Health Profession Pathways Initiative

The Health Profession Pathways Initiative is an effort to build more equitable curricular and co-curricular experiences and outcomes for students historically underrepresented in health professions.

Silhouette of Minnesota with each UMN Campus noted

The Pre-Health Student Resource Center spearheaded this system-wide initiative in Oct 2018, by bringing together a system-wide task force that has been working together to:

  • identify implementable strategies to reduce or eliminate barriers that students face
  • develop enrichment opportunities for students and the larger UMN community, and
  • strengthen collaboration in student support services for pre-health students from underrepresented populations

Collaborating Across Campus and the U of M System

The Health Profession Pathways Initiative seeks to form broad, collaborative relationships with University of Minnesota programs on all system campuses that are already serving students from a variety of underrepresented populations. 

Some examples of these programs on the U of M - Twin Cities campus include President’s Emerging Scholars, TRIO Student Support Services, TRIO McNair Scholars, the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence, the MLK Advising Program, the North Star STEM Alliance, to name a few.

A Brief Overview of the HPPI

  • An overarching goal of the HPPI is to contribute to building a diverse health workforce in the state of Minnesota.
  • The work of the HPPI has built productive relationships across all 5 UMN system campuses.
  • The HPPI Task Force examined the landscape of current support services for pre-health students, as well as diagnosing gaps and strategies to address them.
  • The Task Force also deliberated extensively to identify and analyze the range of barriers pre-health students face, in order to ensure that future strategies align with the needs of the student population.
  • One outcome of the work of the Task Force is that the Pre-Health Student Resource Center implemented two new student programs during 2019-2020, the First-Gen Pre-Health Workshop Series and the Pre-Health LEAD program

Seeking Mentors 

The Pre Health Student Resource Center, through the Health Professions Pathway Initiative, is looking for mentors and coaches for pre-health students coming from communities historically underrepresented in the health professions.

The long-term goal is to have a collection of faculty, staff, and students from across the health sciences committed to diversifying the health workforce who can provide mentorship, coaching, or even just advice for pre-health students. As we identify faculty, staff, and students we will build a more formal way for students and mentors to interact.

If you are interested in being involved, or learning more, you can fill out this short form. You will be contacted soon after by PHSRC staff.