Fun in the Sun
Help us kick off this summer season by welcoming a new ambitious group of area high school students to the Friends of Strong Summer High School Volunteer Program on July 6! This program began soon after Friends of Strong became an official organization in 1975. We have hosted many incredibly talented students over the years. This year we’ve placed a total of 126 students across 20 different departments!
Aislinn Sexton, the Friends of Strong Volunteer Program Manager, welcomed this year’s cohort by saying “We’re looking forward to a great summer with our volunteers! Thank you to all our summer volunteers who will be spending the next eight weeks supporting patients, families, and staff. We are also thankful for the many departments that have welcomed our volunteers and created meaningful opportunities for them to learn, grow, and contribute to the UR Medicine community.”
In this program, students get to select a department where they will support staff, help provide an exceptional healthcare experience, and get to observe the intricacies of working in a healthcare environment. Over the course of eight weeks, each student gains invaluable experiences while each department has the chance to educate on the advantages of choosing a career in healthcare. The more departments that create Friends of Strong volunteer positions, the more students we can hope to guide into being compassionate and skillful wellness advocates.
Many of our students return for multiple years in a row, like Ella Kehoe, who volunteers in the
Golisano Children’s Sibling Playhouse. This will be her fourth summer with the program, where she will be helping children take their minds off stressful medical situations by engaging them in games, crafting, and talking one-on-one.
Ella talked about how volunteering at Golisano helped teach her that “illness doesn’t just affect one person; it impacts the whole family. It’s shown me how important it is to be empathetic, patient, and supportive.”
Both of Ella’s parents work at the University of Rochester, and Ella herself has been involved in the hospital’s ABCD program since she was ten. Her own medical experiences with multiple doctors, specialists, and treatment visits, are what inspired her to volunteer in a healthcare environment. She graduated from Hilton in June with honors and CTE endorsement in engineering, and plans to further study electrical engineering at the University of Rochester with the goal of improving healthcare technologies and systems.
Sam Delgado is another High Schooler returning for his third year in a Guest Services role. Volunteering has helped Sam become “…inspired by the desire to do the right thing and to help people, whether it is just helping them laugh or helping them recover from an ailment.” He hopes to learn more about working in a hospital environment, while helping to provide directions, comfort, and immediate assistance when patients and visitors need help. He even had a time when a patient was having trouble breathing and he was able to assist by retrieving their inhaler.
Over the summer, Sam plans to work on his college essay, hoping to study digital media and either biochemistry or bioengineering. In his free time, he plays video games, listens to music, draws, hangs out with friends, and plans to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Sam’s dream career is working in a medical lab, which volunteering with Friends of Strong helped to solidify.
His parents are proud of his commitment to volunteering at Strong, saying that “He has enormous empathy for people coming to the hospital. He wants to help them during what is a difficult and stressful time. We are grateful that the Friends of Strong program is available to high school students.”
Students Angelina Tran, Avery Esposito, and Samantha Lockwood are all starting their second year of volunteering. It is such an accomplishment to try volunteering and love it enough to keep coming back year after year.
Angelina is a valedictorian honors senior graduating from Greece Athena. She enjoys psychology and neuroscience, with a goal of understanding people on a deeper level. As a continuing Hospitality Advocate volunteer in unit 7-1200, Angelina’s inspiration comes from her hardworking and resilient mother and her experience in the New Visions Health Professions program. She has also volunteered at Highland Hospital as a Medical Imaging Escort and a Front Lobby Ambassador, and plans to volunteer this summer in the Highland Hospital College Volunteering Program (HELP) assisting elderly patients. She recently committed to attending St. John Fisher with a pre-med track majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior!
Angelina spoke highly about her experiences with volunteering, noting how “Volunteering makes a difference for our community by granting people like me the privilege to have real outreach to others without the need for a transactional reward. Bringing a smile to someone’s face by offering something as simple as my warmth and compassion is what I truly believe causes a ripple effect of change to occur.”
Avery has an intensely personal connection to Golisano Children’s, where her sister was taken care of. She will continue as a Guest Services volunteer, assisting visitors and guiding patients through the hospital. She is passionate about sports, sciences, and volunteering with Friends of Strong and at events for a nonprofit called Empowering People’s Independence at Asbury Methodist Church. Avery spoke on her experiences, describing how “Volunteering uses one’s gifts and talents to better the life of people around them. By uplifting one’s neighbors, entire communities function more efficiently and are more welcoming to people of all needs and backgrounds.”
This summer she’ll be focusing on her sports teams, volunteering, camping and visiting Vermont, and reading (especially books by Mitch Albom). As a junior, Avery doesn’t yet know what she’d like to study in college, but she is considering biochemistry with a career goal of working in genetic research or engineering.
Samantha is our last highlighted student, returning this
year to volunteer again as a Wilmot Cancer Center Ambassador. She didn’t expect to love the volunteer position as much as she did, saying “I really liked being able to talk with patients, see them on hard days, and just try to be someone who made things feel a little lighter. Even on better days, I liked making jokes and having real conversations with them. It just felt like I was doing something that mattered.”
She is also active in the community as the vice president of Young Women’s Empowerment, a Warrior Service Scholar, and a Sunday School and Vacation Bible School volunteer teacher going on five years. Samantha will be spending her summer working, visiting her cottage in Sodus, and spending time with her dog, Cooper. She wants to study nursing, ideally at the University of Dayton in Ohio, and hopes to become more independent by studying outside of New York State. Her dream career is nursing and eventually becoming a nurse practitioner, possibly in pediatric oncology since she appreciates and wants to nurture the confidence pediatric patients can gain as they go through difficult situations.
The Summer High School volunteer program gives so many students a chance to expand the way they see the world and how they interact with others in the community. Friends of Strong is incredibly proud to offer this annual program and continue to work on building and improving it.
Interested in learning more about the program or creating a volunteer position in your department? Visit fos.urmc.edu for more information!
Emily A. Teitsworth | 7/6/2026
