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Transcription:

Many students who come into the MSMS program typically were not given a chance at medical school.

All the students coming in here, or most of them want to go into medical school, so we prepare them as if they were medical students.

The MSMS program is a one year graduate program that mimics our first year of medical school.

This is a way of exposing those students to what is it really like to be in medical school, because they take the same medical school curriculum

by developing this master’s program and being able to track the students through as if they were medical students. It’s why we have such high board passage rates. And with that data, I’m able to change the curriculum on the fly based on if they know it, or they don’t know it and help guide them down different pathways

I know that the foundation that I was getting here through this MSMS program was going to benefit me no matter what direction I went through.

We want to give you a chance as an MSMS student to show that you can actually go through the curriculum and succeed.

I had the same problem I was more afraid “Am I going to do well in med school? Will I be able to pass the classes and keep going on” coming to Ponce made me realize I’m perfectly capable of doing that.

You’re providing the student an opportunity to get a career that’s going to last their whole life, earn a good living, raise a family and help contribute to society. That’s what this program provides.

Transcription:

So the mission statement’s very simple – to train culturally competent health care workers using research and academics to do it.

I was one of those individuals who went through medical school. And for some times, I was told that I just could not be a doctor. And I didn’t want that to happen to somebody else.

Having somebody who looks like me as a Hispanic female would make a lot of people more comfortable.

We need to start looking at how do we get students from inner city America? How do we get students from rural America into the healthcare workforce.

And so in this role, I think it’s important to train culturally competent medical students who are humble, who understand the barriers that exist when our patients try to get into the healthcare system.

The students that are going to go back into these communities of need are students from those areas.

Ponce’s mission statement is the reason why I did apply and not even just saying it, but actually doing it to be the change that we want to see.

Because we’re willing to take that risk and give students opportunities that no one else will creates a very unique type of school, something that’s very different than all the other 144 medical schools in the United States.