Arkansas Honors Program for Rural and Urban Underserved Primary Care Medicine

Heidi Damron, MS
HLDamron@uams.edu

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) offers the Honors Program in Rural and Urban Underserved Primary Care Medicine (HUPC); applications are open to all first-year medical students at UAMS. The four-year, longitudinal program provides medical students a slate of unique curricular and extracurricular experiences with the goal of training and retaining primary care doctors in Arkansas who are committed to providing comprehensive care to historically underserved rural and urban populations.

Program objectives include:

• Provide students a cutting-edge longitudinal educational and extracurricular experience in comprehensive medical care for underserved populations in both rural and urban underserved settings
• Inspire student interest in a career practicing primary care in underserved communities in Arkansas
• Foster a robust community of physicians, administrators, and students who are passionate about primary care in rural and urban underserved areas in Arkansas
• Understand and master the HRSA Core Topic Areas

Activities will include:

• A longitudinal project
• Literature review
• Mentorship
• Shadowing community doctors
• Summer preceptorship
• AHEC Scholars
• Extracurricular activities
• Junior clerkship
• Senior elective
• Core text readings

Eligible applicants are first year medical students at UAMS.

A list of program benefits is available on the program website. A maximum of 20 are typically selected for each incoming class.

A link to the online application is available on the program website.

UAMS students may apply to HUPC from August to mid-March of their first year.