College of Medicine Among Top 10 Medical Schools for Hispanics

Arenas & Teran

Near the end of the UA College of Medicine’s Match Day ceremony, Minerva Romero Arenas and Mario Teran, members of the Class of 2009, place pins on a map of the United States to show where they will go for their general surgery residencies. Both matched in Baltimore, Md. -- Minerva at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and Mario at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. (Credit: Margaret Hartshorn)

By Jean Spinelli, AHSC Office of Public Affairs September 17, 2009

The UA College of Medicine has been named one of the top 10 medical schools for Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine, with campuses in Tucson and Phoenix, has been named one of the top 10 medical schools for Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine.

In its September issue, the publication ranked the UA College of Medicine ninth in the nation for Hispanic students. (The college previously was ranked 10th.)

HispanTelligence, the research arm of Hispanic Business Inc., annually assesses the nation's top universities for Hispanics in the fields of medicine, engineering, business and law.

Methodology for the rankings included the number and percentage of Hispanic students; the number and type of programs and services geared toward recruiting and mentoring Hispanic students; the student retention rate; and the school's standing in U.S. News and World Report rankings.

UA Programs Attract and Retain Hispanic and Other Minority Students

The UA College of Medicine offers a variety of academic, professional and social support services for Hispanic medical students. The College also successfully recruits Hispanic students by working with many partners beginning early in the academic "pipeline."

UA undergraduates and medical students serve as "health-career ambassadors," visiting elementary and middle schools to present interactive health-sciences programs to youth. Summer programs for middle and high school students provide academic enrichment and health-career exploration opportunities.

The college's Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs provides statewide outreach, advances diversity in academic medicine and helps meet the health care needs of Arizona's diverse population.

Through a variety of programs, the office recruits and retains high school students, undergraduates and medical students who are underrepresented in health care fields.

Signature programs include Med-Start (now celebrating its 40th year), an intensive five-week academic enrichment experience for high school students; F.A.C.E.S. (Fostering and Achieving Cultural Equity and Sensitivity), a semester-long, service-learning course for bilingual undergraduate students; Arizona Applicant Academy, a workshop for pre-medical students to assist in the medical school application process; and FRONTERA, a summer internship opportunity in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Students also participate in AspiringDocs workshops.

The Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence, a national center of Hispanic health research and training, also enhances the college's ability to recruit and retain Hispanic students and faculty.

Established in 1999, AHCOE brings together the UA Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs, the Mexican American Studies and Research Center, the Graduate College and other institutional entities to work with statewide partners to encourage collaboration among people and programs that promote Hispanic health issues and Hispanic health care workforce development.

Other UA College of Medicine programs that provide Hispanic and other minority students with opportunities for academic enrichment and health career exploration include:

  • The Summer Institute on Medical Ignorance, a program that offers high school students an opportunity to work full-time on biomedical research projects with UA College of Medicine researchers in their laboratories and clinics while learning to question established medical knowledge.
  • The annual Adelante, Nuestro Futuro Conference for Hispanic middle school girls and their mothers or female guardians or mentors, sponsored by the UA College of Medicine National Center of Excellence in Women's Health in conjunction with Child and Family Resources, Inc., and a community steering committee. The conference promotes health education and awareness, and aims to increase the number of young Chicanas/Latinas entering into secondary and post-secondary education. In February 2010, the event celebrates its 11th year.
  • The UA College of Medicine chapter of the Latino Medical Student Association.

A number of UA programs also offer Hispanic and other minority students the academic enrichment that is an essential foundation to the pursuit of medical careers, including:

The medical college's ability to recruit and retain Hispanic students and faculty has been enhanced by the opening of the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with ASU in downtown Phoenix. Dedicated in October 2006, the full, four-year program is an expansion of the UA College of Medicine program in Phoenix that began in 1992 to offer third- and fourth-year medical students the opportunity to complete their training at Phoenix-area hospitals.

The campus also is home to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative, a joint research venture of the UA and ASU.

The Phoenix program is a collaborative effort with the UA, ASU, the City of Phoenix, TGen, Valley hospitals, community physicians, foundations and other organizations to bring research and biomedical engineering to Maricopa County and further strengthen health care for Arizona.