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ASU group helps pre-med students

• A program designed to help students get into medical school has its first three success stories.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — When Albany State University graduate Emantavius Williams is asked what the most difficult part of the application process to medical school is, he has three words.

"Expensive, expensive, expensive."

Williams and two others were honored Friday as the first three members of ASU's Griffin-Jordan Minority Association of Pre-med Students to be accepted into medical school since the organization's founding in 2005.

MAPS founder Dr. Linda Walden said she began the organization under the umbrella of the Griffin-Jordan Medical society to help premed students get into medical school.

She had heard from many students that few of them were being accepted to med school, she said.

"I started it basically like a mentoring program," she said before explaining that she and other doctors allowed the medical students to shadow them in their medical offices and help them along the application process.

"We, as physicians, are the best advisers because we've been there and we know what it takes and we can share or own personal experiences of what it takes," she said.

Williams said he spent two years after graduating in 2006 and about $1,500-$2,000 applying to different medical schools before being accepted to Ross University in Dominica, a small Caribbean country of approximately 70,000 people.

"For me, it (being accepted to med school) is a feeling of relief," said Williams, who leaves today for Dominica. "I've been trying for about two years now to get in. It's also (a feeling) of excitement because you always have these dreams of being a great physician, so now it's a way to fulfill those dreams."

Another difficulty Williams said he faced during the med school application process was writing personal statements. Many of the schools ask how the applicant became interested in medicine.

"My interest in medicine is innate," he said. "Even as a little boy, I told my daddy I wanted to be a brain surgeon. So I've always wanted to be a doctor."

When he begins classes at Ross on May 12, Williams said he will be learning more about anatomy, biochemistry, cellular molecular biology, genetics and ethical behavior in medicine, among other things.

After finishing, he said he hopes to begin practicing medicine in his hometown of Camilla, though he's not sure which field of medicine he wants to specialize in, emergency room medicine or obstetrics and gynecology.

Davoy Murray, a chemistry major who was schedule to graduate Saturday, and Keisha Harvey, a biology major also scheduled for a Saturday graduation, were the other two students to be honored at the dinner. The students were given scholarships ranging from $500-$1,000, Walden said.

Griffin-Jordan Medical Society President Dr. Devell Young said the program was good for the students because it challenged them to give back to the community and helped them along the way.

"We want to let them know they're special, and they can achieve even beyond what we've achieved and give back (to the community) more than we could give back," he said.

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