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Usually teens in the Promoting the Advancement of Teens in Health Care program at High Point Regional Health System volunteer 50 hours each summer in various departments at the hospital.

But this year, some of the teens got volunteer experience outside the hospital’s doors.

Wednesday was as a community service day for the teens at Barberitos on Eastchester Drive. They carried customers’ trays, refilled drinks, threw away trash and helped with other duties to help raise money for the hospital’s Greatest Need Fund.

All tips, donations and 10 percent of sales for the day were donated to the fund.

Customer Ann Lynch of High Point hadn’t heard about the PATH program but knew PATH coordinator Jennifer Shaw when she worked at the tennis shop at Willow Creek. When Shaw e-mailed her about the event, she invited some friends and stopped by for lunch.

“I think this is great,” she said. She said she liked seeing young people get involved.

Shaw said the community service day is a good way to expose teens to other work environments and service outside the hospital walls. This is the first year PATH teens have participated in a fundraising event. PATH is in its 10th year.

PATH exposes teens to various health-care opportunities. Shaw said teens apply in January by writing an essay and submitting two references and their grades. This year, 85 teens are participating in the program.

Based on their interests, Shaw attempts to place the teens in areas of the hospital where they’ll get exposed to possible career paths.

Katherine Shaw, 17, a Wesleyan Christian Academy student and Jennifer Shaw’s sister, is considering nursing but still isn’t sure about her future career goals. She’s helping in the day hospital, discharging patients, delivering flowers and handling duties as needed.

Meredith Perrell, 17, a 2010 North Davidson High School graduate, said PATH exposed her to both nursing and physical therapy. With experience in physical therapy rehabilitation and Piedmont Joint Replacement, Perrell has gotten a taste of both and has settled on physical therapy.

She’ll attend East Carolina in the fall to study exercise physiology, which will allow her to pursue physical therapy in graduate school.

Marcus Smith, 17, of Pleasant Garden and a rising senior at The Early College at Guilford, said PATH has helped him to realize a medical career is what he wants to do.

During the past two summers, Smith as worked in the emergency department, intensive-care unit and the operating room’s holding area.

Last year, he got to see two gallbladder surgeries. “That was interesting,” he said.

He’s interested in attending UNC-Chapel Hill or East Carolina to became a physician, maybe even a surgeon.

“This is a good program,” Smith said of PATH. He hopes more people learn about the program and take advantage of its opportunities.

No one in his school knew about the program, he said. A friend told him about it, and he started participating last year.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth. seagraves@news-record.com