“It was cold and lumpy,” said Mia Coleman. She was speaking of the first human brain she ever got to hold in her hands. “It looked awesome.”

Miss Coleman wants to be a criminal psychologist. This year, she attended CampMed, a two-day program at the University of Toledo that aims to show ninth-graders from disadvantaged backgrounds what they can achieve through higher education in math and science. CampMed is as noble as it is practical. It is time for UT to take it to the next level.

UT should expand on CampMed — beyond the two-day time period.

CampMed targets students from underrepresented minority groups, rural areas, families where the parents didn’t graduate college, and schools that don’t offer especially comprehensive science programs. Admission is competitive. Once in the program, students are exposed to the world of health care — and the university campus. As Area Health Education Center director Courtney Combs pointed out, some students may never have set foot on one. CampMed seeks to give its participants “a window into a world that they might not have known was available to them.”

What if the window lasted two weeks instead of two days?

What if, eventually, it lasted an entire summer?

Students draw inspiration from the CampMed experience. That inspiration, and the exposure to medical science and college life, are vital to students who do not take for granted that they will go on to college, but who have the potential to succeed there. They need to be shown that the option is open to them, that college is for them as much as it is for those whose parents and grandparents went. 

But if two days on campus can inspire, CampMed should consider how much more an expanded program, and a continuing relationship with the university, could do. 

This is a fine thing the university is doing. Time to ramp up CampMed.

First Published July 5, 2017, 4:00 a.m.