Minority High School Students Learn About Health Care Careers Through Innovative Hospital Program
Fifteen Long Island Seniors Slated to Graduate from HOPE Program on May 10
STONY BROOK, N.Y.
, May 5, 2011 – The Health Occupations Partnership for Excellence (HOPE) – a small program that offers big opportunities for success in healthcare careers for underserved high school students from five Long Island school districts – will hold its annual graduation ceremony at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, in the Galleria of the Health Sciences Center on the Medical Center campus of Stony Brook University.
The HOPE program will hold its annual graduation ceremony for 15 seniors who have completed the three-year program, which is designed to provide healthcare career exposure to underrepresented students. A total of 35 high school juniors and seniors are currently participating in the HOPE program from five Long Island school districts: Longwood, Riverhead, Brentwood, Wyandanch and Center Moriches.
Stony Brook faculty from a variety of disciplines provide the HOPE students with educational sessions and tours of hospital facilities during a 30-week program that takes place throughout the school year. Students are assigned to hospital mentors during their senior year and have the opportunity to participate in volunteer activities as well.
Since its launch in 2005, the HOPE program has witnessed outstanding results, with 100 percent of its graduates enrolling in college after completing high school. HOPE graduates have enrolled at colleges that include Duke University, Boston University, Howard University, Stony Brook University, the University of Virginia and the University of Vermont, to name a few.
The HOPE program is coordinated through the Community Relations Department at Stony Brook University Medical Center (SBUMC). Applications for entry into the program are competitive, with a focus on developing promising high school students from underserved, racially and ethnically diverse communities.
HOPE is part of SBUMC’s Health Initiative for Underserved Communities, which strives to work closely with grassroots organizations to improve access to care, provide community health education programs and screenings, and support efforts to meet the needs of people living in underserved communities.
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ABOUT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER:
Stony Brook University Medical Center is Long Island’s only university-based academic medical center. It serves as the region’s only tertiary care center and Level 1 Trauma Center, and is home to the Stony Brook University Heart Center, Cancer Center, the Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital, the Institute for Advanced Neurosciences, and the Gastroenterology Program. Stony Brook provides Suffolk County’s only Level 4 Regional Perinatal Center, state-designated AIDS Center, state-designated Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, state-designated Burn Center, the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence, and Kidney Transplant Center. It is home of the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. To learn more, visit
www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org
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