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KIRKSVILLE, MO -- High School students work with Missouri National Guard to build disaster preparedness skills at Truman summer program.

Truman State University's Summer Talent Academy for Professions in Health (STAPH) launched this summer with the goal of bringing excitement for health careers to talented high school juniors and seniors. In its inaugural year, the program will also help students think about helping with disaster preparedness.

The STAPH program takes place July 17-24 on the Truman and AT Still University campuses and is a partnership of the two universities with the support of several community organizations. The program is targeted at high-ability students with an interest in future health careers, and exposes them to coursework in a variety of fields during a one-week intensive session. Subjects include anatomy, physiology, epidemiology, microbiology, first response and disaster preparedness.

Officials at Truman have been working with the Missouri Army National Guard's 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team to conduct a disaster simulation for the STAPH students on Tuesday, July 19. During the Tuesday exercise, which will involve the full resources of the unit, students will learn about collection procedures, decontamination, communications, analysis of hazardous samples, and other tactics employed to detect and eradicate threats posed by hazardous chemical and biological agents.

"When we selected bioterrorism as a theme for this year's Academy we knew we would have a great opportunity to explore scenarios dealing both with disease and more generic disaster response," said Dr. Kevin Minch, Director of the Truman Institute and Dean of STAPH.  "What we did not fully appreciate at the time was the degree to which current events would bring disaster preparedness to the forefront of public consciousness in Missouri."

The STAPH program was founded at Truman in 2011 as a summer institute for gifted and talented high school students interested in science and health. Participants are nominated by their principal or counselor. This year's class of 38 participants was selected from more than 200 nominees on the basis of their application, school transcript, letter of recommendation and performance on a nationally-normed achievement test, such as the ACT or SAT. The Academy is directed by Dr. Joe Visker, of Truman's Department of Health and Exercise Science, and is instructed by a team of Truman and ATSU faculty and students.

While in Kirksville, on Wednesday, July 20, members of the unit will also conduct a separate disaster drill to help train for a hypothetical crisis in a Truman classroom building.