Your Health

Why an HBCU med school put CARES Act money into students’ pockets

By BLAKE FARMER

Nashville Public Radio/KHN

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Just before students at Meharry Medical College went home for Thanksgiving, Dr. James Hildreth, the school’s president, emailed them a video message that he acknowledged seemed hard to believe. Or at least they had to give it a second listen.

“We’ll gift each of you $10,000 in cash,” he said, looking at the camera. “You heard me right.”

They were told to expect a direct deposit the next day or pick up a check in person. Hildreth, an expert in infectious diseases who helped lead Nashville’s pandemic response, explained that this gift with no strings attached was money from the CARES Act, a major COVID-19 relief law passed by Congress in 2020. He asked only that they be “good stewards” of the windfall.

After deep consideration, Meharry’s administration decided to give roughly a third of its CARES Act funding—$10 million—directly to its future doctors, dentists and public health researchers. All told, 956 students received payments.

Meharry’s students had already been heavily involved in the pandemic response, staffing Nashville’s mass COVID testing and vaccination sites. But the money isn’t so much surprise compensation for volunteer efforts as it is an investment in a future career—and an assist in overcoming financial hurdles Black students especially face to become medical professionals.

While Black Americans make up roughly 13% of the population, the Association of American Medical Colleges finds Black doctors account for just 5% of the nation’s working physicians—a figure that has grown slowly over more than a century. And studies have found that Black patients often want to be cared for by someone whom they consider culturally competent in acknowledging their heritage, beliefs and values during treatment.

Meharry graduates more Black physicians than almost any other U.S. school. And half of its M.D.s enter the high-demand but lowerpaying specialty of primary care.

“We felt that there was no better way to begin distributing these funds than by giving to our students who will soon give so much to our world,” Hildreth said.

Cheers erupted in the library as students clicked the video link.

Andreas Nelson fell silent, he recalled later. He went to his banking app and stared in disbelief. “$10,000 was sitting just in my bank account. It was astonishing,” he said. “I was literally lost for words.”

The Chicago native is finishing a master’s degree in health and science at Meharry with hopes of entering its dental school. The average student loan debt in the program totals more than $280,000. So, undoubtedly, 10 grand won’t make much of a dent in the debt.

But the money in his pocket eases his top concern of making rent each month. Nelson said it feels as though he’s being treated like an adult, allowing him to decide what his greatest needs are in getting through school.

“It’s motivating,” Nelson said. “Because that means they have trust in us to do with this money whatever the cause may be— whether it be student debt, investing or just personal enjoyment.”

Across the board, students at HBCUs rely more on student loans than students at historically white institutions. Roughly 80% take out student loans, according to an analysis by UNCF, formerly known as the United Negro College Fund, and they borrow considerably more.

Meharry was founded a decade after the Civil War to help those who had been enslaved. But the 145-year-old institution has always struggled financially, and so have its students.

The reasons are rooted in the country’s racist past, which has left the institutions with less money potentially available for scholarships than other universities. And students’ families generally have less wealth to tap into since Black households across the country have averaged around $17,000 in net worth—about a tenth of the average for white families.

Meharry’s average student debt is far higher than other area schools of medicine at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee, representing both private and public institutions.

Virtually all colleges and universities received allotments under the CARES Act, but HBCUs have been much more aggressive about funneling substantial amounts directly to students, who tend to have greater need. More than 20 HBCUs have erased outstanding tuition balances. Some have canceled student fees.

But Meharry, one of the few stand-alone HBCU graduate schools, is a rare case in cutting checks for students.

“These young people are rising to medical school against all odds,” said Lodriguez Murray, who leads public policy and government affairs at UNCF. “Of course, they have to borrow more because people who look like them have less.”

During the pandemic, major philanthropists have taken new interest in supporting the few HBCU medical schools. Michael Bloomberg committed $100 million to four institutions, including Meharry, to help educate more Black doctors.

Students at Meharry can now apply for $100,000 scholarships. The $34 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies is also going toward other kinds of financial support.

The school is now offering, for no additional fee, expensive testprep services through a Bostonbased company, MedSchoolCoach. The service, which entails paying a doctor by the hour to help with studying, can cost thousands of dollars.

While the price is often out of reach for students tight on cash, acing the benchmark exams toward board licensure is key to landing coveted fellowships, qualifying for lucrative specialties or just finishing on time. And Meharry’s fouryear completion rate of roughly 70% is below most schools. The most up-to-date national average is around 82%.

For some, Murray said, a $10,000 windfall may make all the difference in whether they cross the finish line and become a doctor who can afford all their medical school debt.

“Many of those students are borrowing a lot of money to complete their dream, and to become relatively high earners in the future,” Murray said. “The fact that these students are largely coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds means that the funds that Meharry turned around and gave to the students are particularly impactful.”

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KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

all New Yorkers to remain vigilant against these types of attacks and take the appropriate steps to protect their data and their wallets.”

Fresh off of the holidays, millions of Americans shopping online continue to be targets for scams. According to the FBI’s Criminal Crime Complaint Center (IC3), victims received emails advertising hot-ticket or hard to find items, fake websites and ads promoting unrealistic discounts and bargains, and online surveys designed to steal personal information.

However, the most common scams were on social media, where young people particularly fall victim. Social media posts, often appearing to have been shared by a known friend, will offer vouchers, gift cards, freebies, and contests. Users were also targeted with social media hosted ads for non-existent or counterfeit items.

