Black students find community within UNC School of Medicine, despite lack of diversity

When Celeste Green started her first year at the UNC School of Medicine, she already knew two other Black first-year students. The three students had participated in UNC’s Medical Education Development Program three years earlier.

The MED program, which still runs every summer, offers an educational experience for pre-health students to delve into professional curriculum — particularly students who are underrepresented.

Upon starting medical school at UNC, Green quickly found a supportive community of fellow Black medical students.

“There aren’t that many of us, so it wasn’t hard to find each other,” she said.

Green and four other Black students had a group chat called “White Coats Black Doctors.” The five students later used the same name for a nonprofit they founded in 2015 to help increase the diversity of the medical profession.

Organizations like White Coats Black Doctors support the development of Black physicians, addressing an evident lack of diversity in the medical field, including at schools like UNC.

Nationwide, Black or African American students made up 9.5 percent of first-year medical students, according to a report published by the Association of American Medical Colleges in December 2020. This is up from 8.8 percent from the previous year.

Though the number of first-year medical students of color increased in 2020, the AAMC stated that the growth was concentrated at a small number of medical schools — primarily HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions.

'A place where they can find that support'

According to the AAMC, 474 students with undergraduate degrees from UNC applied to medical school last year. Of those, 54 students were African American.

UNC has one of the largest pre-medical student populations in the country, according to the AAMC. As a Black pre-medical student, sophomore Damilola Ayinde said she feels pressured in her courses so others won’t think that she’s “that dumb Black kid.”

“When I find myself being one of the very few Black students in my classes, I do feel like I have to perform well,” Ayinde said.

Ayinde said she feels discouraged in some of her STEM classes because she hasn’t seen many Black peer mentors. But she hopes to see change within medical schools in the years before she applies.

“I feel like there needs to be more Black people in leadership positions,” she said, “so then more Black students will be able to see these very successful Black individuals in medical institutions.”

Green and the other four co-founders of White Coats Black Doctors created the nonprofit to provide a more inviting space and network for Black medical students.

“They know that White Coats Black Doctors is a place where they can find that support,” Green said. “And they can find those groups who can celebrate them through all the ups and the downs that come with being a medical trainee.”

In light of the racial justice protests over the summer, Petros Minasi, Kaplan’s senior director for pre-health programs, said that Kaplan's survey asked medical schools about their support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“What we learned from the survey is that while medical schools are largely supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement, far fewer have specific programs to increase the number of black students at their school," Minasi said.

In addition to the MED program, UNC School of Medicine is rolling out a new program, Nate Thomas, vice dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, said in a statement. 

The program, Carolina Early eXperience in Clinical Education and Learning, will provide an intensive curriculum for one year with guaranteed acceptance to the UNC School of Medicine the following year upon successful completion of milestones, Thomas said.

The experience of Carolina EXCEL is intended to accomplish three goals.

“We will do three things: significantly increase their social capital, immerse them in the culture of the school as leaders, while also working to transform the culture to one that is more inclusive and representative of the state we serve,” Thomas said in the statement.

Minasi said that while these programs and conversations to address inclusivity and representation at universities are important, they need to continue earlier in the education system as well, for high schoolers and middle schoolers.

“This is where those seeds are ultimately planted and the earlier that those conversations can happen, the more active the conversation will be in the long run,” Minasi said.

@praveenavsoma

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