Did you know?

By: Dr. Loretta Jackson

The School of Medicine (SOM) is currently one of the two professional programs at UMMC that only accepts residents of the state of Mississippi as applicants. This is in line with the school’s primary mission to produce physicians to care for all citizens of the state. If not born in Mississippi, an individual over the age of 21 would have to live in the state for 12 consecutive months and have acceptable proof of residency such as state tax returns or a state driver’s license to be considered a resident of the state of Mississippi.

Given this requirement of the applicant pool for the program, the SOM engages in outreach programs to high school and college students. This type of outreach is critical because we all understand that the pathway to medicine is long and arduous and those who engage in the process need to be nurtured. The intent of the outreach programs is to showcase the various specialties in medicine and outline the pathways to a degree in medicine.  During some of the outreach programs, the SOM works with the other educational programs on campus located within the other schools to introduce prospective students to the array of educational programs at UMMC. This occurred this summer with 49 junior and senior students who are enrolled in high schools from all over rural Mississippi and spent a week on campus learning about medicine and the other educational programs available at UMMC.

In addition to the outreach work, the team in the Office of Admissions works all year to actively recruit applicants to the educational program. Dr. Demondes Haynes, Associate Dean for Admissions, leads this group. They have events on this campus such as college premed day twice a year and regularly visit colleges and universities to meet with students who are considering a career in medicine. They offer pre- and post-application counseling to students. In addition, they host a day on campus for Pre-Health Advisors to ensure that the information that is provided to premedical students is current.

These outreach and recruitment activities are important to sustain and continue to grow our educational program. This fall we admitted our largest class in the past 25 years with 170 new students into the educational program. To ensure that we continue to have a healthy interest in this educational program, we need our faculty and staff to understand the support that is available for outreach and recruitment. Thanks for all that you do in mentoring and counseling students!