Diversity Hub

We in the department of Neurosurgery are working in partnership with the non-profit organization Oasis for Girls to offer paid internship programs for underserved high school female youth of color (ages 14-18) to expose them to medical and healthcare professional careers with mentorship, career path exploration, and professional development through hospital rotations in labs, the OR, and other academic or healthcare locations, with research projects, presentations, and interactive activities. We accept a group of 15-18 youth per cycle with 3 application / intern cycles per year. We are expanding our programs to reach other demographics (e.g. young Black males, LGBTQ+ youth, college pre-med students). Altogether these programs are housed under the title Neurosurgery Community Internship Programs (NCIP).

RIDR is a research and academic career development program funded by the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and developed by the department's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. We provide unique research experiences and focused mentorship to students from diverse backgrounds. Our goal is to provide an early opportunity for students to explore radiology as a career choice and support the next wave of innovation in our field.

Inside UCSF is an annual outreach program geared towards students at two- and four-year degree schools who are interested in pursuing careers in health and science. This interprofessional opportunity is designed to: introduce students to a specific health science career path; provide opportunities to meet with students and faculty; and offer a chance to become inspired about future career possibilities.

The University of California at San Francisco with Kaiser Permanente, Northern California will offer summer research internships to Undergraduates at UC Berkeley who will still be enrolled after the program in women's health, pediatrics, family and community medicine, and internal medicine to undergraduate students enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley who are planning to attend medical school after graduation, and who have an interest in women's health, pediatrics, or primary care. Students have to be enrolled in the fall of 2014 at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate. Seniors graduating in Spring 2015 are not eligible to apply.

The UC Davis - UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME) is an innovative approach to training future physicians, a pathway that will emphasize quality of care anchored in community-based research and educational experiences. The diversity of the San Joaquin Valley, including health systems, diverse patient populations and broad community partnerships, is a core component of the effort to improve the health and health care of the region. The SJV PRIME program is a collaboration between the UC Davis School of Medicine, UC Merced and UCSF Fresno, to train the next generation of San Joaquin Valley physicians. It seeks to increase the diversity of the medical profession and remedy the uneven distribution of physicians in California. SJV PRIME is a tailored clinical track at the UC Davis School of Medicine for medical students who are committed to ensuring high quality, diverse and well distributed medical care to improve health for populations, communities, and individuals in California's San Joaquin Valley.

SF BUILD is a program based at San Francisco State (SFSU) in partnership with UCSF. The overall goal of SF BUILD is to enhance diversity of the biomedical research workforce by transforming teaching and research environments at SFSU. This is done through activities at the institutional, faculty and student levels - at both institutions. SF BUILD activities are designed to reduce and even eliminate stereotype threat, which occurs when individuals experience worry about the possibility of confirming a negative stereotype about their gender and/or ethnicity. These concerns have been documented to lead to underperformance in the classroom, and even to early exist from the biomedical research field. Our approach is to create changes at the institutional level (also at UCSF), so that all students perform to their true potential and feel engaged, supported and that they belong. SF BUILD works across both institutions and involves faculty from different schools, departments and divisions. This project is funded by the NIH.

The Pediatric Diversity Committee is committed to recruiting and supporting pediatric residents, fellows, and faculty underrepresented in medicine, as well as fostering a culture that promotes and values diversity through community, education, training, and research.

MedLink is a partnership between UCSF medical students, SFUSD, OUSD and community organizations. Our mission is to inspire and support high school students from communities that are under-represented in the health professions through mentorship and hands-on activities in the health sciences. We envision a future in which healthcare workers come from backgrounds that are as ethnically and economically diverse as the communities they serve.

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.