Celebrating 5 Years of the Mosaic Summer Enrichment Program

Five years ago, a crucial question set a new mission in motion at the University of Mississippi Medical Center: How do we recruit students from rural backgrounds into heath care careers? Born out of the HRSA-funded IMPACT the RACE initiative, the Mosaic Summer Enrichment Program was created to bridge the gap between Mississippi high schoolers from rural areas and health care careers.Over the past five years, this one-week, free to participant, residential program has opened doors and illuminated paths of opportunity for high-achieving high school juniors and seniors from small, underserved towns across the state. Students often start the program set on one career path and leave torn between several exciting health care fields. During this deeply immersive week, participants explore the wide range of health professions on campus through high-impact activities, from Heath Care Highlights to Expert Experiences as well as Basic Life Support certification, mock interviews and resume refinement. Since its inception the program has served almost 250 students from nearly every county in Mississippi. Several of these students have gone on to pursue degrees in health care related fields; two of which are enrolled in the School of Medicine’s PROMISE program with goals of becoming physicians. This remarkable accomplishment has been no small feat. Mosaic could not have been made possible without the continued support, time, and diligence of each of the schools on UMMC’s campus. Five years later, Mosaic continues to empower young scholars to bring essential skills back to their hometowns to equip others with the vision that they too can help shape the future of Mississippi’s health care mosaic.