When Chimudi Obinello first applied to medical school, he received a rejection letter in return.
A Commack High School alumnus, he was one of six panelists speaking at a Saturday morning session aimed at encouraging young black students to pursue a career in medicine. No setbacks deterred him.
Obinello, now a sophomore and MD candidate at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance Medical School, shared his story in a classroom of about 25 students at Brentwood High School.
“It was disappointing to have to go through the application process again,” Obinello said. “But that’s not what I was trying to get too hung up on. I reapplied.”
Tips for Pursuing Medicine
The panelists offered some advice for anyone interested in becoming a healthcare professional.
- Volunteer at a hospital or attend a health or science summer program.
- Build relationships with your school’s science educators and guidance counselors.
- Join our community service to help your application stand out.
- Find like-minded people with whom you can feed your energy.
- Push yourself to succeed. As one panelist put it, “take a shot whenever you get the chance.”
Sustainability and potential were the central themes of the discussion.Panelists told black students that pursuing a career in medicine was an achievable goal for them, but would face obstacles.
Obinello’s participation in the panel came through his involvement with Black Men in White, a national organization that launched a Long Island chapter at Renaissance Medical College last year. Noting that just 2% of US doctors are black, the group aims to increase the number of black men in the medical field through exposure and mentoring.
told not to go to the doctor
Dr. Brian Hall, a Brooklyn general surgeon, grew up in Westbury and is the son of Jamaican immigrants who are auto mechanics. During his undergraduate studies at Penn State University in the late 1990s, he was told that he should consider another field of study because he was black.
“My advisor told me, ‘Get a new career path. You’re not going to medicine,'” Dr. Hall recalled to the students.
A panelist speaking at the Blacks in Whites session at Brentwood High School on Saturday. From left: Dr. Brian Hall, a general surgeon in Brooklyn. He’s Dr. Philip Hall (with the mic), a recent graduate of the Ross University School of Medicine in Florida. Family nurse Serena Williams. Chimdi Obinera, Jermaine Robertson, and Marquise Soto are all medical students at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Instead, he applied to Howard University’s medical school and stood in front of students on Saturday to become a black doctor who hopes to inspire the next generation. It was his cousin, Dr. Philip Hall, from St. James. Even though Hall had to overcome a series of obstacles of his own to get into the difficult medical field, he had a cousin he looked up to as a mentor.
Marquise Soto, who grew up in Merrick, is a sophomore medical student at Renaissance University and president of the Long Island chapter of black men in white coats. He said he wasn’t exposed to color doctors growing up. It was through a job in sales that he met Dr. Jedan Phillips, who runs a clinic in Stony Brook, and was exposed for the first time to a black man working as a doctor. Phillips was the first black mentor to push Soto down his current path.
A medical student as a mentor
Now Soto is starting early to do the same for others, and his group will continue to attend mentoring sessions at other Long Island high schools. school.
“We just want the students to come out at the end and say, ‘I can actually do this,'” Soto said.
Obinello said he and Soto are among only three black men in a class studying to become doctors.
“We want to work to reverse these trends,” Obinello said. “If anything can be done to instill in children’s minds the idea that they can apply to medical school … one day, when they decide to go to medical school, that passion can be instilled in them.” prize.”
The panel on medicine was one of several sessions that included sessions on education and business at a mentorship and careers event at Brentwood High School on Saturday. It was hosted by the district and two black mentorship organizations that exist in the school. Jack and Jill and their brother’s keeper.
