CONTACT: Doug Carlson
850-645-1255; doug.carlson@med.fsu.edu

Sept. 8, 2016

FIFTY LOCAL STUDENTS TO BE INDUCTED INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL PIPELINE PROGRAM

Monday, 50 Immokalee students in grades 8-10 will be inducted into a Florida State University College of Medicine outreach program called SSTRIDE. The program (Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence) was developed at FSU in 1993 as a way to steer more students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine to a career in health care. Numerous SSTRIDE participants over the years have gone on to medical school and are now practicing physicians.

SSTRIDE Collier County is being developed with a $500,000 grant from the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), founders of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. NCEF is committed to supporting charitable programs that improve the physical, emotional and educational lives of underprivileged and at-risk children in Collier County.

Kristen Dimas, M.D., is an Immokalee High graduate who served as a SSTRIDE mentor before graduating from the FSU College of Medicine in May. She currently is a first-year medical resident in family medicine at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers with plans to return to Immokalee to enter medical practice.

In Florida, 40 percent of the population, but only 20 percent of the physician workforce, is black or Hispanic. SSTRIDE is part of the FSU College of Medicine effort to diversify its student body and produce physicians more likely to practice in areas of need in Florida.

Attending Monday’s induction ceremony will be NCEF CEO Maria Jimenez-Lara, Grants Director Sarah Zaiser and Strategic Initiatives Coordinator Beth Hatch; Elena Reyes, professor and regional director for Southwest Florida at the FSU College of Medicine; Thesla Berne-Anderson, director of outreach and advising at the College of Medicine; Collier County School Board members Roy Terry and Erika Donalds; and Beth Coryell, director of secondary education for Collier County Public Schools.

The induction ceremony will take place:
MONDAY, SEPT. 12
6 P.M.
IMMOKALEE TECHNICAL COLLEGE
508 N. 9th Street, IMMOKALEE

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