The goal of the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) is to assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to undertake education to enter a health profession.

The HCOP program works to build diversity in the health fields by providing students from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity

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to develop the skills needed to successfully compete, enter and graduate from health professions schools.

The legislative purposes, from which HCOP funds maybe awarded are:
1)identifying, recruiting and selecting individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds for education and training in a health profession; 2)facilitating the entry of such individuals into such a school; 3)providing counseling, mentoring, or other services designed to assist such individuals to complete successfully their education at such a school; 4) providing, for a period prior to the entry of such individuals into the regular course of education at such a school, preliminary education and health research training designed to assist them to complete successfully such regular course education at such a school, or referring such individuals to institutions providing such preliminary education; 5)publicizing existing sources of financial aid available to students in the education program of such a school or who are undertaking training necessary to qualify them to enroll in such a program; 6)paying scholarships, such as the Secretary may determine, for such individuals for any period of health professions education at a health professions school; 7)paying stipends for such individuals for any period of education in student-enhancement programs (other than regular courses), except that such a stipend may not be provided to an individual for more than 12 months; 8)carrying out programs under which such individuals gain experience regarding a career in a field of primary health care through working at facilities of public or private nonprofit community-based providers of primary health services; 9)conducting activities to develop a larger and more competitive applicant pool through partnerships with institutions of higher education, school districts and other community-based entities.