question-and-answer sessions.

Those experiences are designed to introduce students to the wide variety of jobs available in health care. Bsharah said students frequently think first of doctors and nurses, but the industry also includes radiology and ultrasound technicians, laboratory and anesthesia positions and nonclinical careers in human resources, accounting, maintenance and marketing.

Programming changes depending on students’ ages. Kindergarten through fifth-grade activities focus on making health care approachable and fun. One activity teaches children about the components of blood by having them create a “candy blood” cup. Students are also introduced to careers such as phlebotomy.

Middle school programming adds more detailed hands-on activities, including lessons using ultraviolet light to demonstrate how germs spread. At the high school level, students begin exploring specific careers in greater depth.

Hands-on learning has become a central part of the program. Students have participated in physical therapy challenges, practiced with suture kits and used training pads to learn about starting an IV.

Bsharah said partnerships with educators help Sanford identify gaps rather than duplicate what schools already provide. The goal is to build programs around what students and educators say they need.

“Every time we support them and we want to elevate all of them,” Bsharah said. “And that’s what public education does, is it brings all of them the opportunity to grow into those amazing adults that we all want to see here in Rapid City.”