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As with other large institutions, racism is deeply ingrained in the ways our medical system cares for people of color and Black patients specifically. Black patients are 50% less likely to be given pain medicine than their white counterparts, Black folks are 5 times more likely to die during childbirth than white folks and the average lifespan for a Black person in America is 6 years shorter than a white person’s.
While there are larger systemic changes needed to revolutionize our healthcare system, there are also individual changes that could improve outcomes for Black and brown patients, including having Black and brown doctors!
Advisors recommend that aspiring doctors apply to upwards of 20 medical schools, which can cost thousands of dollars. The barriers to becoming a doctor begin years before getting a white coat and systemically keep low-income folks from becoming doctors.
Adolonia (name changed for protection against racist backlash) was born and raised in a low income area of San Francisco and in her own words “was raised with a polarized view of medicine. My father, a Black man from the south side of Chicago, had an inherent distrust of medical providers. He developed diabetes at a young age and refused to see a doctor despite his uncontrolled diabetes as an adult. When I was 18 years old after my second year of college, my dad died of a heart attack. My mother grew up in a rural area in the Philippines where she did not have access to quality healthcare. When she immigrated to the United States, she began receiving regular healthcare, and since then, has followed every doctors’ recommendation. The stark difference between my parents’ experience in healthcare exposed me to the discrepancies in trust that marginalized communities have towards healthcare providers. These viewpoints motivate me to establish and build trust with medically marginalized communities to advance community health.”
As a person, Adolonia is able to connect systems of oppression to individual experiences, contextualizing and questioning why her communities aren’t getting the care they deserve. She is warm and welcoming, curious, incredibly intelligent and a fierce advocate for justice. As a physician, she will bring all of this to caring for medically marginalized folks in her community.
In order to do that, she needs your help paying for med school applications. The first $3000 will pay for medical school admissions costs and anything beyond that will help support her through medical school!
While there are larger systemic changes needed to revolutionize our healthcare system, there are also individual changes that could improve outcomes for Black and brown patients, including having Black and brown doctors!
Advisors recommend that aspiring doctors apply to upwards of 20 medical schools, which can cost thousands of dollars. The barriers to becoming a doctor begin years before getting a white coat and systemically keep low-income folks from becoming doctors.
Adolonia (name changed for protection against racist backlash) was born and raised in a low income area of San Francisco and in her own words “was raised with a polarized view of medicine. My father, a Black man from the south side of Chicago, had an inherent distrust of medical providers. He developed diabetes at a young age and refused to see a doctor despite his uncontrolled diabetes as an adult. When I was 18 years old after my second year of college, my dad died of a heart attack. My mother grew up in a rural area in the Philippines where she did not have access to quality healthcare. When she immigrated to the United States, she began receiving regular healthcare, and since then, has followed every doctors’ recommendation. The stark difference between my parents’ experience in healthcare exposed me to the discrepancies in trust that marginalized communities have towards healthcare providers. These viewpoints motivate me to establish and build trust with medically marginalized communities to advance community health.”
As a person, Adolonia is able to connect systems of oppression to individual experiences, contextualizing and questioning why her communities aren’t getting the care they deserve. She is warm and welcoming, curious, incredibly intelligent and a fierce advocate for justice. As a physician, she will bring all of this to caring for medically marginalized folks in her community.
In order to do that, she needs your help paying for med school applications. The first $3000 will pay for medical school admissions costs and anything beyond that will help support her through medical school!