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Over the summer, I had a chance to participate in the Summer Health Professions Education Program (better known as SHPEP). It provides minorities of all classes (i.e., race, gender, and poverty) with resources, professional school preview, and shadowing experiences.

There are many different sites at colleges and universities across the country; I was accepted into the one at the University of Florida. The '17 SHPEP-ers were the guinea pigs and were exposed to more than just the dental pathway as it had been previously done (SMDEP). I learned about healthcare careers I had never heard of before. Every week there was something to look forward to and people working on the program were really big about feedback to improve SHPEP for years to come.

My favorite part of the program was either our case study project or the . During the case study project, students from different pre-professional pathways (Pre-Public Health, Medical, Dental, Pharmacy) were grouped together to analyze a case similar to the cases healthcare professional teams would usually see. As of the disaster training, we faced a scenario of a mass casualty event and got to practice various emergency responses.

SHPEP was a truly valuable learning experience for those going into, or even considering any healthcare profession. It really allowed us to understand the importance of inter-professional education and collaboration.