It started with a White Coat Ceremony in May and ended with a Pinning Ceremony in June, and the six weeks in between offered life-altering experiences and unprecedented access to educational resources at UF for 80 underrepresented and minority undergraduate college students from across the country.

Funded by a $415,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the UF Summer Health Professions Education Program, or UF SHPEP, made its debut at the UF Health academic health center campus this summer.

“For the first time, many of these students interacted with, and learned from, health care professionals who look like them and are doing the jobs they want to do,” said Michelle Jacobs, MD, assistant dean for diversity and health equity in the UF College of Medicine.