Diversity Hub

A collaboration among faculty, residents, students, and volunteers, UCSF's Community Dental Clinic has been working to improve the health of San Francisco's homeless population for the past decade. The philosophy of the Community Dental Clinic is to motivate patients to seek healthcare and to prevent dental disease through education and preventive dentistry. CDC is guided by three mutually supportive sets of aspirations: (1) For the clients- to provide oral health education and treatment. To achieve a positive impact on the lives of our patients; (2) For the students- to create a setting in which students can learn, teach, and practice clinical skills while cultivating sensitivity and comfort in interactions with the underserved population; and (3) For the Community- To use the Dental Clinic as a forum for education and health care service. To promote advocacy for the needs of the homeless population. Ultimately, we hope this experience will broaden our vision and make us more able and compassionate health care providers for any population we choose to serve.

We in the department of Neurosurgery are working in partnership with the non-profit organization Oasis for Girls to offer paid internship programs for underserved high school female youth of color (ages 14-18) to expose them to medical and healthcare professional careers with mentorship, career path exploration, and professional development through hospital rotations in labs, the OR, and other academic or healthcare locations, with research projects, presentations, and interactive activities. We accept a group of 15-18 youth per cycle with 3 application / intern cycles per year. We are expanding our programs to reach other demographics (e.g. young Black males, LGBTQ+ youth, college pre-med students). Altogether these programs are housed under the title Neurosurgery Community Internship Programs (NCIP).