$215K grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to fund student success initiatives for bachelor’s health professions students

A grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will fund student success initiatives targeting economically disadvantaged bachelor’s students in the School of Health Professions.

The $215,000 Student Success Acceleration Program award supports the Pre-Health Scholars Success Initiative (PSSI), a project of the School of Health Professions. 

“We are trying to create initiatives to improve the odds of student success,” said Professor Ahmad Galaleldeen, PhD, program director of the Bachelor of Science in Medical Sciences (BSMS) program, part of the Department of Health Sciences. Galaleldeen, the project director of PSSI, described it as a bundle of services specifically geared toward increasing retention and graduation rates while supporting students in their pursuit of advancing to  graduate health professions programs and, eventually, to careers in health professions.

Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds face additional barriers to reach their academic goals, Galaleldeen noted. The grant funds will be used to establish a tutoring center and provide a no-cost, two-week health professions readiness camp before the start of the academic year for incoming bachelor’s students. 

The PSSI project also will provide academic counseling services at the start of each semester, including test-taking strategies, as well as support for managing anxiety. Stipends will be available for 15 students with financial need each academic year, and additional stipends will be available for students who are pregnant or have children, Galaleldeen said.

Many of the students in the bachelor’s programs offered by the School of Health Professions began their higher education path at a community college. The PSSI project will help prepare students for the rigor of the programs at UT Health San Antonio, said Melina Dauto Benavidez, School of Health Professions’ director of admissions and special programs and a co-investigator on the project.

In 2023, 46% of students in the BSMS program came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and 59% were first-generation college students, Dauto Benavidez said. She noted that the BSMS program was created to provide a pathway for underrepresented students to competitively apply to graduate programs, such as those for occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, physician assistant studies, medical laboratory sciences and respiratory care, as well as to professional programs including medicine, dentistry and pharmacy.

Although some elements of the project will largely focus on BSMS students when the program launches this academic year, some services will also be offered to bachelor’s students in other programs in the School of Health Professions, Galaleldeen said. The school offers bachelor’s programs in medical laboratory sciences, respiratory care and emergency health sciences.

Galaleldeen said his goal for PSSI is for all students served by the project to be enrolled in a health professions graduate program within a year of receiving their bachelor’s degree. “That would be full success to me,” he said. 

Funding for the PSSI program will begin this fall and run through August 2026.

David Henzi, EdD, FASAHP, senior associate dean in the School of Health Professions, is the project’s co-director. 

“We are grateful to have this opportunity to provide assistance to students who have historically had increased challenges completing degree requirements,” Henzi said.

Serving as co-investigators on the project are Bridgett Piernik-Yoder, PhD, OTR, FAOTA, associate dean for academic affairs and chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy, Terri Murphy-Sanchez, MLS, CSMLS, ASCPCM, assistant professor and program director of the Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Mia Veve, PhD, director of the Student Counseling Center and BSMS program academic coordinator Martha Browning.