Alyson McGhan had aspirations of becoming a doctor, but when she arrived on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey four years ago, her major was undecided. “I knew I wanted to become a doctor, but I just wasn’t sure how to go about the whole pre-med track,” McGhan says.
Rutgers’ Office for Diversity and Academic Success in the Sciences (ODASIS) stepped in immediately and began helping McGhan plan for medical school during her freshman year. A 21- year-old senior who is currently applying to medical schools across the country, including Emory and Stanford universities and the University of Pennsylvania, McGhan says she is more confident that a career in cardiology is well within her reach.
“They’ve been helping me in terms of telling me what courses to take and also providing the resources I need in order to do well in my classes,” she says, adding that an intensive seven-month MCAT preparatory course offered through ODASIS helped expand her options for medical school.
“I got a really high score and right now I’m applying to medical school knowing that I’m possibly going to get in with scholarship money,” McGhan says.
Over the last two decades, ODASIS has helped hundreds of undergraduate students from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds prepare for careers in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program has turned out 400 doctors, dentists and other health professionals. This year, the program has hit a stride: 33 out of 40 ODASIS students from the Rutgers’ class of 2007 started medical, dental and doctoral programs this fall compared to the dozen or fewer ODASIS students that typically get admitted to these programs each year. Another 25 ODASIS alumni — all Black and Hispanic — graduated from medical school this year and are now practicing physicians in hospitals, medical centers, clinics and private practice.
Officials credit ODASIS’ emphasis on graduate and professional education and its various tutoring initiatives, workshops and summer programs for its continued success in grooming future scientists, physicians, researchers and medical practitioners.
