This report describes a program designed to encourage minority and financially, socially, or educationally disadvantaged incoming, freshman students to pursue health profession career goals. Sixteen at-risk students were selected to participate in a summer intervention program in West Virginia; a control group of 16 pre-medicine or pre-dentistry subjects was used for comparison. The intervention program was a four-week residential summer program in which students received a monetary weekly allowance with all meals, room and board, and transportation provided. Subjects were pretested in biology, chemistry, mathematics, reading, writing, and study skills; individualized programs were set up based on testing results. Study halls were mandatory, and each student received social support from instructors, formal seminars, site visits, and group social activities. Intervention students completed the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) and the Perceptions, Expectations, Emotions, and Knowledge About College (PEEK) instrument; all participants completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. It was found that incoming, at-risk freshmen who planned to pursue professional heath care training, and who completed the one-month intensive intervention program, were more academically successful than control students during the first semester of college. Student LASSI scores changed significantly in five categories after the intervention. In addition, intervention participants attempted and earned significantly more credit hours than students in the control group. (Contains 24 references.) (NAV)