Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

Penn State's Pediatric Residency at Golisano Children's Hospital is a university-affiliated, academically-oriented program built around a deliberately track-free, fully individualized curriculum (46 weeks of elective/individualized time) that lets each resident construct a personalized path toward primary care, hospital medicine, or subspecialty fellowship. As the only children's hospital, PICU and Level IV NICU in central Pennsylvania, it offers tertiary/quaternary-level acuity alongside a strong community/advocacy mission expressed through structured rotations at underserved Harrisburg clinics, the Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged youth, and an annual Ghana global health elective. Research is meaningfully embedded but optional rather than mandatory - roughly half of residents engage in scholarly work via a Longitudinal Scholarly Project pathway and a Physician-Scientist Training Program, supported by a top-50 NIH-funded pediatrics department. Career outcomes split evenly between general pediatrics/hospital medicine and fellowship (including competitive placements at Johns Hopkins, Mayo, Boston Children's), reflecting a program that values self-directed learners capable of defining and pursuing their own individualized "track" within a flexible, wellness-conscious, advocacy-minded culture.