Historical Perspective:
Historically, racial and ethnic minorities have been underrepresented in the health professions in the United States. According to the Sullivan Commission, “the nation’s medical, nursing, and dental schools have not succeeded in their efforts to achieve greater diversity among their students and, in turn, to develop a health professions workforce with the skills and diversity needed to maintain the nation’s position as a world leader in health care. Even talented minority students who do succeed at primary, secondary, and collegiate levels, and who are committed to pursuing a career in one of the health professions, often find it difficult to gain admission to health professions schools.”
To access "Missing Persons: Minorities in Health Professions. A Report of the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, National Academy of Sciences," please click here.
Mission:
This program aims to improve the low matriculation and graduation rates in historically underrepresented students in the five healthcare schools at Stony Brook: the Renaissance School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, the School of Health Technology and Management, the School of Nursing, the School of Social Welfare and the Program in Public Health, by providing access to advising, mentoring, tutoring, shadowing, research opportunities and social services necessary in order to not only matriculate from Stony Brook University, but also successfully matriculate into health professions schools. Although the primary target would be matriculation into a Stony Brook Health Science School or program, the aim is for historically underrepresented students to not fall through the cracks and be provided the support needed to have competitive applications to the health professions schools of their choice.
