Every summer, UCLA runs a Summer Health Professions Education Program and a Premedical Enrichment Program for students from educationally and financially underrepresented backgrounds. These programs strive to serve as a model learning community in which students examine a variety of healthcare issues affecting medically underserved communities through problem-based learning cases, lectures, clinical experiences, small-group discussions, and a research project.

The Department of General Surgery participates annually with these programs to increase early access to surgical mentoring, support career aspirations in general surgery, and encourage students to consider the applications of health justice to address healthcare disparities in surgical disease.