Pre-PA Students Now Eligible for Program to Increase Workforce Diversity
Previously known as the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, the newly renamed Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) is now expanding its scope and open to students considering a PA career.
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this free, six-week summer enrichment program is designed to increase the diversity of students entering the health professions and introduce them to interprofessional education. In existence since 1989, the program is coordinated by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Dental Education Association.
SHPEP’s main focus is to improve access to information and resources for college students from communities underrepresented in the health professions and who are from socioeconomically and educationally disadvantaged communities.
In 2017, SHPEP will take place at 13 program sites across the nation, with 80 students accepted at each site. Ten of these institutions (designated by an asterisk) have PA programs in place:
- Columbia University
- Howard University*
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – New Orleans*
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey*
- University of Alabama at Birmingham*
- University of California – Los Angeles/Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science*
- University of Florida*
- University of Iowa*
- University of Louisville
- University of Nebraska Medical Center*
- University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
- University of Washington*
- Western University of Health Sciences*
Applications for the 2017 summer season will be accepted through March 1, 2017. For more information, visit the SHPEP website.
