Four pathways. Different goals. One place to find your fit.
Start with the healthcare experience that moves you forward.
Whether you are stepping into healthcare for the first time, building hands-on clinical experience, exploring patient support and care coordination, or expanding your perspective through global healthcare, COPE Health Scholars offers four distinct pathways designed to move you forward.
All COPE Health Scholars programs featured on this page are offered in partnership with UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
More than 25 years of helping future healthcare professionals turn exposure into direction.
COPE Health Scholars has grown with the healthcare landscape while staying focused on what matters most: meaningful experience, professional growth, and clearer next steps.
Start with the experience you want next.
Healthcare goals change as you learn more about yourself. Choose the direction that feels most relevant now. We will surface the pathways that best match that goal, and you can still compare every program below.
Different stages need different kinds of experience.
Each pathway has a distinct job to do. Use the program pages for current eligibility, locations, schedules, tuition, and application details.
Health Scholars
Build real, hands-on experience in partner clinical settings or hospitals by supporting patients and care teams, learning how units work, rotating across departments, and developing communication, leadership, and professional skills.
Junior Health Scholars
Get hands-on clinical experience before college in partner clinical settings or hospitals through structured training, patient and unit support, mentorship, and career exploration.
Care Navigator Scholars
Gain hands-on experience in patient navigation, population health, and healthcare operations while strengthening communication, coordination, documentation, organization, and problem-solving skills.
Japan International Health Scholar Intensive
A 12-day professional global healthcare intensive in Tokyo combining graduate-level learning, clinical site visits, comparative health systems learning, expert faculty and healthcare leader dialogue, cultural excursions, and faculty mentorship.
One pathway can be powerful. The right combination can be even stronger.
You do not have to force your goals into a single box. When eligibility, timing, and program schedules align, some participants build a broader portfolio by taking part in more than one COPE Health Scholars experience at the same time or across their journey.
For example, Health Scholars can build clinical depth, Care Navigator Scholars can add a patient navigation and systems lens, and an intensive experience can broaden perspective. Together, the experiences can help you develop a more complete understanding of healthcare and a more distinctive story about what you learned.
More than exposure. A structured experience designed to help you grow.
Across the portfolio, the format changes, but the philosophy stays consistent: prepare thoughtfully, learn in meaningful environments, build professional skills, and leave with more perspective than you started with.
Structured preparation
Clear expectations, training, readiness, and program support help Scholars understand how to enter each experience professionally.
Real-world context
Programs connect learning to hospitals, clinical settings, patient journeys, clinical teams, operations, or global health systems.
Professional growth
Communication, teamwork, mentorship, leadership, reflection, and career readiness are integrated differently across the portfolio.
Career clarity
Experience helps you ask better questions about what fits, what does not, and what you want to pursue next.
Compare the details that change the decision.
Once you have a few pathways in mind, compare who each program is built for, where the experience happens, how hands-on it is, and what makes each pathway distinct. Current eligibility, locations, schedules, and availability can vary.
| Compare | Health Scholars | Junior Health Scholars | Care Navigator Scholars | Japan International Intensive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Adults seeking hands-on clinical experience, patient and unit support, and exposure across multiple departments. | High school students seeking hands-on clinical experience, patient and unit support, and early exposure to healthcare careers. | Adults interested in navigation, operations, population health, and care coordination. | Students and emerging professionals interested in global healthcare systems. |
| Primary setting | Partner clinical settings or hospitals | Partner clinical settings or hospitals | Partner clinical settings or hospitals | Tokyo, Japan |
| Experience style | Hands-on patient and unit support, department rotations, clinical and administrative exposure, mentorship, and leadership. | Hands-on patient and unit support, structured training, clinical exposure, mentorship, and career exploration. | Patient navigation, population health, documentation, workflows, and healthcare operations. | Graduate-level learning, clinical site visits, comparative health systems, cultural immersion, and case work. |
| Signature value | 280 documented hours plus mentorship, leadership, and multiple department experiences. | 164 documented hours, no prior experience required, and three-day training. | 250 hours with flexible 6- and 9-month tracks. | Faculty-mentored interdisciplinary comparative case study and formal team presentation. |
| Explore | View program → | View program → | View program → | View intensive → |
You do not need the perfect plan. Start with the right next experience, then build from there.
Use what you know today to choose a strong starting point. If another COPE Health Scholars experience later adds meaningful depth or perspective, your pathway can keep growing with you.
Ready to move from exploring to choosing?
Review current locations, explore the individual program pages, and choose the strongest starting point for your goals. You can always build a broader portfolio when another experience fits.