With their minds focused on the future, over 500 students from Pittsburgh-area school districts attended UPMC Health Plan’s career event.
“It’s our third high school event of the year but wildly the most successful,” says Erin Viale, director of talent acquisition, UPMC Insurance Services Division.
The event took place at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. It featured representatives from more than 40 career areas at UPMC.
Event organizers aimed to highlight the various career paths available after graduation, including both hospital and office jobs.
“What we really wanted to show is that among our 95,000-person workforce, there’s so much career opportunity,” Erin says. “I’m hearing kids say they’ve learned new things that they didn’t know about.
"They never knew about being an actuary, but they loved the actuary table. They came in thinking they wanted to be a nurse and left even more pumped about wanting to be a nurse.”
This wasn’t the typical career fair that high school students are often accustomed to. Instead, it featured hands-on activities like learning CPR, reading a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam, and analyzing lab results.
“This is honestly the event I wish I had when I was 17,” Erin says. “You just don’t know what’s out there. You don’t know what’s available. This event really gives us the opportunity to demonstrate and let kids have that hands-on (experience).”
That hands-on experience also included a virtual reality walkthrough of the new UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland.
The hospital's expansion will include 636 private patient rooms, plus rooftop gardens and flexible outdoor spaces. Construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.
“UPMC was definitely dedicated to making sure this hospital was community-oriented,” says Adrienne Miles, manager, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, UPMC Corporate Construction. “Providing the VR set will allow anyone who is interested in the hospital to learn about what the new hospital will look like.”
The virtual reality walkthrough sparked students’ interest in not only technology but architecture as well.
“I had a lot of educators come up to me and take my business card, and they want to come and tour the hospital,” Adrienne says. “So, this actually created more opportunities for the youth that are attending here today.”
Erin says she heard similar sentiments of excitement and positive feedback from teachers who wished they could have had even more students attend. “They are raving,” she says. “They are like, ‘This is perfect. This is exactly what our kids need. They’re trying to make these big life decisions, and we don’t have the ability to show them what you’re able to show them today.’ So, the teachers are thrilled about it.”
At UPMC, Life Changing Medicine means helping students build brighter futures.
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