In addition to losing money on a bogus purchase, unsuspecting consumers may be giving away personal information and debit or credit card details. Victims may receive nothing except a compromised identity or fraudulent card charges.

In an interview with the AmNews, cofounder and CEO of Silicon Harlem Clayton Banks said the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for the rise in scams and victims. He says scams have risen to nearly 500% over the last 10 years. With a large workforce still working from home, and a rise in the use of “smart” devices, scammers have even more opportunities to trap their prey.

“So when you look at all of the smart devices that were starting to embrace, those devices have a lot of vulnerability, and scammers are getting very savvy, getting able to get a hold of your devices and create a whole problem and ultimately get to ransomware.”

What’s the best way to protect yourself online? Banks says one of the first things to do is to change passwords on various online accounts.

“Make your password longer,” he said. “The need to be about 10 digits or more because hackers have no desire to work hard to break you. They’d rather go to an easy password they can break then have to figure out 10 different digits. Social media is very vulnerable if you don’t have a strong password.”

As far as emails and websites are concerned, Banks says never click on anything you aren’t familiar with. Doing so can result in someone getting insistent access to your personal information.

“Don’t click it. A lot of people are walking around with FOMO (fear of missing out) but it’s not worth it. You can ruin your entire database and your entire computer. If you don’t want to delete it, find out who you can call directly or at least look it up. All they need is to be able to have access to your IP capability to control your equipment.”

Criminal justice consultant and assistant district attorney Leroy Frazer said people who do become victims of scams should inform the police; however, local law enforcement doesn’t always have the resources to investigate phone and internet scams. Many scams originate from foreign countries making it hard to arrest and charge suspects or recover lost funds.

“The mere fact that your cell phone can flash ‘scam likely’ speaks volumes because the fact of the matter is, this is a regular thing that has gone on,” Frazer said. “A lot of times it’s international and these things seem to be here to stay, so you have to be smart about it.”

Frazer told the AmNews that victims can also report scams to federal agencies like the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission. However, he said consumer education is the best way to not become a victim.

“You have to be smart enough to know that there’s no free lunch,” Frazer said. “Nobody’s going to give you anything free. There’s nothing to gain from it.”

Victims of phone scams can file a complaint with the FCC by going to consumercomplaints.fcc.gov. Online scam victims can file a complaint to IC3 by going to ic3.gov/Home/FileComplaint.

Adams

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our City’s future. Alongside the new DOE Chancellor and Chief of Staff, they make a formidable team.”

Mike Prohaska, business manager of Laborers’ Local 79, added to the Assemblymember’s point, stating that Adams will be a champion of working-class New Yorkers.

“We look forward to partnering with Eric Adams’ mayoral administration to create good-paying union jobs and real entry into our city’s economy for Black and Brown New Yorkers,” said Prohaska. “We think Adams is off to a strong start as mayor of New York City, and setting a clear agenda for growth, public safety, and justice. Adams’ administration is rightly focused on lifting up workingclass communities of color hit hardest by COVID, systemic racism, and lack of opportunity. Crafting and implementing policies that create real entry into our city’s economy and industries will empower working-class New Yorkers who have too often been left behind.”

But one place Adams hasn’t gotten too much praise comes from anti-police and prison brutality activists. With his desire to bring back solitary confinement, increase NYPD patrol units on the subway and plainclothes units that some have deemed overly aggressive, people such as local activist Josmar Trujillo think it’ll be more of the same.

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Nominating Committee of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ) has commenced the process of reviewing potential candidates for election by its Board of Directors.

Persons who live or work in Upper Manhattan may be eligible for consideration by the Committee for nomination to CommunityBased positions on the UMEZ Board. Others may be considered for vacant At-Large seats on our Board.

UMEZ is particularly interested in nominees with senior-level skills, knowledge, experience, and relationships in one or more of the following business and not-for-profit areas: (i) economic development, (ii) human resources, (iii) commercial lending, (iv) real estate finance, and (v) technology.

Nominations may be made by mailing or hand-delivering a letter together with the nominee’s resume to the Committee at the address below. Alternatively, you may submit the form provided at the bottom of this Notice together with a resume. Please send the completed form and nominee’s resume to the UMEZ Nominating Committee at the address below. Submissions will also be accepted via email at info@umez.org, or by facsimile at (212) 4109083.

Address: UMEZ Nominating Committee, 55 West 125th Street, 11th Floor, New York, New York 10027 Deadline: All nominations should be received by Friday, January 31, 2022 The UMEZ Nominating Committee will hold meetings on Tuesday, February 8, and Wednesday, February 16 commencing at 5:30 P.M. to interview nominees. The meetings will be held at:

55 West 125th Street, 11th Floor, New York, New York 10027

For more information, call UMEZ at: (212) 4100030, Ext. 204 ________________________________________________________________________________________

Candidate Nomination Form

Your Name: _____________________________________________ Candidate’s Name: ________________________________ Telephone: _______________________ Address _______________________________ City:____________ State:______ Zip code: _______

In which Community Board (CB) district does the candidate reside or work?

— CB #9 (West Harlem) — CB #12 (Washington Heights/Inwood) — CB #10 (Central Harlem) — Other Community Board — CB #11 (East Harlem) — Don’t Know

State why you believe the candidate should be elected to the UMEZ Board:

See ADAMS on page 32

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