The Keck School of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) representatives would like to host a summer seminar series for underrepresented minority undergraduate students on a pre-medicine track. The is run by UIM students, for UIM students. We will address common questions that pre-medical students have about being able to successfully apply, and matriculate, to medical school. We aim to target pre-medical students in their freshman and sophomore years.

The format of each session will be a one-hour presentation on a topic relevant to the pre-medicine track, followed by smaller breakout rooms where the medical student facilitators will be able to answer the attendees’ questions. These topics will include, but are not limited to, the following:

-Required pre-medicine courses and helpful study tactics
-Common extracurricular activities of successful applicants (shadowing physicians, volunteering, clinical experiences, etc.)
-How to find research experiences as an undergraduate student
-Building relationships with professors and obtaining letters of recommendation

The AAMC defines underrepresented in medicine as “racial or ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population”.

While what is deemed underrepresented is continuously changing, we aim to predominantly reach groups designated as underrepresented by the AAMC which include: Black, Latinx, Native American/Indigenous, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian and Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indonesian, and Laotian) students. Students from other ethnic backgrounds not listed who fit the AAMC definition of underrepresented are still welcome to attend.

The seminar series will take place on Saturdays from 10am-12pm via Zoom.The sessions will take place on July 10th, July 17th, July 24th, and July 31st.