Page 4 - Scholarship Report 2020

Scholarship Impact
Studies Show Black Doctors Saves Black Lives
A

child who vowed to be-
come a doctor after wit-
nessing his uncle’s death
from pancreatic cancer.
A girl who received a stethoscope
as a gift and wore it around the
house because she knew she was
meant to be a physician. A teenager
who, while visiting his cousin in an
intensive care unit, walked the halls
and saw too much — children with
burns, gunshot wounds, other trau-
ma — and knew he wanted to help.
A girl who lost her five-year-old
brother to meningitis after doctors
failed to make the right diagnosis. their peers, often leave medical er racial group,” says MSM schol-
What do all of these children school with crushing debt that arship recipient Ngafla Bakayoko.
have in common? They all have threatens to dissuade them from “If we are to grow a community of
grown up to become medical taking lower-paying jobs in needy Black doctors who know the obsta-
students at Morehouse School of communities. With scholarship cles their communities face, we will
Medicine in Atlanta. support, these doctors are freed to be able to address this.”
For more than 40 years, More- serve in primary care and under- Young Black people need role
house School of Medicine has privileged communities. models, to show that it is possible
been known for educating the next As you know, the country is to pursue a career in medicine, says
generation of Black physicians who becoming more and more diverse, MSM scholarship recipient Darius
will provide culturally competent but the diversity of its healthcare Stephens. “I didn’t have a Black
care to underserved communities. workforce still lags, with just five male doctor until I was 23 years
Indeed, about 66 percent of our percent of physicians identifying as old,” he says. “That has been one of
graduates are doing just that. African American. This is due, in my motivators throughout medical
“Many schools have mission part, to the high cost of completing school.”
statements that are more or less the a medical degree. The impact is MSM’s focus on health equity
same. Morehouse School of Med- significant, given that studies show has not gone unnoticed; the school
icine lives up to its mission,” says that Black patients tend to have bet- has twice bested all other medical
scholarship recipient Alexandria ter outcomes when treated by Black schools in a national study to be
Williams. physicians. named number-one for the insti-
MSM’s MD students, who “It is important to address this tution’s dedication to the social
typically come from more difficult shortage because Black people are
socioeconomic circumstances than dying at a greater rate than any oth- continued on next page