High quality career exploration programming has the potential to increase student self- efficacy, diversify professions, and address community job fulfillment needs. The purpose of this inquiry to analyze the implementation and design of a brief medical career exploration program for young women in order to improve the program prior to producing a program hosting guide for widespread use. The “I Look Like a Cardiologist” conference is a half-day mentoring and career exploration conference for young women interested in medicine in Western Pennsylvania. The goal of the conference is to increase student knowledge about and enthusiasm for cardiology through lectures, simulations, and mentoring sessions in order to address the underrepresentation of women within the field of cardiology by inspiring the students to more deeply consider a career in the field. Pre-conference, post-conference, and two-month post-conference Likert-scale surveys were administered, and the results analyzed. Additionally, 12 participants were interviewed, and the interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for themes in order to provide further feedback on conference implementation and design. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis led to the creation of a program implementation guide for other medical departments looking to develop brief career exploration programs for their target populations
