Thursday, January 31, 2013

National Medical Fellowships Clarifies Policy Towards Pacific Islanders, Recognizes Underrepresentation!

Just two months after announcing the Actuarial Foundation's decision to open up its underrepresented minority scholarship to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, I am elated to share more good news: this week National Medical Fellowships Inc announced that its underrepresented minority scholarships are now open to Pacific Islanders!  They are in the process of updating their website and related application material to reflect that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders may apply.

National Medical Fellowships Inc's decision opens up two underrepresented minority scholarships: the NMF Emergency Scholarship Fund, and the NMF Need Based Scholarship Program. Both are designed to help underrepresented minority medical students finance their studies.

The Pacific Islander Access project learned about this good news through correspondence with National Medical Fellowships Inc's CEO and President, who responded directly to us after receiving our information about Pacific Islander underrepresentation in higher education and within medical professions. We are grateful for her response, and even more appreciative that aspiring Pacific Islanders may be able to use NMF's underrepresented minority scholarships to help them become physicians and surgeons in their communities. It's important to note that NMF had already included Native Hawaiians as an underrepresented group; however, this clarification opens the door to other Pacific Islanders, in recognition of the clear data our underrepresentation.

We have said it to them personally, but we want to publicly express our thanks to the National Medical Fellowships Inc for making this important clarification. Alongside others like the HBCU and the Actuarial Foundation, they are setting a trend among underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships.

To learn more about National Medical Fellowships Inc and their various programs, please click here: link

Kawika

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