Pacific Legal Settles Lawsuit Over UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Race-Based Internship Program

The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital had a longstanding high school internship program called CHAMPS that tried to make whites into chumps.

In a blatant violation of Proposition 209 and federal civil rights laws, the program for minorities interested in healthcare careers openly excluded whites–until one jilted applicant fought back with a discrimination lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, as the Globe reported in 2025.

In a settlement of the lawsuit announced last week, the Oakland-based Hospital agreed to make the CHAMPS program open to everyone without regard to race.

Launched in 2000 to increase minority representation in healthcare, the Hospital’s  Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success (CHAMPS) allows students to tag along with doctors at the facility.  Earning high school credit for their hospital work, the students also receive SAT preparation and financial aid workshops.

Pacific Legal Foundation lawyer Andrew Quinio told the California Globe, “The most important principle is that opportunity should not be limited by the state because of race. All students should have a chance to participate in valuable and enriching opportunities regardless of race.”

Rebecca Hooley, the mother of the 15-year-old girl barred from the program, filed the lawsuit for her daughter in February 2025 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The girl, identified in court papers as G.H., made it through the initial screening process for the program without listing  her race. But she was rejected just days after telling an interviewer she is white.

Quinio said, “she was disappointed and upset at the events that led to this lawsuit and the inability to participate in the internship.”

The defendants in the lawsuit included the University of California Board of Regents, Hospital president Nicolas Holmes and CHAMPS manager Michelle Ednacot.

The Hospital did not even try to defend the program in court papers. Quinio says they started settlement negotiations shortly after the complaint was filed.

The complaint said that the hospital program violated Proposition 209, the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibition against discrimination by federally funded institutions and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that prohibits racial discrimination in contracts.

It says eloquently that G.H.  brought the “lawsuit to assert her right to equal treatment and, above all, to be evaluated on her own merits—as an individual with unique talents and aspirations, not merely as a faceless member of her race.”

She applied to the program on October 27, 2024, including her photograph and high school transcript with an impressive 4.0 GPA.

She “explained how she is inspired to help others through healthcare by her aunt, a registered nurse.”

The complaint says under the application “section for “Race/Ethnicity,” G.H. could check boxes for “Asian,” “Black/African-American,” “Chicanx/Hispanic/Latinx,” “Native American/Alaskan,” “Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander,” and “Not listed.” G.H. checked “Not listed.”

She was interviewed for the program on December 12 and the interviewer immediately started browbeating her for not listing her race on the application.

“The interviewer immediately started the interview noting that G.H. did not list her race or ethnicity in her application. She pressed G.H. to identify her race, and G.H. answered that she is white.”

Five days later she was rejected by the program.

The complaint says that the “intentional and systematic discrimination carried out by Defendants has caused G.H. substantial emotional and psychological harm, leaving her with a profound sense of injustice and disillusionment with institutions that should foster inclusion and merit-based opportunities.”

Quinio said yesterday that G.H. is not going to apply to the program even though it is now open to whites.

CHAMPS program director Michelle Ednacot did not reply to repeated requests for comment.