“By funding the education of individuals from different minority groups with notable disadvantages stacked against them, the TMA has made my dream of forming a culturally competent and more equitable health care system possible,” the McGovern Medical School at UT Health student said in this video.
The 2022 recipients’ desire to care for Texas’ increasingly diverse population, commitment to serving their future communities, and academic achievement made them rise to the top among a competitive field of promising future physicians.
TMA created the minority scholarship program in 1998 to help diversify the physician workforce to meet the health care needs of Texans. The scholarship program is one of only a few available in Texas for underrepresented minority students (as defined by the Association of American Medical Colleges) seeking a career in medicine. Eligible applicants are Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American.
The scholarship lessens the financial burden of the minority students’ medical education, which averages about $200,000. TMA has awarded 178 scholarships totaling $1.4 million since the program’s inception.
“This year’s scholarship recipients have a breadth of life experience including cultural, language, and personal health-care access challenges,” said TMA Board of Trustees member Kimberly Monday, MD, of Houston, who serves on TMA’s Educational Scholarship and Loan Committee. “These experiences will help ensure the next generation of physicians understands the challenges Texans face when accessing health care.”
Meet four of these outstanding 2022 scholarship winners in this video.
The 2023 program, now open, will award scholarships to students entering medical school in the fall of that year. If you know someone who qualifies, encourage him or her to apply now. For more information, contact Azalia Perez.
The Minority Scholarship Program is funded by the TMA Foundation (TMAF), the association’s philanthropic arm. Recipients are known as the “Bayardo Scholars” in recognition of the majority support provided by the TMA Foundation Trust Fund of Roberto J. Bayardo, MD, and the late Agniela (Annie) M. Bayardo of Houston. This year’s scholarships also are supported by generous gifts from the TMAF Minority Scholarship Endowment of the late Patrick Leung, MD, and Nancy Leung of Midland; H-E-B; TMAF donor physicians and their families; and TMA county medical societies.