In 2000, the world-renowned UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland created the Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success (CHAMPS). Its explicit goal is to increase minority representation in healthcare by recruiting high school students interested in pursuing medical careers.
The program offers a three-year internship where students shadow doctors during clinical rotations, take healthcare classes, and complete hands-on projects. Students commit seven hours weekly during the school year, earning high school credit and grades. The program also provides college preparation support, such as SAT prep and application assistance.
CHAMPS is highly competitive, and eligibility requirements are as stringent as they are extensive. Students must meet academic standards and complete a rigorous application process. Another requirement, however, has nothing to do with either academics or expertise: Without exception, only minority students are eligible for the program. Non-minority students need not apply.
G.H. is one such student. She is a high schooler who dreams of a medical career and would fully qualify to compete for UCSF’s internship program if race weren’t a factor. (We’re keeping her anonymous to protect her privacy.)
It’s wrong for the government to gate access to educational opportunities on the basis of race. Moreover, it’s unconstitutional.
The equal protection guarantee of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals from government discrimination based on arbitrary classifications like race. Excluding students from a state-funded internship program because of their race blatantly violates the Equal Protection Clause.
The discriminatory CHAMPS program also violates California’s Proposition 209 banning racial preferences in public education—a measure Californians have consistently voted to uphold.
UCSF officials can certainly create internships to help prepare students for healthcare careers. They just can’t use race to favor some applicants at the expense of others.
Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, G.H. is fighting back with a federal equal protection challenge to restore equal treatment and educational opportunity for all students, regardless of race.
What’s At Stake?
- California’s university hospital system cannot deny students the opportunity to access valuable educational programs based on their race. Race-based discrimination is unfair and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.
