HOPE: AN OPTIMISTIC EFFORT TO STEER KIDS TOWARD SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

David Gordon, cardiovascular pathologist at Parke-Davis and adjunct associate professor of pathology, explains some of the models in the plastination lab to Scotty Greene (center), a student at West Middle School, and Eric Chanowski, an Ypsilanti High School student.

Ypsilanti high school and middle school students spent their Saturday mornings this spring exploring careers in health care during a series of workshops organized by the Health Occupations Partners in Education (HOPE) Program.

“Our Saturday morning workshops feature presentations, activities and tours by nurses, sports trainers, paramedics, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, research scientists and public health directors, says Linda Cunningham, HOPE‘s program director. “We try to provide information and help students stay focused on what they need to do now to prepare for a future career as a health care professional or technician. But we want the workshops to be fun, too, so we emphasize hands-on, interactive activities.”

HOPE was created in fall 1998 when the Medical School, in conjunction with six other U-M schools and colleges, the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, community groups and private industry joined forces with educators and administrators in the Ypsilanti Public Schools. Their common goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who pursue health care careers. While the program is geared to minority students, all middle and high school students in the Ypsilanti Public School District are eligible to participate.

The program is part of a nationwide initiative instituted by the American Association of Medical Colleges.

“The number of Black, Latino and Native American students interested in healthrelated careers decreases every year from elementary school on,” says Lisa A. Tedesco, a professor of dentistry and co-principal investigator, with Dean Allen Lichter, for the HOPE program. “HOPE‘s goal is to develop a successful model for how to recruit qualified minority students into the health professions and sustain their participation through the critical middle school and high school years,” adds Tedesco, who also is vice president and secretary of the University.

The HOPE Program is funded by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the Project 3000 by 2000 Health Professions Partnership initiative, with matching funding from the U-M partner schools and Parke-Davis.

For more information about the HOPE Program, contact Linda Cunningham at lindacc@umich.edu