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FAMU, Ross Partner To Educate More African-American Doctors

Piron Guillaume
/
Unsplash

Only 6 percent of U.S. physicians are African-American. But Florida A&M University has a plan it hopes will help grow that number. FAMU is collaborating with Ross University to help its students pursue medical degrees.

Carl Goodman is an Associate Provost at FAMU. He says the university’s partnership is aimed at getting more minority students into the medical field.

“Because of FAMU’s student population being about 80 percent African-American, it’s definitely a good pipeline," Goodman said. "If you look at our students in the pre-professional health program, these are some outstanding talented students on the academic side, so knowing that they have their requirements going into their first three years and they’ve met their requirements, they have an automatic early admission into the medical program at Ross University.”

Any student who completes Ross University’s requirements is granted automatic admission into the College of Medicine on its Barbados campus. The program also grants students fee waivers for their first semesters at Ross.

Casey Chapter is a graduate student at Florida State University studying Public Interest Media & Communication. She got her start in journalism at the FSView & Florida Flambeau, where she served as a reporter, News Editor, and eventually Managing Editor. She has previously reported on COVID-19 and K-12 education for the Tallahassee Democrat, and currently serves as the Managing Editor of the Florida Student News Watch, a journalism program that aims to get students and recent graduates' work published with a focus on environmental reporting.