HIPHOP’s Health Care Collaborative Ignites Interest in Clinical Careers

There’s growing evidence that racial concordance—when patients and providers share the same racial or ethnic background—can lead to better experiences and outcomes for people of color. As the percentage of Black and Hispanic medical school matriculants continues to decline, attracting people of color to careers in health care becomes critical. The newest component of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s (RWJMS) HIPHOP initiative seeks to spark an interest in health careers in local high school students.

Despite its name, HIPHOP has little to do with beats and lyrics. Rather, the Homeless and Indigent Population Health Outreach Project provides a conduit for medical students to positively influence and empower future patients and underserved populations.

Launched by two medical students in 1992, HIPHOP has evolved to also include the Community Health Initiative (CHI), through which medical school students participate in service-learning activities; the Promise Clinic, where student doctors provide free primary care to clients of Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick; and a community garden program with Ozanam Family Shelter to address food insecurity while promoting indoor and outdoor gardening and healthy eating habits.

“HIPHOP’s mission is to provide ways for students to lead community projects that are sustainable and meet a need in the community,” explains Susan Giordano, HIPHOP program director.

Inspiring Tomorrow’s Health Care Providers Today

HIPHOP recently launched an initiative that activates an interest in medicine through teen-medical student mentorships. R RWJMS has joined the Health Career Collaborative (HCC), a national network of health care facilities that seeks to support youth from communities underrepresented in medicine.

Through innovative partnerships with local high schools, the collaborative works to inspire teens to graduate, pursue post-secondary education, expand their knowledge of health issues, and ultimately embark on careers in the health care field.

“Medical students have a hunger for getting into the community and doing something meaningful,” says faculty advisor Sara Heinert, PhD, MPH, assistant professor and director of research, Department of Emergency Medicine. “HCC connects med students with high school students, enabling them to share their personal and professional journeys, and explain what brought them to med school.”

Patrick Lin, Class of 2026, who helped found and codirect HCC in 2025, came to the program with a background in teaching. “I was immediately intrigued by the mission of HCC and jumped at the chance to get to work with high school students again,” he explains.  

From January to May, 10 medical students mentored 28 high school juniors at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School, a magnet school developed through a partnership between the New Brunswick Board of Education and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. The program began with a buzz as students were treated to a hands-on visit to the medical school’s anatomy lab in Piscataway. Then, once or twice a month, medical students presented information ranging from CPR and Stop The Bleed® trauma training to education about mental health, diabetes, obesity, cancer and the importance of cancer screenings.

To turn facts into action, groups of students selected a topic important to their community and developed video public service announcements (PSAs) to address it. Their presentations addressed smoking, drunk driving, mental health, cancer screening, trauma bleeding, obesity, alcoholism, hypertension, and suicide prevention. During the finale event, student groups presented their videos to an audience that included Dean Amy P. Murtha, MD, and other medical school faculty and staff.

Hip Hop Class Photo

“Our goal is not just to teach the didactic curriculum but create an environment where med students and high school students interact during events like the kickoff in the anatomy lab and the video-viewing finale event,” Dr. Heinert says. “We want to make it fun for everyone involved.” 

Lin led several sessions, including teaching teens how to stop significant bleeding in emergencies. He also helped participants brainstorm ideas for their PSAs, develop scripts, and film and edit the final products.
 
“It was amazing to see students take the lessons they learned from our HCC mentors and apply them to identifying public health concerns that resonated with them within their community,” says Lin, who plans to apply for a pediatrics residency upon graduation. “It was clear from the quality of the PSAs how much the students cared about these topics. Seeing how proud they were when presenting at our finale event was a perfect way to end our inaugural year.”
 
Giordano says the work that program leaders and students have done is exceptional. “HCC helps students learn about medical professions from aspiring future physicians,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for underrepresented students to see that they, too, can be physicians or scientists.” 

A Growing Interest

Due to increased interest in the program, medical students will need to complete an application. The program has expanded to also include high school sophomores, and additional topics will be added to the curriculum, including hypertension education. 

“We are continuing to expand, and there is something for everyone across specialties in the three-year curriculum,” Lin says. “If you have an interest in public health, advocacy, or working with adolescents, you should absolutely consider participating in HCC.”

Learn more about HIPHOP, including how to donate.