CDU Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP)

CDU HCOP Program

I. OVERVIEW:

The CDU Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) is an exciting, supportive pipeline that offers our ambassadors the opportunity to serve the local community, expand their network, foster well-being, and benefit from scholarships. Our hope is that HCOP prepares ambassadors to enter a health profession, feeling confident in their ability to succeed. Being selected for the CDU HCOP Ambassador Program means that you have demonstrated the ability to be determined, mastered time management, maintained academic excellence, and set high career and personal development goals.

II. PROGRAM COMPONENTS

CDU HCOP includes several programs, each with their own developed curriculum and program components that support students’ efforts towards entering health careers.

  • CDU HCOP Ambassador Program: The Ambassador Academy is a year-long, pipeline program offered to undergraduate and graduate students that includes mentorship, networking, workshops,  and primary care exposure.
    • Clinical experiences including clinical trainings, physician shadowing, participation in street medicine events, and virtual patient-physician simulations
    • Public health opportunities with the Community Health Worker Academy (CHWA)
    • Weekly workshops focused on professional, academic, personal, and clinical skill building
    • 1:1 Case Management
    • Mentorship with a professional in their health career of interest
    • Intentional efforts to foster student wellness
    • Scholarships
    • Stipends
  • CDU HCOP Summer Institute: A 6-week structured summer program offered to undergraduate and graduate students that involves clinical, research, and leadership experience modules.
    • Regular health equity and professional development workshops focusing on a spectrum of public health issues
    • Virtual clinical cases and workshops
    • Community based research and community improvement projects
    • Stipends
  • Student Opportunities to Advance Research (SOAR): A year-long opportunity for undergraduate and master’s students to engage in research efforts addressing health disparities.
    • All students who participate in SOAR are assigned a faculty member who will help guide their research efforts
    • Programming includes regular workshops focused on enhancing research skills
  • Public Health Careers Academy (PHCA): A year-long program for high school students interested in improving community health through public health professions.
    • Engagement in mentorship, tutoring, and a paid, community-based internship
    • Students participate in two college credit-granting courses in public health and mental health
  • Community Health Worker Academy (CHWA): A year-long opportunity for undergraduate and master’s students to engage in a public health experience.
    • Students will understand organizational rReadiness & common challenges that clinics and CHWs experience while integrating CHWs within clinical settings
    • Students will develop workshop planning, facilitation skills, and collaboration skills
    • Students will create a workshop/presentation outline that includes content, group activities, opportunities to share facilitator expertise, and resources for presentation development
  • Mobile Health Outreach Program: A year-long opportunity for undergraduate and master’s students to engage in a clinical experience.

III. STUDENT OUTCOMES (from 2019-2022):

  • 49% of students in public/clinical health roles
  • 62% of students to obtain health career graduate/professional degrees
  • 64% of high school students have matriculated to college/university
  • 100% of our SOAR students presented their research at professional conferences