Page 6 - MSM Bloomberg Scholarship

Bloomberg Scholarship Impact
Making MSM Student Dreams Become A Reality

child who vowed to be-
come a doctor after wit-
nessing his uncle’s death
r
o
A m pancreatic cancer.
f
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 trauma — and knew
he wanted to help. A girl who lost her
five-year-old brother to meningitis
after doctors failed to make the right force still lags, with just five percent house School of Medicine has been
diagnosis. of physicians identifying as African known for educating the next gen-
All of these children have grown American. This is due, in part, to the eration of Black physicians who will
up to become medical students at high cost of completing a medical de- provide culturally competent care to
Morehouse School of Medicine in gree. The impact is significant, given underserved communities. Indeed,
Atlanta. And all of them are now the that studies show that Black patients about 66 percent of our graduates are
recipients of scholarships as part of tend to have better outcomes when doing just that.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $100-mil- treated by Black physicians. “Many schools have mission
lion gift to the nation’s historically “It is important to address this statements that are more or less the
Black medical schools. shortage because Black people are same. Morehouse School of Medicine
MSM’s Black MD students, who dying at a greater rate than any other lives up to its mission,” says scholar-
typically come from more difficult so- racial group,” says MSM scholarship ship recipient Alexandria Williams.
cioeconomic circumstances than their recipient Ngafla Bakayoko. “If we This focus on health equity has
peers, tend to leave medical school are to grow a community of Black not gone unnoticed; MSM twice
with crushing debt that threatens doctors who know the obstacles their bested all other medical schools, in
to dissuade them from taking low- communities face, we will be able to a national study, to be named num-
er-paying jobs in needy communities. address this.” ber-one for the institution’s dedica-
With the Bloomberg Philanthropies Young Black people need role tion to the social mission of medical
gift of $26.3 million to MSM, via the models, to show that it is possible education.
Greenwood Initiative, these doctors to pursue a career in medicine, says “MSM resonates with my per-
will be freed to serve in primary care MSM scholarship recipient Darius sonal convictions that health care is
and underprivileged communities — Stephens. “I didn’t have a Black male a right, not a privilege,” says scholar-
and serve an estimated 44,800 pa- doctor until I was 23 years old,” he ship recipient Adonias Christopher
tients over the course of their careers. says. “That has been one of my moti- Lemma. “I did not enter this profes-
As you know, the country is vators throughout medical school.” sion for the money. I am in it to help
becoming more and more diverse, but For more than 40 years, More-
the diversity of its healthcare work- continued on next page