Youth project reaches
out through high school workshops, Web site
BY TIM STEPHENS
A new outreach program,
with a Web site and high school workshops to start this
year, is expanding the number of low-income high school
students who benefit from the Stanford Medical Youth
Science Program (SMYSP).
Now in its 11th year,
SMYSP's summer academic program has been highly
successful in helping disadvantaged high school students
go to college and pursue careers in the health
professions. Increased demand for the program has made
broadening its reach a top priority, said Mailee
Ferguson, executive director of SMYSP.
"Each year we accept
23 students into our summer program, but we receive more
than 300 applications from students who want to
participate," Ferguson said.
The new outreach program
will make SMYSP's resources more widely available,
starting with a Web site that students can access through
their high school libraries or local public libraries. A
second component of the outreach program will send former
SMYSP students and other volunteers into selected high
schools to lead interactive workshops on college
preparation and careers in health care.
"Many students from
low-income backgrounds have little access to counselors
and other sources of information about college
preparation and health career opportunities, while we [at
SMYSP] have all this useful information that we've been
giving to students in our program for the past 10
years," Ferguson said.
"We want to keep the
workshops simple enough that past participants can take
the curriculum and do outreach at underserved high
schools near them," she added. "A lot of this
has been going on informally, but we want to give them
useful material and information that they can pass on to
students."
In addition to mobilizing
SMYSP alumni to take part in the high school visits,
program organizers hope to recruit Stanford faculty,
medical students and undergraduates to serve as guest
speakers and workshop leaders at local schools.
"We've talked to several pre-med organizations [on
campus] and to some medical students who have expressed
interest, and we would love to get some faculty involved
in the workshops," said Kate Lupton, SMYSP outreach
coordinator. (For information on volunteering, call
Lupton or Ferguson at 498-4514.)
Lupton is putting together
the new Web site, which she plans to have up and running
by May. The site will provide tips on college preparation
and financial aid, career guidance for the health
professions, and other information drawn from the summer
program, she said. It will also include profiles of past
participants in the summer program.
"We're trying to make
the information on the Web site as complete as
possible," said Lupton. "It's always difficult
to pick the 23 students who participate in our summer
program ... and this allows us to share our resources
with other students."
The information Lupton is
compiling for the web site will also be used to create a
curriculum for the workshops, to be held during the
school year starting in September. SMYSP staff have been
contacting local schools and organizations to identify
promising sites for launching this part of the outreach
program, Lupton said.
"The first year we'll
probably focus on a few schools and youth organizations,
and then we can expand from there," Ferguson said.
SMYSP was founded in 1987
by two Stanford undergraduates together with Marilyn
Winkleby, a senior research scientist in the Stanford
Center for Research in Disease Prevention. Its aim is to
increase the number of health care professionals who
understand the social, cultural and physical needs of
low-income and ethnic minority populations.
The five-week summer
residential program currently draws students from more
than 200 urban and rural high schools in northern
California. It is almost entirely staffed by Stanford
graduates, who serve as dormitory counselors, arrange
guest lectures and coordinate program activities.
Ferguson, who worked on
the summer program for three years as a Stanford
undergraduate, was hired last August as SMYSP's first
full-time executive director. After graduating in 1996,
she spent one year at Indiana University on a fellowship,
learning about management and funding of nonprofit
organizations. "It was the perfect complement to my
knowledge of the program, and I came back with a lot of
ideas," she said.
Winkleby remains active in
the program as an adviser. "It was nice after 10
years of voluntarily directing the program to have the
financial stability to hire a full-time director ... and
it's incredibly gratifying to see this expansion of the
program," Winkleby said.
"[Ferguson] is
wonderful," she added. "She's just off and
running."
Winkleby credits SMYSP's
excellent track record with helping to ensure the
long-term viability of the program. Of the 216 graduates
of SMYSP since 1987, almost all have gone on to college
and about 80 percent have stayed in the health care
field, she said. One former participant recently
graduated from Harvard Medical School and returned to
Stanford to interview for a residency, Winkleby noted.
The program targets
students primarily on the basis of socioeconomic status
rather than ethnicity. "Our highest priority is to
reach highly disadvantaged youth who have academic
promise and who are excited about science and
medicine," Winkleby said. "That gives us ethnic
diversity, and because all students are from underserved
backgrounds they have a commonality among
themselves."
An evaluation and tracking
system allows the staff to keep in touch with
participants after the summer program and document their
progress. Being able to demonstrate how much students
have gained from the program is extremely helpful in
attracting funding, Winkleby said. The network of program
alumni, most of whom are now attending universities and
health professional schools throughout the country, also
serves as a valuable resource for the outreach program,
Ferguson said.
In August, SMYSP began
operating under the auspices of the School of Medicine's
Center of Excellence, which supports programs for
underrepresented minority students, as well as projects
focused on minority health care issues. The center
oversees the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP)
for undergraduate students and an early-matriculation
program for minority students entering the School of
Medicine.
"We now have a
pipeline of support for underserved students, starting in
high school," said Ferguson. "Three of last
year's HCOP students had been through our summer program
when they were in high school."
The SMYSP budget continues
to rely on independent funding through foundations and
individuals. The Packard Foundation has been a long-term
supporter and was instrumental from the beginning,
Winkleby said. Leo J. Hindery Jr. of Atherton has been a
generous individual donor, she added.
"It's wonderful to
see this expand into a year-round program for youths
throughout the United States," Winkleby said.
"Stanford School of Medicine now has the opportunity
to become recognized as a supporter of multiple,
complementary programs that are mentoring underserved
youth who are interested in entering the health
professions." SR
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