Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Medical Scientist Training Program

PRISM High School Outreach Program

Promoting Inner-City Youth in Science and Medicine (PRISM) encourages high school students in Chicago to explore science and medicine career opportunities through mentor-guided, interactive educational activities.

Started by Northwestern University Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) students and maintained through our collaboration with the Northwestern Science Club and the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club, the PRISM curriculum integrates science and medicine learning and provides students with mentorship on the many paths in science and medicine that they can pursue after high school. Students also have opportunities to participate in field trips to labs and hospitals.

Get Involved With PRISM

PRISM mentors are students in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and are committed to working with high school students to share an enthusiasm for careers in science and medicine. Mentors and students work in small groups that remain consistent for an academic year, enabling the formation of long-term mentoring relationships.

Sessions are held biweekly on Tuesday evenings (see the annual schedule below), and we expect our mentors to be present for every session. If you are a student in the MSTP and would like to become a mentor, please contact MSTP student leaders at prism.feinberg@gmail.com.

Meet the PRISM team

PRISM Schedule

Sessions are held every other Tuesday (with breaks for Thanksgiving and winter break) from mid-September to late April. The year is broken up into three modules, each focusing on a different physiological system and associated disease. The modules generally follow the following structure:

Session I: Patient Interview

Students learn basic medical interview skills and encounter a “patient” with a set of presenting symptoms. The group then discusses what they learned from their patients and are introduced to physiology about the system involved.

Session II: Lab Activity

Students do a lab activity to help them learn about the system they discussed in the previous session. Labs include dissections to learn anatomy and experiments to understand how physiological systems work in our bodies.

Session III: Research and Presentations

Students work in small groups with their mentors to come up with research questions about the epidemiology, treatment or current research surrounding the disease focus of the module. They then share their findings with the class to practice medical presentation skills.

Session IV: Special Session

This session varies from module to module, but may be a visit and lecture from a physician or a field trip to places like the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab or Feinberg School of Medicine Anatomy Lab.