ODME Undergraduate Programs Celebrate 25 Years of Pre-Health Student Success in 2024

In 2024, the Office of Diversity in Medical Education will welcome home several hundred undergraduate program alumni for a 25-year anniversary celebration. 

The office is conducting alumni outreach to participants from the following programs:

Stanford Premedical Summer Program (SPSP)
Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP)
Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program (SSCCPP)
Stanford Summer Community College Research Program (SSCCrP)
Leadership Education for Aspiring Physicians Program (LEAP) 

If you are an alum of any of the programs, please take a moment to take our brief (7-minute) alumni update survey and let us know if you are interested in joining the celebration next year! 

Please visit this page for updates regarding the alumni event in 2024 and other announcements regarding ODME undergraduate programs and alumni. 

The Office of Diversity in Medical Education is launching several initiatives that deepen engagement with undergraduate program alumni: 

ODME Undergraduate Programs Alumni Association - Our alumni are mobilizing to support each other throughout the health professions continuum through institutional connections and opportunities, networking, and professional development. Please provide your contact information if you are interested in learning more about the association and upcoming meetings. 

ODME Undergraduate Programs Alumni Mentorship Program - Ben Carvalho (LEAP 2017, USC SOM MS 3) is leading efforts to launch a mentorship program among undergraduate program alumni as a strategy to help our community better navigate medicine and the health professions. Please provide your contact information if you are interested in joining the program as a mentor or mentee. 

You now have a whole community willing to bear the weight with you. Welcome to the family, guys; I am so excited to witness your brilliance.

In her keynote to the 2023 Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program (SSCCPP) class, Tasneem Sadok (SSCCPP 2017) advised the new alumni, "The program is utter magic. For maybe the first time in your healthcare journey, you epeirenced what it was like to hold far off milestones tangibly in your hands. You got a peek behind the curtains of complex ideas like research, political advocacy, and patient care. You met people who aligned with you on a common mission. Every bit of this experience further invigorated you, further crystallized your specific vision for your future, and swelled you with the quietly growing confidence of its feasibility. The program is utter magic, so much so that when you leave you may feel like it was simply a nice dream.

We all go home to something after SSCCPP. It may be an under-resourced school. It may be financial hardship.  It may be overbearing responsibilities at home. It may be institutional discrimination. It may be a community that no longer provides a productive influence on your path. It may be grief and death. Given enough time, entropy will take over and it will become extremely difficult not to succumb to old habits and limited ways of thinking. Do yourself the favor while this experience is still fresh on your mind to develop your tethers, hone the details of your dream, and set yourself up for success with a plan of action. SSCCPP gifts you a lot but it also may feel like a lot placed squarely on your shoulders. It is not. You now have a whole community willing to bear the weight with you. Welcome to the family guys, I am so excited to witness your brilliance.

Warmly, Tasneem