SHPEP?…Yep!

Have you heard about SHPEP? When I was a pre-med student, it was called SMDEP and it was amazing! I hear that, despite the name change, it’s still just as awesome and just as helpful to your pre-med journey and preparation for a career in healthcare as it was for me years ago. 

SHPEP stands for Summer Health Professions Education Program (formally Summer Medical and Dental Education Program). It’s a free enrichment program that you can attend the summer after your freshman or sophomore year of college. SHPEP exposes participants to career opportunities in healthcare, provides academic enrichment, teaches study skills, and helps with the admission process and making sure students have a good undergraduate plan, among other important skills. In short, SHPEP gives you a leg up on the process. Positions are available to freshmen and sophomores with a GPA of at least 2.5. One of the main factors for consideration is students who “identify with a group that is racially/ethnically underrepresented in medicine”…FYI, that’s us—read the Purpose section of the website if you need more detail about our underrepresentation in medicine.

When not in the midst of COVID-craziness, SHPEP is offered in-person at various institutions across the country (currently at Columbia, Howard, Rutgers, UAB, University of Florida, University of Iowa, University of Louisville, University of Nebraska, UCLA/Charles Drew University, UT Houston, University of Washington, and Western University). So, you can imagine that this could be quite a nice opportunity to travel a little bit in your college summer but…COVID threw a bit of a wrench in that. Fortunately, this past year they transitioned to virtual and it was successful so they are offering that option this summer as well. 

In the summer after my sophomore year at Duke, I spent my 6-weeks at Howard University (HU!) with some of the most amazing students from around the country. We were introduced to upper level science classes we would take in later undergraduate years, got individualized advice about our particular interest and how to achieve our goals, we got shadowing hours, and (importantly) we got to see people in the healthcare field whose stories and backgrounds were similar to ours. And we KICKED IT in DC, let’s be real. In a word, it was amazing. Not only was the program curriculum great, but the fact that there’s some commonality in the students who attend also makes it a wonderful experience. I still keep in touch with some of my SMDEP classmates, all these years later. Since that summer at Howard, I’ve been to their probates, met up with them when we happened to be in the same city, been to their weddings, etc. Basically, I made friends for life. And it’s been a pleasure to watch them become physicians, dentists, psychologists, etc. 

I’d planned to talk about SHPEP later, but it looks like time is of the essence. As a matter of fact, the application is due on February 5^th. Yeah, that’s this Friday. If you’re a Sophomore and you’ve already applied, fantastic, and I wish you the best of luck on being accepted. If you think you could somehow get everything done quickly, the application materials include the app, an essay, your official transcript, and one letter of recommendation. 

If you’ve never heard of SHPEP before reading this, then that is why Melanin Mentor, MD exists. I want Black pre-med students to know programs like this are out there. Unfortunately, I just started this blog on yesterday or I would’ve told you all months ago! If you’ve applied or somehow can manage to get an application in before Friday, power to you. If you haven’t or can’t and are eligible next year (meaning you’re a Freshman now) I will be sure to remind you as soon as I know that it is open for the 2022 cycle.

If you’re ineligible to apply this year or cannot make the deadline, don’t worry. There are many things you can do this summer to gain valuable experience and strengthen your application, like research, community service, clinical exposure, etc. We’ll discuss all these in upcoming posts.

Have you done any great summer programs in previous years that you think other Black pre-med students should be aware of? If so, share them below!