Health Careers Opportunity Program

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The goal of the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) is to assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to undertake education to enter a health profession. The HCOP program works to build diversity in the health fields by providing students from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to develop the skills needed to successfully compete, enter and graduate from health professions schools. The legislative purposes, from which HCOP funds maybe awarded are: 1)identifying, recruiting and selecting individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds for education and training in a health profession; 2)facilitating the entry of such individuals into such a school; 3)providing counseling, mentoring, or other services designed to assist such individuals to complete successfully their education at such a school; 4) providing, for a period prior to the entry of such individuals into the regular course of education at such a school, preliminary education and health research training designed to assist them to complete successfully such regular course education at such a school, or referring such individuals to institutions providing such preliminary education; 5)publicizing existing sources of financial aid available to students in the education program of such a school or who are undertaking training necessary to qualify them to enroll in such a program; 6)paying scholarships, such as the Secretary may determine, for such individuals for any period of health professions education at a health professions school; 7)paying stipends for such individuals for any period of education in student-enhancement programs (other than regular courses), except that such a stipend may not be provided to an individual for more than 12 months; 8)carrying out programs under which such individuals gain experience regarding a career in a field of primary health care through working at facilities of public or private nonprofit community-based providers of primary health services; 9)conducting activities to develop a larger and more competitive applicant pool through partnerships with institutions of higher education, school districts and other community-based entities.

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