Three SMC Students Successfully Complete Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program

Three SMC Students Successfully Complete Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program

Pre-Med Students Candido Lopez, Alexis Molina & Jai Williams Were Among 18 Students Selected to Participate in Stanford’s Six-Week Intensive Experience for Community College Students from Underrepresented or Low-Income Backgrounds

SANTA MONICA, CA—Three Santa Monica College (SMC) pre-med students were among 18 students selected earlier this year to participate in the academically-intensive Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program (SSCCPP) at Stanford Medicine. Neuroscience major Candido Lopez, psychology major Jai Williams, and anthropology major Alexis Molina spent six weeks in Palo Alto as part of the 25th annual cohort of this program, which exclusively targets community college students considering careers as physicians and other health professionals.

The three SMC students took part in traditional classes, medical school admissions workshops, science-based classes like human anatomy and molecular cellular biology as well as shadowing physicians and other health professionals while engaging in scholarly research centered around health disparities and presenting on their research projects undertaken with their peers. Lopez and Molina are both transferring to UCLA this fall. Jai Williams plans to transfer next year—to UCLA, UC Berkeley, or UC San Diego.

The program—which concluded in early August—was launched in 2015 by Stanford Medicine’s Office of Diversity in Medical Education (ODME). ODME seeks out current community college students considered low-income and/or underrepresented in medicine and provides exposure to medicine and health through a number of topics and ways. This summer’s program began as a two-week virtual program, transitioning to an in-residence experience for selectees. In addition to housing and meal plans, students receive a small stipend to support their pre-professional development and offset the no-work requirement. Along with the other participants, Candido Lopez, Jai Williams, and Alexis Molina engaged in scholarly, social, research, and clinical sessions six days a week.

Candido Lopez and Alexis Molina both chose to attend SMC for very similar reasons—they hadn’t done particularly well in high school, and SMC gave them “a second chance,” per Molina.

Molina cited the influence of the college’s supportive culture, in particular programs like EOPS, the Latino Center/Adelante Program, and the Men of Color Action Network. Lopez attributed his success to—in addition to the programs Molina named—the SMC Scholars Program and the SMC Career Services Center, and “the counselors who helped me a lot.” They both stated that SMC counselors and the resources at the college were crucial in helping them find their path to premed and realize that, as Molina put it, “I am smart.”

Williams is also part of SMC’s Scholars Program—a distinctive academic community which prepares freshman students, first-generation college students, students from underserved schools and communities, and non-traditional students for transfer to the colleges and universities of their choice. Through special transfer agreements with top four-year colleges and universities, Scholars students get priority consideration for admissions to four-year institutions including The UCLA College (formerly College of Letters and Science) Transfer Alliance Program, UC Irvine, Loyola Marymount University, Pomona College, and Yale University, to name a few.

When the Scholars Program shared the email about the opportunity at Stanford, Williams thought, “I probably won’t get into this, but it won’t hurt to sign up.” He was “really surprised” when he got in.

Their experience at Stanford over the summer was “significant,” Candido Lopez said. “I got to live on campus, and I learned that though we come from different areas and backgrounds, we all share the same motivation,” he said. “It validated my reason for being here. I got to meet the medical students and residents . . . I made connections with a lot of them. The majority came from similar backgrounds as us. So I think, I, too, can pursue and eventually complete [the pre-med pathway].”

When he applied to the program, Alexis Molina thought of it as “a longshot, to be honest.” Candido Lopez felt the same way: “I absolutely did not think I was going to get in.” And when the email came informing him of acceptance, he still could not believe it.

Lopez and Molina came away from the experience with a clear sense of the specialties and paths they want to pursue. Lopez hopes to pursue either neurology or orthopedics because in talking to the medical students, he found these two fields most interesting. Molina—who is a cancer survivor—is as yet undecided between emergency medicine and surgical oncology (before the summer at Stanford, he hadn’t considered emergency medicine as a potential path).

As for Williams, he’d originally wanted to be a surgeon but fell in love with psychology through an introductory class at SMC. Having encountered mental health challenges in high school, he knew firsthand the importance of psychiatry, and now plans to enter the field. The summer at Stanford shadowing medical professionals and learning about disparities in healthcare was particularly eye-opening, according to him.

Lopez and Molina share a mutual purpose: to provide stability for their families and help level the inequities low-income individuals and people of color experience in the healthcare system. Candido Lopez lost a family member who got a late diagnosis and grew up noticing how “a lot of my family purposely didn’t get healthcare because there were a lot of repercussions that came with it, specifically finances.” Alexis Molina experienced firsthand what it meant to be underserved as a cancer patient; he had to deal with insurance issues and had to “go through hurdles”, delaying the care he needed.

SSCCPP will admit up to 20 participants for the 2024 summer program and offers application workshops and information sessions about the program during the application cycle (December 1, 2023 – March 1, 2024). College administrators, counselors, and educators may email odme_outreach@stanford.edu to request an information session or presentation, or to learn more about opportunities for community college students at Stanford. For more information on Stanford Medicine’s Office of Diversity in Medical Education and its mission, visit med.stanford.edu/odme.

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About the Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program:
The Stanford Summer Community College Premedical Program (SSCCPP) targets current community college students considered low-income and/or underrepresented in medicine providing exposure to medicine and health through topics such as:

• health disparities
• leadership challenges in health provision and administration
• science success strategies
• professional development
• clinical exposure
• successful preparation for the medical school application process

• postsecondary and graduate/professional school financing

This summer, SSCCPP began as a two-week virtual program, transitioning to an in-residence experience for selectees. In addition to housing and meal plan, students receive a small stipend to support their pre-professional development and offset the no-work requirement. Participants are engaged in scholarly, social, research, and clinical sessions six days per week.

About Santa Monica College:
Santa Monica College is a California Community College accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). For 32 consecutive years, SMC has been California’s leading transfer college to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and other University of California campuses. The college also tops in transfers to the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University and is the top feeder west of the Mississippi to the Ivy League Columbia University. As the leading job trainer in Los Angeles’s Westside, the college offers robust career education opportunities, with over 110 degrees and certificates in traditional and emerging fields. SMC provides news and cultural enrichment through its NPR radio station KCRW (89.9 FM), the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center, and lifelong learning through distinctive programs such as its Emeritus Program for older adults. The college offers options for study in numerous STEM fields including biology, pre-medicine biology, chemistry, earth science, computer programming, physics, engineering, mathematics, and much more. To learn more about SMC’s STEM program, visit smc.edu/STEM.