Community Involvement

Outreach to Underrepresented Students

We encourage applications from students from groups underrepresented in medicine. MSTP faculty and trainees visit and interact with prospective applicants at schools that have substantial numbers of URM students. We have contacts with Premed Advisors at UC Riverside, UC Los Angeles, UC Santa Cruz, Universities of New Mexico and Arizona, California State University at San Diego, Chico, Sonoma, San Francisco, San José, Fresno, Fullerton, Dominguez Hills, and Long Beach--all schools with substantial numbers of URM students.

MSTP representatives (students, faculty and staff) attend activities that are geared toward URM participation, including Minority Recruitment Fairs, SACNAS, the Medical and Allied Health Careers Conference, The California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education, the Minority Trainee Research Forum and the National Minority Research Symposium, and the ABRCMS recruitment conference. Dr. Insel has made presentations to the URM-oriented Health Professions Program at UC San Diego and several MSTP students participate in conferences targeted to URM students. We have learned it is important for student "recruiters" to stay in contact with possible applicants and invite them for visits to UC San Diego. Such contacts have led to applications (and in some cases, ultimately matriculation) in our MSTP by applicants from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.

Outreach to High School Students

We also work with other UC San Diego outreach and grad programs, including the Preuss School, a charter school located adjacent to the UC San Diego campus. The UC San Diego SOM Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE) supports the development of scientific knowledge and research skills of Hispanic students so as to increase the number of Hispanic health professionals and faculty in health profession schools — HCOE medical students have research experiences that include research as well as presentations of research papers.