THURS-024 - The AvenueM Model: Empowering the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals Starting in Community College

Brief Abstract Summary: Learn about the ways AvenueM’s community college-to-medical school pathway program is addressing the deepening physician shortage in Northern California by empowering community college students from underserved regions to pursue medicine. In collaboration with the California Medicine Scholars Program, thirteen California community colleges, and three four-year institutions, the AvenueM program supports students with longitudinal mentorship, cohort meetings, academic counseling, MCAT preparation, and clinical experiences designed to strengthen their applications to transfer to a four-year institution and to apply to medical school.

Detailed abstract description: For community college students in the Northern California region, AvenueM establishes a powerful educational ecosystem bridging local community colleges, four-year institutions, and UC Davis School of Medicine. AvenueM represents an innovative, community-rooted approach to transforming the physician workforce pathway in Northern California by connecting with future physicians at the community college level.
AvenueM’s model is built on collaboration and intentional design. Through partnerships with thirteen community colleges, three four-year universities, and the UC Davis School of Medicine, AvenueM creates an interconnected ecosystem of counselors, educators, mentors, and peers. This network empowers, teaches, guides, and provides healthcare-related programming to students from medically underserved regions in Sacramento, the Redwood Coast, and the Shasta-Redding area. AvenueM offers a continuum of academic and professional development opportunities that evolve as students advance including academic counseling; foundational science preparation through workshops, presentations, and tutorials; and cohort-building activities that foster belonging and confidence. As students transfer to four-year institutions, AvenueM continues to provide cohort meetings, counseling, leadership workshops, and MCAT preparation to ensure they remain connected and supported.
Attendees of this session will gain insight into AvenueM’s multi-institutional partnerships and longitudinal design. Participants will also gain a deeper understanding of the physician workforce needs in rural Northern California and how a localized recruitment can yield long-term, scalable solutions as it relates to student success, workforce diversity, and distribution of physicians. AvenueM illustrates that meaningful progress in health equity begins long before medical school admission. By identifying, nurturing, and investing in talented students at the community college level, AvenueM offers a pathway to medical education. This poster invites attendees to explore a replicable framework for cultivating the next generation of compassionate, community-connected physicians, proving that when educational systems align across institutional boundaries, the result is not just more doctors, but better doctors who are deeply committed to serving where they are needed most.