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LAWRENCE -- David Alcindor wasn't planning on becoming a doctor; he was studying to be an architect.
But as an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas in 1997, he went to Haiti for a research project and ended up volunteering with an international medical team that was taking care of children dying from the AIDS virus.
When he returned to KU, he had decided to become a doctor. The only problem was he had no idea where to begin.
Fortunately, his academic adviser told him about the Health Careers Pathways Program, a unique program at KU that helps students from minority and rural backgrounds prepare for the challenges of getting accepted into medical school.
Through the program, Alcindor received intensive training and guidance that helped him prepare for medical school. He currently is in residency at the KU Medical School.
The program began in 1986 and offers instruction on four levels for high school, undergraduate post-baccalaureate and entering medical students. There are more than 100 students from across the nation, including 65 college students -- some from KU and Haskell Indian Nations University -- enrolled in the program.
Many of these students are participating in summer classes and workshops on both the Lawrence campus and the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. The summer sessions under way continue until July 26th.
Amber Reagan-Kendrick, associate director for the program at both the KU Lawrence campus and the KU Medical Center, said the importance of attracting the brightest minority students into the medical profession is more important than ever.
"There is this issue of minorities being afraid to seek medical care because there is a mistrust," she said. "But if you have a doctor that looks like you, maybe you'll go in and seek the medical care."
The program also strives to attract students from rural backgrounds, where there also is a shortage of physicians, she said.
While the program aims to help boost medical school attendance for underrepresented groups, it is by no means a remedial program, Reagan-Kendrick said. In fact, the program, which she said has a successful placement rate of more than 90 percent, requires that the students involved maintain a competitive grade-point average. In the case of undergraduate students, that minimum is a 3.0 on the standard scale of 4.0.
"These are extremely competitive students," she said. "We just try to motivate them and steer them in the right direction that puts them in the proper mode of study, study, study."
Along with providing that motivation, the program covers basic expenses, such as the cost of test preparation materials. It also provides a $40 per day stipend for the students, and they have the option of residing in campus housing while they attend classes.
One of the greatest advantages the program offers is giving the students a jump start on some of the classes they will be required to take to be considered for medical school. The science courses offered are modeled after the same ones required of pre-med students at KU. Other classes include math and English, which focuses on multicultural literature. These intensive classes last one month.
Reagan-Kendrick also teaches a two-month-long survival skills course, which provides insights on studying as well as test-taking strategies.
Alcindor said that next year, he would move his residency to Junction City, Kan. After that, he said he would seek a position in a small town or a rural emergency department, where there is a high demand for physicians.
As one of the many success stories for the program, he remains involved in the Health Careers Pathways Program. Just last week he talked to the current participants about his experiences in the program and in medical school.
Alcindor, who is of African and French descent and was raised among the poorest in Paris, France, said the importance of this program is to provide hope and guidance for other underprivileged or underrepresented students.
"Most of them are not likely to go back into their neighborhood," he said. "But the more of them we introduce into the field, the more likely they are to be role models to other minority or rural students, who might think they don't stand a chance to go into this profession."
As for Reagan-Kendrick, the program does more than just prepare students for medical school -- it also creates connections and bonds that will last forever. In fact, she said she considers Alcindor to be like a son; he calls her his "academic mom."
"Seeing them graduate from medical school and knowing how far they have come is just the most rewarding thing of all," she said.
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