The Medical Professions Institute is the center on campus for students who wish to pursue postgraduate studies at medical, dental, veterinary, physician assistant, or optometry school. It provides a wide range of services to some 500 advisees, with outreach to several hundred more area youth. Services include junior high, high school, and community college outreach, academic support and advising, professional development, MCAT preparation, community service, personal growth, and leadership.
Institution:
University of Texas at El Paso
Academic Level:
Baccalaureate
Issue Area:
Access
Year:
2009
Designation:
Examples of Excelencia
Designation:
Finalist
Key Personnel:
Ekal, Donna
Address:
University of Texas at El Paso
Address 2:
500 W. University Avenue
City:
El Paso
State:
TX
Zip:
79968 Website:
Goal/Mission:
In 2002, UTEP created the Medical Professions Institute (MPI) to work with students who are interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in medical, dental, veterinarian, optometry, or physician assistant school. As a Texas border institution, UTEP realizes the challenges and opportunities we have to educate the Latino population across all majors and colleges. We especially, however, appreciate the need for Latino health care professionals to serve the growing numbers of Hispanic residents as well as to address the growing disparity of health care for Hispanics, especially along the border.
Outcome:
By 2007-five years after MPI was launched-UTEP had become the number two undergraduate institution in the United States, preparing Mexican American applicants to U.S. medical schools. We have had students accepted to summer programs at Yale, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, University of Washington, Cornell, Columbia, Baylor, Boston University, and Stanford. Acceptance to these universities exposes UTEP students to the world and exposes these institutions to the high caliber of students at UTEP. The following figures represent results for one year. 2009-2010: Applicants 62. Acceptances to date 26. Increase from 2008-09: Applicants 22%. Acceptances to date 42%. Participant ethnicity: Applicants 73% Latino/a. Accpetances to date 77% Latino/a.
Notes:
General Phone Number: (915) 747-6260
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