Session 324 SHPEP, or the Summer Health Professions Education Program, is a free summer program for underrepresented premed students at twelve locations throughout the U.S. Today, we have Chantez Bailey and Dr. Norma Poll-Hunter. from SHPEP to share knowledge about this program, why it was started, and so much more. If you're interested in applying to this program, visit their site. [02:15] About the SHPEP Chantez serves as the team lead for the Communications and Outreach access of the initiative. She makes sure she increases the visibility and overall awareness of the SHPEP initiative, serving as the voice of the program. Norma serves as the Deputy Director of the SHPEP, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), AAMC, and the American Dental Education Association as the National Program Office. They help provide technical direction and assistance. As a deputy director, she's responsible for the oversight of the national program, implemented at 12 institutions across the United States. Started 30 years ago, RWJF conducted a study to understand the lack of diversity within the physician workforce. They found that they were qualified applicants from minority communities, many of the students didn't know exactly what to do. They weren't socialized in the process of applying to medical school, the interview process -- basically a lot of unknown for students who came from underrepresented communities. Based on the research, they decided to develop the program in 1989 that started as a minority medical education program to provide students from underserved communities, particularly, at that time, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, American Indian, and mainland Puerto Ricans -- to be able to support their interest in pursuing medicine as a career. [05:20] An Increase in Diversity The SHPEP has robust data demonstrating that the program has been significant in increasing the diversity of the applicant's pool as well as the matriculants and graduates from medical school. Their data shows that about 67% of those who participate in the program actually applied to medical school and of that group of applicants, about 66-68% got into medical school. To date, they have a little over 7,000 individuals who participated in the program who are physicians and dentists (which they expanded in 2006). "The program has evolved over the 30 years to really broadly define diversity and who is underrepresented in medicine." AAMC does a lot of great work into the research and data. It shows that the overall majority of medical students semi-income are at the top 5th quintiles of U.S. income. So basically, it's a lot of rich people going to medical schools. [07:00] Defining Underserved When you say serving the underserved, that's very broadly defined as individuals who come from an economically disadvantaged background, not only those that are historically underrepresented in medicine, but also students who come from rural communities, urban communities, individuals who are not well-represented in medicine. "The program has evolved to think about representation much more broadly beyond just race and ethnicity." [08:10] Students the Program Caters To The program considers high school students, upperclassmen, junior, and seniors to consider during their first or second year of college to get ready for the SHPEP application process. This way, you can keep the ground running as soon as they become a freshman. The program caters to freshmen and sophomore college students and/or students who have 60 college credits or less. This is important for students who might be attending community college. As to why they're starting it early, they found that sometimes getting to the junior or senior year is that there a lot of missed opportunities to build a strong profile to be competitive to a medical school, graduate school, and other graduate programs. And so the research found that getting students earlier was the most beneficial. "The focus is to buil