Diversity Hub

Promoting Underrepresented Minorities Advancing in the Sciences (PUMAS) is a paid biomedical research internship program funded by an NIH/NHLBI grant. PUMAS aims to identify community college students from disadvantaged background who currently live in the Bay Area. During the program, PUMAS interns are paired with a scientific mentor and work on an individual research project in one of our laboratories. PUMAS interns work part-time (20–25 hours per week) over the course of 8-weeks and participate in a final poster session where they present their research findings to the scientific community here at Gladstone and UCSF.

The GAPA Foundation Scholarship provides financial assistance to API LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer) students who are in the process of applying to, or are currently attending, a post-secondary institution. The purpose of the GAPA Foundation Scholarship is to provide financial assistance to Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students in high school; undergraduate, graduate or professional school; or trade or vocational school who are interested in activism in the API and LGBTQ communities.

This grant mechanism provides support for senior fellows, instructors, assistant, associate and full professor faculty from historically disenfranchised racial and ethnic groups that are under-represented in health sciences, or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The goal is to encourage fellows and faculty from these groups to remain in academia as career professionals and thus to increase the diversity of our faculty. Research can be any area relevant to clinical and translational research which includes bench-to-bedside/laboratory-to-human (T1) translational research, clinical research and bedside-to-community/evidence-to-practice (T2/T3) research. Social, behavioral and economic research as it affects health is included. If not directly involving the study of people or populations, the proposed research must be clearly justified as being on the path to potential use in humans.

PRIME hosts 4-5 health pipeline organizations to come and visit the UCSF campus during the summer. We have current partners that we invite, Mentoring in Medicine and Science, Huckleberry Youth Wellness Academy, San Francisco State Summer Science Institute, FACES for the Future. PRIME students work with the coordinators of the pipeline programs to develop a site visit that is in line with the interests of their programs. Some typical activities include a tour, a medical student panel, specimen/organ hands-on activity. Each program visits UCSF once for about 3 hours.

The Innovators in Young Women's Health Program (Innovators) is a 10-month health and leadership training program which empowers young women to create a project that uniquely addresses young women's health needs specific to their school community. Innovators are hired by the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health. Innovators is based on a positive youth development approach that emphasizes each girl's strengths and / assets. Working in teams, students develop a project for their school and implement it with the assistance of an adult ally in the school (wellness center staff, nurse, teacher, etc.). Innovators concludes in May with a celebration during which each team presents their projects.

The Youth Steering Committee (YSC) is a young women's health and leadership program for a group of diverse high school girls from SF public and charter schools. The YSC works together for 9 months to explore young women's health issues and to create a health & leadership summit for other high school girls. The YSC is based on a positive youth development philosophy which emphasizes the strengths and assets of young women and encourages them to see themselves as leaders among their peers, within their schools, and throughout their community. The YSC is designed to be a safe place where young women can come together to share their thoughts and ideas, develop self-confidence, and build leadership skills.

The Visiting Scholars Program (VSP) is a funded program designed to give students with a diverse background a chance to experience the training that the University of Washington Department of Medicine has to offer. Students will spend four weeks on an internal medicine elective at the University of Washington Medical Center or Harborview Medical Center and care for a variety of patients in our tertiary care centers. Near the completion of the elective students will be offered an opportunity to interview with the internal medicine residency program. Accepted applicants will receive funding for their travel and lodging expenses.

The Summer Research Program provides research opportunities in the biomedical and biological sciences. Students selected for summer research at UC San Francisco spend up to ten weeks working with UCSF faculty members on research projects. Participants in the program take part in seminars, lectures, and social events, creating a cohesive and supportive community. At the end of the program, students give presentations of their research and get valuable feedback from students, postdocs, and faculty at UCSF. Students are supported in these programs by funds from the AMGEN Scholars Program, the National Science Foundation, Genentech, the University of California Office of the President, and UCSF Graduate Division.

In partnership with Howard University, undergraduate students participate in SRTP programming focused on the reduction of oral health disparities.

he National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Fellows and Affiliates Program at UCSF is designed to support historically underrepresented and marginalized PhD students in basic science graduates programs. UCSF’s first IMSD grant was awarded in 1997, which supports selected students in the first two years of their graduate studies. To date, over 100 students have benefited from an IMSD Fellows and Affiliates Program at UCSF.