Wilmot Cancer Institute is expanding its training for deaf high school students.

Wilmot has had a summer internship program, Future Deaf Scientists, in place for four years, exposing deaf students to cancer-related health care and research careers they might not otherwise consider.

Now with help from the National Cancer Institute, it's expanding the program to four more nationwide schools.

Those include the California, Indiana, American and Kentucky Schools for the Deaf, all in partnership with major universities.

“We designed the program to create opportunities that do not naturally exist for Deaf students,” said Dr. Wyatte Hall, Future Deaf Scientists co-director and assistant professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). “The program exposes students to many different aspects of medicine and science and very intentionally engages them with Deaf role models who have PhDs and MDs so they can see the possibilities for themselves when considering their life directions. In many ways, I simply tried to create the opportunities I wished I had in high school as a Deaf person.”

The expanded internship programs will start next school year.