Help Dr. Vicenty Increase Diversity in Medicine

Hello, my name is Dr. Laureano Andrade Vicenty, MD. I am the founder of Premed Disciples Annual Premedical Scholarship Course. For the last five years and counting, our course has provided medical college admissions test (MCAT), medical school application (AMCAS), and interview preparation to 150 underrepresented minorities in medicine (URMs) and their allies through a series of over 85 pre-recorded ~90 minute lectures, quizzes, live group sessions, private tutoring, primary application review, and mock interview days, all free of cost. We conduct this annual scholarship course to combat barriers to medical school admission, specifically those created and propagated by structural racism, in part, via a pattern of substandard education and appraisal through disparately funded school districts taking identical assessment exams.

Today, in keep with our mission, we are raising money to provide next year’s scholarship recipients who are of a low-income background with a stipend (Project URM Stipend) to allow them to focus solely on studying for the MCAT and applying to medical school. This stipend would be used to support scholarship recipient’s food, drink, books, and housing needs during their MCAT preparation. Scholarship recipients who demonstrate need would be disbursed the funds evenly over the course of 3 months.

This idea arose from a simple observation we have made over the last 5 years: individuals who do not have work obligations are more likely to score well on the MCAT and be accepted into medical school. The same has held true for our scholarship cohorts, and we would like to address this disparity, but just like all our endeavors, we cannot do it alone.

Premed Disciples Annual Scholarship Course is supported by 30 volunteer physician and medical student mentors from around the United States every year. We are extremely appreciative of their generous donations of funds, time, and commitment. It is these sorts of donations that will bring about the change that we would like to see in the world. It is with this idea in mind that we now ask for your monetary donation to support Project URM Stipend. Any amount, be it one dollar, or a thousand dollars, would be used to support URM premedical student’s dream of becoming a physician and taking care of our communities.

Thank you from myself, the students, and from the rest of the Premed Disciples Scholarship Course team.

Sincerely,

Laureano Andrade Vicenty, MD

Manuel Bramble, MD

Alec Kinczewski, MD

Tashnee Willis, DPT, PT

Krissia Rivera-Perla, MPH