Helix Medical Summer Program 2020

Helix Medical was built on the premise of breaking educational barriers for marginalized and socioeconomically disadvantaged high school students to diversify the healthcare workforce. This goal culminates into a free 4 summer medical program that allows matriculants to gain a medical foundation through our core curriculum and clinical site visits that allow students explore health in a hospital, pre-hospital, and clinical setting.

For the past 2 summer programs, we have provided opportunities for over 40 amazing students to build a foundation in science and medicine. All 40 of our alumni, who carefully fill out required post-program feedback forms, have cited Helix as a contributing factor to their decision to continue healthcare education in the future. Every single eligible matriculant from the program has enrolled in college, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSD, and Helix hopes to inspire future cohorts to continue postsecondary education in the healthcare field.

Congratulations to our 2019 Summer Cohort! We dearly

miss you!

Future surgeons in our cohort eagerly showing off

their heart and brain dissections

To build off our summer program from the past summer, which featured a similar rendition of 4 weeks, we are enacting a more comprehensive curriculum and providing our cohort with seed funding to implement their Social Determinants of Health project that they present to Kaiser clinicians. Consequently, through crowdfunding, Helix intends for any financial contributions it receives to build a foundation for talented high school students lacking such educational resources to become the next generation of promising clinicians.

Jasmine, our Helix director, is explaining the SDOH project

Students hearing and sharing experiences with healthcare professionals from the Bay Area, including radiologist Dr. Marsha Roberts

Our curriculum budget totals to $3400, consisting of the actual laboratory material during the 1 week core curriculum and transportation costs for students to get to their assigned hospital sites during the 3 week site visits. The curriculum portion begins with three health modules that broaden the scope of a health problem from a microscopic pathology standpoint to a socioeconomic and political standpoint. Combined, these activities cost $385, including materials such as blood pressure kits, sheep hearts, pig feet, and hand soap. Miscellaneous labs, which include medical imaging, emergency medical skills, and mouse dissections, complement the health modules with hands-on experimentation to replicate basic scientific research, totaling to $1940 for supplies. The last component of the didactic portion includes the Helix symposium held at the School of Public Health, where students present their research on a public health issue to our program’s network of clinicians and mentors, totaling to $575 for room reservations and poster board costs. Finally, transportations ensures that all 20 of our matriculants receive 5 bart tickets to arrive at their designated hospital, pre-hospital, and clinical sites, which primarily reside between downtown Kaiser Permanente, UCSF and the Bay Area Fire Departments. Each bart ticket will be valued at $5, equating to $500 for 100 total bart tickets.Your generous contributions support purchasing the materials for the core curriculum and the means of transportation for student shadowing opportunities. Work with us to promote equal representation in the healthcare workforce one gift at a time and consider donating today!

We're ready for the 2020 summer program! Let's make it happen together!

Feel free to contact us at info@thehelixgroup.org, or my personal email at apurvaprasad7@berkeley.edu. Please also visit our site thehelixgroup.org if you want more information about our previous programs!