The two-year-old City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine is the rare medical school with a student body that approaches the demographic diversity of the communities it seeks to serve.
Fifty-three percent of the student population of CUNY School of Medicine are members of underrepresented minorities. African-American students comprise 35 percent and Hispanic students are 18 percent of the student body. The national average for medical schools is 59 percent White. The school is on a mission to increase quality healthcare for underserved communities, says university officials.
“We want to provide primary healthcare to underserved communities and we also want to diversify the medical profession,” says Dr. Vincent Boudreau, president of The City College of New York (CCNY). “We think providing adequate primary healthcare in underserved areas requires that you diversify the medical profession.”
The School of Medicine is based on the CCNY campus in Harlem and is part of a seven-year program that includes a bachelor’s degree (completed in three years) and then the four years of medical school.
“I really feel like my school can serve as a beacon of light throughout the city for young people of all different backgrounds,” says third-year medical student John Thomas. “It shows other institutions that the schools with greater numbers of people of color, women, can overachieve and that it’s time to give more of those students a shot.”
Mission
“I think the school has made it a priority to create space to talk about uncomfortable topics, such as race, gender, sexual orientation and systemic injustice,” says Thomas. “We are taught to identify barriers to care and think critically about solutions to health disparities. We even have classes dedicated to learning empathy and maintaining the dignity of our patients.”
