For college students in the new Tilikum Summer Health Experience program, the message from Shandee Dixon, M.S., Ph.D., (Apache) is clear: “Once you are part of this program, you become part of the NNACoE community — you have a place at Oregon Health & Science University.”

The Huwighurruk Tribal Health Postbaccalaureate Program seeks to enroll pre-med students passionate about providing health care to American Indian and Alaska Native communities in rural and urban areas.

Huwighurruk is pronounced hee-way-gou-duck. In the Wiyot language, huwighurruk means plants, grass, leaves and medicine.

Dr. Christine Athmann shares why it's important to have Ojibwe doctors and other Native Americans in the medical field.

More Native Americans going to med school through OHSU program

The Northwest Native American Center of Excellence was established a few years ago at OHSU with the goal of training more American Indian and Alaska Native physicians. The director of the center says right now, less than 1% of medical students nationwide are Native American, but the tide is shifting.

Read the interview with Erik Brodt, MD (Ojibwe) and Jared Delaney (Klamath, Modoc, Yaqui & Tohono O'odham) here.