Health Sciences Leap Curriculum
Make a successful "leap" from high school to college and find your place at the University of Utah!
Throughout the four year program, students are supported by personal and academic advising, peer mentors, library skills courses, study skills courses, and yearly celebrations of their accomplishments. Below are the goals and objectives of HS LEAP by year:
First Year HS LEAP
During the first year of Health Sciences Leap, students take two courses, one in the Fall semester and one in the Spring semester, thereby fulfilling their general education humanities requirement and the diversity requirement.
Second Year HS LEAP
The second year begins with a course in "Health Professions Exploration." Students shadow health professionals in their preferred fields for two hours per week. Additionally students write about and discuss their experiences in light of reading they have done and lectures they have heard on cultural competency, complementary and alternative medicine, professionalism, collegiality, collaboration and medical ethics. Spring semester, students take a course in "Basic Lab Techniques," taught by a biology professor, which prepares them to work in research laboratories during their third year.
Third Year HS LEAP
Third year Health Sciences Leap consists of two semesters of "Research Seminar for Advanced Leap Students." Students are placed in labs as research assistants for seven months, working either ten or five hours a week in a paid position. Students reflect on their work in the two seminars, which require them to give oral and poster presentations of their research to their classmates, other Health Sciences Leap students, and the University as a whole in the context of the Undergraduate Research Symposium. They also visit each other's research labs and learn to write their research in a form appropriate to a medical or scientific journal.
Fourth Year HS LEAP
The final year of the program students research, design, implement, and evaluate an extended service project in cooperation with the University of Utah's Bennion Center, the Huntsman Cancer Institute's Special Populations Office, or the University/Neighborhood Partners. Service learning through community partnerships requires regular meetings as a class and with their service partners. Working alone or in pairs, at least 100 hours must be contributed to their community partnerships. The course emphasis is on higher education's responsibility to community, and establishing viable partnerships with symbiotic rewards.
