Project Summary
A diverse U.S. healthcare workforce, including gender, race, ethnicity, and intersectional identities, is needed to
ensure access to quality and relevant healthcare for all populations. Although this diversity in healthcare and
health careers is crucial, researchers have documented that talented minoritized students often face systemic
barriers that prevent them from thriving in their chosen profession. Educational interventions such as pathway
programs have sought to improve access to medical careers; however, many programs are either too late
(focusing solely on the undergraduate level), lack exposure to medical school curricula (such as problem-based
learning), and/or lack follow-up support and critical coaching when students enter college or professional
school. New approaches that break down these systemic barriers are urgently needed. Our SEPA project has an
intentional program design to reduce disparities in students’ social capital (inherited and acquired) to enable
student success in medical and health education. We hypothesize that increasing high school students' social
capital will reduce the barriers to health careers. We propose two specific methods for increasing student social
capital within the context of a research-based pathway program: increase student access to information and
engagement with support and resources about health careers and the educational trajectory, and create a
multi-level mentorship network composed of high school students, pre-med undergraduates, and medical
students. To test our hypothesis, we will design and refine a modular curriculum to introduce high school and
college students to medical education and provide them with knowledge and skills development essential for
pursuing a career in health professions. The multi-institutional project team will implement a four-year
medical pathway program for high school students in partnership with schools with racially diverse student
populations and/or a high percentage of students living in low-income households. This project combines
Social Capital Theory (SCT), an evidence-based mentorship structure, and best practices for designing and
implementing pathway programs. At the project’s completion, the research education program will have
supported 70 high school students, 10 undergraduate students, and 15 medical students to progress in their
education and career goals. Expected outcomes are to spark and sustain high school and undergraduate
students' interest in health careers; to increase participants’ application and acceptance into health-related
programs; to increase medical students' professional self-efficacy; and to establish a sustainable mentoring
network of high school, undergraduate, and medical students, and physicians. The scientific education research
will be novel in applying SCT to help reduce systemic barriers to medical and health education. The project is
scalable with the potential for local, regional, and national programs all of which, in the long term, will
contribute to a more equitable society, where people of all backgrounds and identities have access to relevant
and quality healthcare.