The Power of the Summer Healthcare Experience Program — 10 Years Later

In 2014, 36 young high school women entered as the inaugural participants in the UCI Summer Healthcare Experience Program. Ten years later, over 300 young women have joined the ever-growing cohort of Summer Healthcare Experience Program graduates.

The program is a weeklong pathway experience at the UC Irvine School of Medicine designed to inspire and empower young high school students to pursue career opportunities in healthcare with a focus on women’s health. Aimed at closing the healthcare leadership disparity between women and men, where in 2019 only 15% of medical school deans were women, the Summer Healthcare Experience Program educates, mentors and supports young students in a crucial time of career development.

“Healthcare is a career that has many opportunities, allows you to make a difference in your community and has flexibility,” said Nimisha Parekh, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine, and founder and director of the UCI Health Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program. “The Summer Healthcare Experience Program is about education and supporting growth and empowerment of young people for a brighter future for all."

The program’s decade-long success starts with its diverse, competitive and highly meritorious participants, and primarily serves high schools in the Southern California area, a racially and economically diverse region. Participant selection mirrors this diversity. To make this a reality, nearly one-third of program participants receive full scholarships based on a demonstrated financial need.

“The scholarship I received from the Summer Healthcare Experience Program made it possible for me to attend this program in the first place,” said a program graduate. “Without this support, participating in such a transformative experience would have been out of reach for me. The scholarship not only granted me the opportunity to explore healthcare careers in such a hands-on and personalized way, but it also served as a catalyst for my academic and professional journey.”

Unlike programs that narrow their focus on a single topic, the Summer Healthcare Experience Program curriculum introduces participants to a wide range of topics from a diverse group of healthcare professionals. There are panels that include physicians, nurses, physical therapists, geneticists, social workers, researchers and women healthcare leaders. There are talks on networking, habits of highly effective people and healthy lifestyles. There are mock interviews, college counseling, and group projects that allow students to display their creativity. Everything is designed to educate participants on the complexity and rewarding opportunities throughout the healthcare sector.

“Not only does the program empower young students to pursue careers in healthcare, but it also shows them how to do so and what it will be like,” said another program graduate. “The speakers are truly incredible, and the program influenced me in such a way that I felt I could make decisions for college based on all the knowledge I learned about the different fields in healthcare.”

Most important to the Summer Healthcare Experience Program curriculum, beyond the talks and panels, is the mentorship and direct access to women healthcare leaders and medical student ambassadors. This interaction is crucial to the program’s core mission, because if the participants witness that one can do it, every young student in attendance can too.

“The Summer Healthcare Experience Program gives students the courage and the bravery to pursue careers in healthcare that they would otherwise refrain from without having strong examples of females doing the impossible,” said a program graduate.

As of 2024, from a survey of previous graduates, over 90% are pursuing careers in the healthcare field. Among those working, over half reported having jobs in the healthcare sector, from clinical researchers and medical assistants to emergency room scribes and pharmacy workers. The majority are still full-time college students with bright careers ahead of them.

For 10 years and counting, the program has demonstrated to young high school students that the impossible is within their grasp. Now those young students are taking these lessons and transforming them into a reality. That is the power of the Summer Healthcare Experience.

Article by T.J. Kennedy, Health Sciences Compensation Plan Manager, UC Irvine School of Medicine