Sixteen high school seniors from underserved communities on Long Island who completed Stony Brook’s Health Occupations Partnership for Excellence(HOPE) program celebrated their ‘graduation” from HOPE in May.

HOPE is a two-year program that fosters the academic development of 11th and 12th graders. It prepares them for future careers in the health industry.

Judith Berhannan, center, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, with the four HOPE graduates – all from Longwood High School – who are now at Stony Brook as freshman.

The students are from the Brentwood, Longwood and Wyandanch school districts. Four of the students started their college careers as freshman at Stony Brook this fall.

Stony Brook faculty and community members instructed students, with educational venues that included lectures, hands-on demonstrations and shadowing professionals from areas such as nursing, cardiology, anatomical sciences and respiratory care.

“HOPE is much more than an afterschool program. Through our doctors, nurses and many other healthcare professionals, it teaches students life lessons and exposes them to the broad field of healthcare,” said L. Reuven Pasternak, MD, Chief Executive Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Since its inception in 2005, HOPE has helped open new avenues for some 140 promising high school students from underserved and racially and ethnically diverse communities.