For more than a decade, the Summer Medical Education Program (SMDEP) has helped committed students prepare for medical school - and the medical school application process.
SMDEP is a FREE, six-week summer program, offering eligible students intensive, and personalized, medical school preparation. In addition, students get a look at their future in medicine by immersing themselves in the clinical environment at a busy teaching hospital. A well established and well respected academic enrichment program, SMDEP is offered around the country.
SMDEP is a program of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), whose mission, to improve the health of all Americans, is fulfilled by providing grants that explore many possible solutions to society's most pressing health problems. RWJF launched SMDEP in 1989 to address the nation's continuing need for a diverse physician workforce. Medicine offers one of the most professionally, and personally satisfying careers in our society. Yet, today, Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, among others, are underrepresented in the medical profession. While these groups make up nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population, these three groups together comprise only 9 percent of the nation's doctors. At the same time, the nation's population is becoming increasingly diverse, and America's need for physicians who reflect that diversity is now greater than ever.
By helping minority students become more competitive candidates for medical school, the SMDEP works to increase the number of minority physicians nationwide. Now, 12 years later, more than 9,179 students have participated in SMDEP. Of those that have applied to medical school, 63 percent have been accepted.
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