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Camaraderie, encouragement at core of student-led ‘Black Men in Medicine’
When undergraduate Jordan Matamoro-Mejias listened to Irv Kelley speak about his experiences as a first-year Virginia Commonwealth University medical school student at a Black Men In Medicine student organization Zoom presentation earlier this semester, the junior psychology major from Woodbridge, Virginia, saw himself in the older student’s shoes. “Seeing [Irv] as me and as my fellow brothers and Black men in medicine, we could actually see him as, ‘Hey, that could be me one day. That will be me one day,’” Matamoro-Mejias said. Matamoro-Mejias does not have any family members in the medical field, so affirmations and support he has established through Black Men in Medicine have played a key role in his professional path. Most importantly, the student organization has created strong camaraderie with like-minded friends and support from mentors who look like him. “I am interested in pursuing medicine because I’ve had numerous family members that have died from preventable causes,” said MatamoroMejias, who serves as treasurer of Black Men in Medicine. “Growing up playing sports and getting injured, I had to get surgery and the anesthesiologist was the first person to comfort me before I let a stranger cut my body open. This interaction influenced me to want to become an anesthesiologist, and I would like to have this impact on my patients.” Black Men in Medicine was established at VCU to help break down the many barriers to Black male undergraduates pursuing careers in the profession. Former VCU pre-med
The executive board of Black Men in Medicine (left to right) Nanda Nana, secretary; Mohammed Al-meflehi, co-president; Jordan MatamoroMejias, treasurer; and Isaiah King, co-president. PHOTO: Thomas Kojcsich adviser Henry Lewis started the group in 2016 to make a concerted effort to reach out to, and support, a population underrepresented in the field. A 2015 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges reported that in 2014 Black men accounted for a total of 1,337 applicants and 515 enrolled students at medical schools. That proportionally low number, which had dipped from 1970, made Lewis examine what was in place at VCU to encourage Black males to enter medicine through more targeted advising.
The Association of American Medical Colleges’ latest report from 2019 shows that diversity among medical school applicants, students and graduates has continued to grow. However, gains in diversity are not shared by all groups: application, entry and graduation rates for Black or African American students still lag behind. Matamoro-Mejias hopes to add to the actual total count of 830 Black males under 34 years old practicing medicine in the U.S. right now, compared to 12,125 white men under 34 practicing.
In 2015, Black students weren’t coming to Lewis for pre-med advising, although he identified at least 100 at the time. His concerted efforts, though, encouraged many of those students to visit with him for clear information on the requirements for the rigorous and admittedly intimidating pre-med track. Lewis, who until recently served as the director of recruitment and training for the VCU College of Health Professions, said this year he saw the successful effect of his efforts, now that Black Men in Medicine is an official student-led organization. Students he had reached out to years ago are now in medical school and speaking on panels that inspire students such as MatamoroMejias. Black Men in Medicine members support each other as study partners and go as a group on medical school tours. “We wanted them to work together to become doctors,” Lewis said. “Serving on the executive board gives this group the leadership experience, the teamwork experience. It shows that they're truly invested in their future in medicine.” “I think one of the biggest obstacles [for Black men to enter medicine] is really the exposure part of it,” said Mohammed Al-meflehi, co-president of Black Men in Medicine and a chemistry major in the College of Humanities and Sciences. “A lot of people come from backgrounds where they probably don't know a Black physician or nobody in their family has been to college,” Al-meflehi said. “[There are] barriers that prevent them from that kind of exposure. One of
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