A health sciences summer pipeline program offers undergrads from across the country a six-week slice of life as a graduate health professional student — and connections to last a lifetime.

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As director of special programs for student recruitment and retention and a professor emeritus in the Department of Physical Therapy at the VCU College of Health Professions, Dr. Cheryl Ford-Smith created a physical therapy-focused high school program in the 2000s and was used to managing every aspect of a pipeline program, from recruitment to education of participants. When VCU established the Division for Health Sciences Diversity and its pipeline programs, Ford-Smith could put her focus back on what she does best: establishing relationships with pre-health students and educating them about the profession and VCU’s program.

Read more about student experiences at the Summer Academic Enrichment Program.

About the Summer Academic Enrichment Program

The Summer Academic Enrichment Program is a six-week program designed to simulate the first-year of graduate school in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and physical therapy. SAEP participants participate in a mixture of non-credit, core coursework, interprofessional educational opportunities, track specific admissions preparation and social events. SAEP students are encouraged to focus on learning, study and test-taking strategies upon which to build their professional career. The program allows DPT faculty to connect with pre-health students to educate them about the profession of PT and VCU’s DPT program.