Planting the Seed: Growing Tomorrow’s Health Care Workforce One Field Trip at a Time

UT Health Sciences is proud to be part of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South, serving schoolchildren in the region.

Inside a converted Save-A-Lot in the Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis, elementary and middle schoolers pull on white lab coats and other uniforms as they get to work.

They are bankers, pharmacists, business owners, and doctors for the day, managing budgets, running storefronts, and making decisions inside a miniature city called JA BizTown, the flagship experiential learning hub for Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South. Every student who walks in, has an interaction or makes a transaction, steps behind a desk or a counter, encounters, in some form, the world of grown-up work.

For the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, one of those storefronts carries the university's name over the doorway and a deliberate purpose behind it.

A Space Built on Intention

The UT Health Sciences storefront at JA BizTown didn't come together overnight. When Junior Achievement relocated from downtown Memphis to Binghampton and began building out its new Wang Experiential Learning Center, a handful of UT Health Sciences staff saw more than a sponsorship opportunity. Dustin Fulton, EdD, assistant dean of admissions for the College of Medicine, was among them.

"I just saw it as not only community outreach but also pathway programming," Dr. Fulton says. "Teaching them early, letting them kind of play those roles and see what it is, or what goes into having those roles at this place."

Junior Achievement and the Wang family, who invested in the futures of Mid-South youth through the new build-out, chose the Binghampton location intentionally. Junior Achievement wanted a neighborhood that deserved the investment, and the organization went to work filling the space with Mid-South organizations wanting to show up. Through a series of conversations, the Office of Student Success, the College of Medicine, and other campus partners committed funding and logistics to make the university storefront a reality.

What students find there now isn't a generic table with brochures, but, rather, hands-on learning opportunities that help them experience the life of a career in science. They conduct a super taster test, exploring sensory science and the biology of taste. They wear white coats. They hear from health professionals and serve their fellow classmates. It's the only storefront in the building where students suit up that way, and according to Leigh Mansberg, president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South, that detail matters more than it might seem.

Students from Bethel Grove Elementary School recently worked in the UT Health Sciences storefront during their visit.

When the Coat Goes On

Mansberg, who spent two decades as a classroom English teacher and department chair before leading Junior Achievement, describes what she watches happen to children the moment they put on a white coat in the space.

"They may come to us so quiet," she says. "And I'm always amazed how they find their voices and this sense of growth. It's the only storefront with white coats. Somehow when the kids put their white coat on, they just find this sense of presence, and voice, and authority."

She pauses and grins. "They get this classic swagger going on."

That swagger, Mansberg describes, isn't trivial. It's what happens when a child can begin to imagine herself in a role she has maybe never seen modeled. "Children can't become what they can't see," she says. "Getting the UT Health Sciences community in front of them, whether it's one hour, three hours, or five hours, you have to meet the community where they are. And that begins with our children."

That point can land differently if generational wariness of the medical system runs deep in a family. Mansberg notes the JA BizTown experience creates something rarer than a career fair, a positive and curiosity-driven encounter with health care. "Not being sick and getting to visit all the different professionals who keep you healthy when you're not sick is a really positive way to demystify the process too," she says.

More Than Medicine

The partnership began through the College of Medicine, but both Mansberg and Dr. Fulton see a wider view. Nearly 8,700 children moved through JA BizTown last year, with about 85% encountering the UT Health Sciences storefront. That number reflects a growing footprint.

"When people hear about UTHSC, they think medical school perhaps," she says. "There are so many opportunities beyond that as well. Physician assistants, dentistry, pharmacy. Our children need to witness the resources available to them, the programs available, and what they need to do to train to get into these programs."

Dr. Fulton echoes that broader vision. After 13 years at UT Health Sciences, he knows the challenge of brand recognition and how early exposure is one of the few things that creates change. "I took for granted that people knew who we were," he says. "As we propelled recognition of the brand, we also thought it was good for people to understand that you could do this. You can become a doctor, a scientist, an educator, right here in Memphis."

He gets texts now from parents who recognize the storefront during their child's field trip. A former colleague sent him a photo when her son's school visited, her son standing in the UT Health Sciences space, grinning.

"You don't always know the students you're reaching," Dr. Fulton says, "until down the line and they're saying, 'I was first introduced to this through JA.'"

When a student walks into the university's storefront at JA BizTown and slips on a white coat, she tries on a version of herself she may have never considered before.

Mid-South, Multiplied

The relationship between UT Health Sciences and Junior Achievement extends past JA BizTown. The university has also welcomed more than 500 Teaching as a Profession (TAP) students to its Memphis campus, high schoolers considering education as a career field, and UT Health Sciences faculty and staff have served as volunteers and board members across JA programs. A separate career exploration initiative called JA Inspire brings health care career simulations to the Agricenter in Memphis.

Dr. Fulton's team stocks the locations with university novelty items, as well as donates leftover recruitment materials when cycles close. He worked with former university graphic designer David Meyer on the artwork inside the storefront. When something needs to be done, Dr. Fulton runs with it, partly because he remembers JA coming to his own Memphis elementary school in fourth grade.

"I've always told the people at JA, 'If I can do anything to move the needle, let me know,'" he says.

Mansberg sees a statewide dimension and regional approach taking form too. In Tennessee, Junior Achievement is a full-state model run by five offices, serving 75 of 95 counties and more than 120,000 students annually. The white coats are inspiring young minds as Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South serves students in 71 counties across Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

When a student walks into the university's storefront at JA BizTown and slips on a white coat, she tries on a version of herself she may have never considered before. Maybe she becomes a doctor. Maybe she becomes a pharmacist, a researcher, or a dental hygienist. Maybe she designs the logo for a health care company she founds someday.

Whatever she becomes, she'll remember the day someone let her try it on first.