AZ-HOPE receives $3.2M HRSA grant to support future health care professionals

Arizona Health Opportunities Pathways to Excellence, a program of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, received a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their dreams of becoming health care professionals.

Arizona Health Opportunities Pathways to Excellence, or AZ-HOPE, is a collaboration between academic and community partners to support students’ educational endeavors and help them overcome barriers on the pathway to becoming health professionals. It is designed to support individuals from economically or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, with special emphasis on individuals from rural and medically underserved communities.

“The financial difficulties many students face while pursuing advanced degrees are daunting, often forcing students to cut back on classes and struggle to make ends meet,” said principal investigator Francisco Moreno, MD, associate vice president for diversity and inclusion at UArizona Health Sciences. “Students from rural and disadvantaged communities tend to face these issues in disproportionate amounts, and on top of this they tend to live in educationally disadvantaged school districts, which leads to challenges in competitive preparation for admission into health profession programs.”

AZ-HOPE programs include:

• AZ-HOPE Ambassadors, a multiyear academic development program that provides learning support services, mentoring, counseling and financial assistance for students.
• Med-Start Health Careers Program, a six-week residential summer academic achievement and health career exploration program for high school juniors from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Bridge, a five-week summer transition program for students entering the University of Arizona.
• Border Latino and American Indian Summer Exposure to Research (BLAISER), a 10-week research experience that pairs junior and senior undergraduate students with UArizona Health Sciences researchers.
• Focusing Research on the Border Area (FRONTERA), a summer internship that matches graduate and undergraduate students with faculty mentors engaged in biomedical and public health research that has an impact on border communities.

The award is a renewal of an earlier HRSA grant that allowed AZ-HOPE to fund 311 future health care students with 454 stipends and scholarships totaling $1.3 million. Of the students who received funds, 86% were of a race or ethnicity that is underrepresented in health care professions, and 47% were from rural and border areas.

“These students are the ones who are most needed to help address the health care needs of the most challenged communities,” said Moreno, who also is a professor of psychiatry at the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

“This renewal presents us with an extraordinary opportunity to build upon the amazing partnerships and experiences gained over the past five years.”

AZ-HOPE recruits a variety of students and aspiring students, including high school juniors and seniors, adult nontraditional learners, community college students, military veterans and undergraduate students who want to pursue degrees in health professions, as well as graduate students who are working toward post-baccalaureate programs.

AZ-HOPE supported in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration under award no. D18HP32129.