Morehouse medical students surprised with $100,000 each to pay off debt
ATLANTA - Morehouse School of Medicine has been awarded $26.3 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by entrepreneur and former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, the school announced Thursday.
The donation is part of a $100-million fund for students attending the nation’s four historically Black medical schools: Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta), Charles R. Drew University of Medicine (Los Angeles), Howard University College of Medicine (Washington, D.C.), and Meharry Medical College (Nashville) over the next four years.
Students at Morehouse School of Medicine currently enrolled in student aid programs will receive approximately $100,000.
ATLANTA - JULY 18: Morehouse School Of Medicine (founded in 1975) on July 18, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
This is the largest scholarship investment ever received by Morehouse School of Medicine
This is the first investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, which is named for the Tulsa, Ok., community and historical site of “Black Wall Street” and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. The Greenwood Initiative seeks to increase generational wealth among Black families and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities and institutions.
“Our students incur about $200,000 in debt on average,” Faculty Member Bennie Harris said.
Dr. Harris believes this will offer encouragement to help students continue with medicine.
“We need more black doctors in this country,” Dr. Harris said.
“I thought this was fake. I was thinking if this was real or not,” Student Nina Wyatt said.
“I’m a first-generation college student. In undergrad, I had Hope Scholarship and other scholarships so I didn’t have loans. When I went to medical school I had to take out loans. Morehouse is a private medical school and it is more expensive,” Student Chyna Beck said.
The announcement came via Zoom but the excitement was still the same as if they were physically together.
African Americans make up just five percent of the physician workforce. A major factor is mostly in part to the high cost of schooling.
Chyna and Nina are third-year students.
Chyna plans to specialize in pediatric medicine while Nina wants to focus on urology with an emphasis on Prostate cancer.
“My passion is with kids and in pediatrics, we don’t make that much money so this scholarship is huge in that capacity,” Beck said.
“Urology is one of the least diverse field. It’s predominantly a white male dominated field,” Wyatt said.
“There’s a lot that has gone on in 2020 so to get this kind of news is a silver lining in a sea of despair,” Dr. Harris said.
Officials believe the money will be available soon.
“This historic investment in the Morehouse School of Medicine will lift the crushing burden of student debt and empower our graduates to take on the systemic racial inequities and injustice that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Morehouse School of Medicine President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD. “These dollars will help free up future doctors to immediately head to the front lines and save Black lives while also improving healthcare access, equity, and quality for everyone. We appreciate Mayor Bloomberg’s investment in health equity.”
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“More Black doctors will mean more Black lives saved, and fewer health problems that limit economic opportunity,” said Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, and three-term Mayor of New York City. “During my campaign for President, I proposed a bold set of policies — which we called the Greenwood Initiative — to shrink the racial wealth gap. Today’s commitment by Bloomberg Philanthropies is just the first step we will take to bring that work to life.”
Students currently in years two, three, and four of medical school will receive retroactive scholarships of roughly $25,000 per year through their graduations, with the current class of first-year students graduating in 2024. Each institution will communicate this news to their communities in the coming days via a series of virtual forums and on-campus town halls with appropriate social distancing, mask-wearing, and other public health and sanitation protocols and testing in place.
This is the first investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, which is named for the Tulsa, Ok., community and historical site of “Black Wall Street” and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. The Greenwood Initiative seeks to increase generational wealth among Black families and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities and institutions.