The Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs sponsors the following Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) summer and academic year programs. This initiative was developed to promote diversity in the health professions and is a formal educational consortium offering a comprehensive program of educational enrichment and support activities for underrepresented, disadvantaged and first generation students applying to medical and dental schools, graduate programs in biomedical sciences, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health programs.

Program elements form a continuous pipeline for middle/junior high school, high school and college level students. The department supports students of diverse backgrounds and has expanded its programs for middle, high school and college students to realize their dreams of becoming health professionals.

The Aetna HPPI programs have proven to be top-notch because many of the program participants who have successfully completed their undergraduate degrees have actualized their goals of entering medical, dental and graduate school. We continue to develop new programs and fine-tune existing ones since exposure to the various fields in the biomedical sciences will ultimately increase the diverse pool of students who pursue careers in the health professions.