On a sunny spring morning, the Marvin Williams Recreation Center buzzed with activity as more than 250 Kitsap-area high school students explored the wide array of careers available in healthcare.

The second annual Healthcare Career Camp, held April 24, brought together students from across the Kitsap and Peninsula school districts to engage directly with medical professionals, professors and health educators. The event was hosted through a partnership between Olympic College, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, and the Marvin Williams Recreation Center, with support from numerous community organizations.

The event, which nearly tripled attendance from its inaugural year in 2024, was designed to build a diverse pipeline of future health care professionals by exposing students early to the educational pathways and wide variety of roles available in the field, from nursing and surgical technology to sonography, emergency medicine, and pharmacy.

Students didn’t just speak with professionals — they tried their hands at mock intubation, practiced suturing, tested their nutrition knowledge and balance, and more.

Dr. Lillian Robertson, an obstetrician-gynecologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and executive director of the Marvin Williams Recreation Center, said the event is a meaningful way to address the local shortage of healthcare providers.

“Being a physician here locally, it’s so obvious to me the shortage and the need for healthcare providers, particularly coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Robertson said. “We realized that we are going to have to find our replacements.”

Robertson said the program is about “growing our own” and giving youth early exposure to meaningful careers. “A lot of youth in this community have no exposure to healthcare careers,” she said. “It’s great to let them see this early so they can make decisions about how fun it is to take care of people. Healthcare offers a good-paying job opportunity as well.”

Students lit up with excitement as they explored booths on surgical tech, dental hygiene, pharmacy, and other career paths, Robertson added. “Some of the students that came last year came back this year and they were able to have an even deeper experience,” she said. “If we want a strong, healthy community, it starts with pouring into our kids early.”

Per the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance, one of the top healthcare challenges in the county is having enough trained professionals to meet community needs. Organizers said early exposure and accessible pathways are critical to changing that trajectory.

Alecia Nye, dean of nursing and allied health at OC and a graduate of the college herself, said she is committed to creating opportunities right here in Kitsap County.

“Olympic College changed my life, and this community changed my life,” Nye said. “Knowing that we had such dire shortages of these health care professionals, my goal was to create these pathways right here so people don’t have to leave.”

She said she was especially encouraged to see strong interest in programs like radiology, sonography, and surgical tech—three fields the college will launch new programs for starting in fall 2025.

“I am so inspired today—just seeing their faces and seeing them get excited about potential careers they didn’t even know existed,” Nye said.

Allie McLaughlin, RN, interim vice president of operations at St. Michael Medical Center, emphasized the workforce need and her own connection to the area.

“Healthcare fields right now are hurting for people,” McLaughlin said. “We’re looking for more skilled professionals every day. Our population here on the peninsula continues to age and grow, and we need to be able to serve our community.”

McLaughlin, a Central Kitsap High School and OC graduate, said she sees herself in many of the students attending the event.

“It’s really fun to see my experience lived out in these students now,” she said. “Together, we are finding solutions for the health care staffing challenges right here in our community.”

The Healthcare Career Camp was funded through the Olympic Community of Health and supported by a network of community organizations, including Black Student Union – Kitsap, Kitsap Strong, Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center, Our Gems, Olympic College Foundation, and Voices of Pacific Island Nations.