ST JOHN, USVI: The University of the Virgin Islands has announced that two more undergraduate students,  Malori Callender and Shanedelle Norford, have been selected to begin the Early Medical School Selection Program this summer at Boston University.

The program works in tandem with fourteen American colleges and universities, eleven of which are historically black institutions. Another has a significant American-Indian enrollment, while the other two have significant American-Mexican enrollment. Caribbean student, Carissa Webster Lake of Anguilla also graduated from UVI, and will enter the Boston University program full time in the fall.
 
The special medical education initiative is administered by The Boston University Office of Minority Affairs. Students begin taking undergraduate courses on the Boston University campus during the summer months after successfully completing their first two years of college at the University of the Virgin islands.  The following summer they return to Boston for continued undergraduate course work.

The Early Medical School Selection Program includes additional instruction in time management, study skills, medical terminology,  biochemistry,  preparation for the MCAT (the Medical School Entrance Examination) and a special seminar, " Race, Ethnicity and Health."  Individual students are mentored  by a physician during both summer sessions in order to get a taste of  what life is like as a medical doctor. During their senior year students attend Boston University full time where they are enrolled in regular, undergraduate courses, and medical school courses receiving credit for both.
 
The American Medical Association has stated, "this is an example of the kind of efforts that medical schools can make to increase minority enrollment." American Medical Association resources (2004) indicate that only 2.3 percent of practicing physicians are African American, (with only 4.0 percent of that total being female),  3.2 were Hispanic, and .06 were Native American or Alaska Native.  No specific data was available regarding Caribbean-Americans. The data was representative of three fifths of all practicing physicans in the United States and its territories.

USVI Delegate to Congress, Donna M. Christensen

USVI Delegate to Congress, Donna Christensen, who is the first black female physician to serve in Congress,  issued the following statement about the program, "The shortage of physicians from diverse backgrounds that reflect the ethnic, racial, cultural and linguistic make-up of the United States  is an issue of concern for this country... the poor quality of  K through 12 education available to children in communities of color  in this country  does not prepare them well for health professions. It is unfortunately still true that some teachers,  counselors and administrators still discourage African Americans and other minorities," and, "The cost of medical education is a barrier as is the make up of  admission boards and  those which govern medical education.  Programs like those at UVI  which serves a student body of mostly color, and which draws students from across the Caribbean region is one which opens the pipeline for students who would not otherwise pursue a medical school education. It is a part of the remedy for the shortage which must be addressed to close the gaps in health care and health status that people of African descent in the United States continue to experience."