UH Manoa health program launches summer experience

Building the next generation of health-care professionals

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Jun 17, 2009

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) will kick off a 10-day summer residential experience on Sunday, June 21, for twenty-six public high school sophomores and juniors interested in becoming health professionals.

The first program is an overnight experience on the USS Missouri, where students will meet with Congressman Neil Abercrombie and his aide Terry Visperas, a former HCOP participant.

Throughout the 10-day program, students will participate in problem-based learning classes, similar to those that are taught at the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine. They will meet health professionals from various careers in medicine, nursing, bio-medical research, public health, and social work.

Students will receive instruction on time management, financial literacy, college course planning and research skills. Between classes, they will also visit area health clinics, go hiking, and participate in a service learning project on Mokauea Island on Saturday, June 27, from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

The participants were recruited from underrepresented groups from the Leeward Coast, urban Honolulu and Kauai. To be eligible for the program, students must be from an economically or educationally disadvantaged background. To date, more than 250 students have participated in HCOP programs.

HCOP was first established in 2000 as a grant from the Health Resources and
Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Health
Careers Diversity. It became a UH Manoa program under Student Equity, Excellence & Diversity (SEED) in 2008, with funding from the Hawaiʻi State Legislature.

SEED oversees programs that recruit, and provide support and retention services for underrepresented students in higher education. Its programs touch the lives of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs.