First-in-the-State Tribal Health Program Finds Home at Cal Poly Humboldt

While the federal government has the legal obligation to provide healthcare to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, these communities continue to face substantial health disparities compared to other U.S. populations.

California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt) is teaming up with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Medicine to address one burden affecting the ability to deliver quality, culturally sensitive healthcare to Native populations — the shortage of medical professionals in AI/AN communities.

Together, they’re launching a first-in-the-state program focused on recruiting and training aspiring physicians focused on serving AI/AN communities.

The Huwighurruk Tribal Health Postbaccalaureate Program will offer a curriculum intertwined with cultural and tribal traditional frameworks and Native American studies courses of interest to support students who will one day treat AI/AN communities or tribes.

“There’s a strong sense of tribal cultures in this area. Often that gets lost when Native students are going through Western medicine training,” program co-director Dr. Antoinette Martinez told BestColleges. “We want to keep them connected to those ideologies as they work with Native American communities.”

American Indians and Alaska Natives born today have a life expectancy that is 5.5 years less than the overall population of the U.S., according to the Indian Health Service (IHS), the federal health program for AI/AN individuals.

The IHS attributed the lower life expectancy and disproportionate disease burden AI/AN communities face to a range of inequalities, including insufficient education, disproportionate poverty, disparities in the delivery of health services, and cultural differences.

Additionally, there is a shortage of AI/AN physicians in the healthcare workforce. According to the American Medical Association, as of 2018, less than 1% of the physician workforce identified as being part of the AI/AN community.

“We hope this program will accomplish an increase in the number of American Indians and Alaska Natives that make it through medical school and become doctors, ideally in primary care to serve tribal communities,” Martinez said.

The 10-month program consists of an academic curriculum intertwined with Native American studies courses, a six-week Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) preparation course, and support building medical school applications with a writing specialist and one-on-one advising opportunities.

The program will cover participant’s costs of tuition, fees, and housing, along with providing students with a stipend to cover living expenses. Currently, the stipend is projected to be $1,137 per month, according to the program’s website.

Participants who maintain at least a 3.7 GPA in the program, have an MCAT score of 499 or higher, and fulfill all prerequisites will have conditional acceptance to UC Davis School of Medicine upon program completion.

Martinez says the program’s focus will be on students who don’t believe they could get into medical school.

“Sometimes it’s just getting those grades up a little bit more, building confidence, [or] writing a better personal statement, in addition to feeling like they can do it [and] believing in themselves,” she said.

The Huwighurruk Tribal Health Program is the latest endeavor by the UC Davis School of Medicine designed to educate AI/AN medical students.

It’s an adaptation of the UC Davis Tribal Health PRIME Community Health Scholars Program, which Martinez also co-directs, and the Wy’east Post-Baccalaureate Pathway, a partnership between UC Davis, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), and Washington State University.

“[The Huwighurruk Program] one is an adaptation of both UC Davis and the program up at OHSU,” Martinez said. “What we’re trying to do is optimize [students’] GPA while embedding cultural issues and frameworks during this 10-month period.”

The inaugural cohort for the program will consist of four students who are citizens or descendants of a federally recognized AI/AN tribe and have a history of commitment and service in the AI/AN community.

Participants will either be seeking academic improvement to prepare for medical school, have previously applied to medical school but were denied, or possess a non-science major but are interested in pursuing a career in medicine. The application highly encourages residents of California or those with significant ties to the state and its Native population to apply.

Eligible students should have completed most of the basic prerequisite courses required for medical school, including biology and chemistry with labs. Pre-med students should have an undergraduate and science GPA of at least 2.9 and a biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics (BCPM) GPA of at least 2.5.

Applicants with a non-science major should have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.2 or higher.

The program has been in the works for over a year and was selected to be located at Cal Poly Humboldt because of the university’s proximity to Native American communities. The program will be housed in the Indian Tribal & Educational Personnel Program (ITEPP), which provides culturally sensitive educational programming, academic guidance, and support tailored to AI/AN students.

“We had thoughtfully identified that this area in Northern California was an ideal location, given the number of Indigenous tribes in this area and the strong Native American support for students at Cal Poly Humboldt,” Martinez said.

Martinez, an alum of ITEPP, attributes her success in higher education to the support provided by the program.

“If it hadn’t been for those supportive services … I don’t think I would have succeeded in the heavy coursework that I needed to do,” she said.

“They also helped me to develop my sense of identity as a Native person, and we also want to do that with our students. Strengthen their identities, so that they, in turn, can understand the issues our communities are addressing.”