Charbel Aoun
Summer 2016 Research
Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charbel serves as the Co-Founder and President of the First Generation Foundation, a non-profit organization providing resources for first-generation high school and college students to be successful in the academic and professional world. He is the first in his family to attend college and is determined to help younger students achieve success in higher education. Charbel is a sophomore honors student majoring in psychology.
Established with a major grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMPED) at the University of Virginia began 31 years ago with the aim of helping under-represented minority students become more competitive candidates for medical schools nationally. UVA’s SMDEP program has become a model for other medical school preparatory programs that serve minority students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds. This program provides small-group experiences with members of UVA’s School of Medicine’s clinical faculty in settings such as the autopsy department, radiology department, cardiology clinic, senior centers, primary care clinic, and general internal medicine clinic. There are opportunities to shadow physicians and clinical medicine lecture series on cutting-edge topics in health, including stem-cell research, telemedicine, bioethics, nanotechnology, bioterrorism, and global health.