INSPIRE program: Eleven years of promoting STEM and Healthcare careers among low-income, underserved, minoritized high school students.

The dearth of Latinx and African American (AA) professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is most concerning. AA and Latinx workers in the labor market hold an 11% and 17% share of US workers, respectively. However, these groups only contribute 9% and 8%, respectively, of STEM professionals and 4.8 and 6% of physicians (Temming, 2021). Thus, academic programs focused on AA and Latinx STEM representation are vital in meeting the demands of increasing STEM and healthcare positions and diversifying these fields. To build a pipeline for Latinx and AA high school (HS) students into STEM/healthcare fields, Rosalind Franklin University (RFU), a health professions graduate school, has developed the INfluence Student Potential and Increase Representation in Education (INSPIRE) program. Interested HS students from low-income and federally designated medically underserved areas in northern Lake County, Illinois, are enrolled in the program during HS and return annually until the completion of their undergraduate degree. INSPIRE is an eight-week summer, salaried program offering biomedical courses, career development seminars, parental engagement, and hands-on original biomedical research performance under the direction of a faculty mentor supported by a graduate student advisor on a 1:1:1 ratio. Since 2011, 62 students have participated, summing up 169 summer sessions. 100% of eligible participants have graduated from HS, 95.5% of them have matriculated into two- or four-year Colleges; 83% of the HS graduates have pursued STEM or Healthcare careers, and 6.6% of the 4-year college graduates have pursued postgraduate education; one of them at RFU. These numbers are significantly larger than the students' peers not participating in the program.