UBC will welcome its first cohort of students from the Black Student MD Admissions Pathway this August.
Last year, the Faculty of Medicine launched the new admissions pathway for prospective Black medical students. This pathway allows for Black applicants to have their application essay reviewed by a subcommittee of Black physicians, faculty, medical students and other members of the BC medical community.
Dr. Shahin Shirzad, the MD undergraduate program’s assistant dean of admissions, wrote the admissions pathway is “still in its early days.”
“What we can share with you is that we’ve received an incredible amount of positive feedback not only from the UBC community ... but also from government and the general public at large,” wrote Shirzad in a statement to The Ubyssey. With the first cohort of successful applicants entering the program in August 2023, Shirzad wrote that UBC is continuing its work to raise the visibility of this admissions stream across BC and the country.
In 2021, Dr. Felix Durity, a UBC MD alum, professor and head emeritus in the neurosurgery division of the department of surgery, donated money to create the Black Student Pathway Support Fund. Launched alongside the admissions pathway in February 2022, the fund will be used to provide financial support for students such as scholarships and bursaries.
For Durity, creating the program stemmed from his hard-working path to success in a field that highly underrepresents the Black community.
Durity grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, a small Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela. When he moved to Vancouver to attend UBC, he immediately noticed the glaring lack of Black representation in academic institutions.
Durity excelled as the top student for two years, but in his third year, he ran out of money and had to defer a year. After taking time off to work, he went back to school while also continuing to work in campus kitchens to pay tuition and meet living expenses. He said his hope for the entrance award fund is to spare qualified but financially vulnerable Black MD students from financial barriers.
Although Durity met several Black students from the Caribbean and continental Africa at UBC over the years, he said, “I never met a Black UBC student born in Canada itself in all my undergraduate years.”
0.3 per cent
Durity said there was only one Black MD graduate in UBC’s 2022 cohort — equivalent to 0.3 per cent of the graduating class.
UBC has one of the largest medical schools in Canada with 288 students per year intake.
Dr. Jennifer Migabo, a current resident at the University of Toronto, was the sole Black graduate in UBC’s 2022 cohort.
Growing up in BC, Migabo was used to being the only Black student in the classroom. From attending two elementary schools, high school and university, she was always either one of the few Black students or the sole Black student.
“I definitely felt like I was representing an entire group of people,” she said. She was not surprised when she learned she was the only Black graduate in her class.
“What was more surprising was navigating medical school, being in clinical practice, going to different hospitals around Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, and still not seeing other Black residents or other Black physicians,” she said.
During the pandemic, Migabo became heavily involved in advocacy. As the past advocacy co-lead of Black Physicians of BC, an organization focused on community and mentorship, she is well-versed in the wide mistrust of healthcare in the Black community.
“There’s been a myriad of examples of where the medical institution has taken advantage of Black and Indigenous patients and not treated them as equally as their white counterparts,” she said. By increasing representation in the field, these patients can see medical providers that look like them and make them feel safer.
Migabo, the daughter of a Kenyan immigrant, is grateful for her mother’s guidance and experience in navigating post-secondary education, but she knows that many members of the Black community may not have the same support. She believes UBC’s admissions pathway can help Black people speak to their experiences and hidden barriers they have faced.
She highlighted that people with prestigious publications or research papers do not necessarily make good doctors. Good doctors are people with well-rounded experiences, who demonstrate compassion and empathy, she said, which is what this stream allows for.
“I’m really excited to see how the Black stream at UBC changes the face of their medical program.”'
Robyn Thomas, MD student at UBC’s Island Medical Program, is one of the four Black students embarking on their first year in medical school this year.
“That’s a 400 per cent increase,” said Thomas, referencing last year’s sole Black graduate.
Thomas, whose parents immigrated from Zimbabwe, grew up in Calgary. In a predominantly white city, her parents always instilled in her to “occupy environments” and “not feel afraid of the world.”
“I never had a Black doctor or anyone in the medical field that looked like me,” she said. During her undergraduate degree in neuroscience and her time as a student researcher in hospitals, she was often “the only person occupying the space that was not white.”
“That can really make you feel hyper-visible, an outsider,” she said. Thomas emphasized the need for more Black mentorship in the medical field.
As for the admissions stream, she believes it can be used to address the inherent biases and prejudices in the application process. This is the first step in creating an academic environment that acknowledges the historical and contemporary barriers faced by marginalized communities.
“It’s going to be a process and a journey,” she said.