New scholarship for med students aims to increase diversity in healthcare

Ja'Qulane Scales

American Academy of Opthalmology

Two medical students have been awarded the inaugural National Medical Fellowships (NMF) Scholarship in Ophthalmology. Ja’Qulane Scales of Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC, and Joshua Chazaro of Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Ill. Each student will receive a $5,000 scholarship.

Scales and Chazaro are second-year medical students who participate in the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring program – designed to attract underrepresented minorities to a career in ophthalmology and help prepare them to be competitive residency applicants.

Keith D. Carter, M.D., FACS, is a past president of the Academy, and the recipient of an NMF scholarship when he was in medical school. “I have always been grateful for this generosity. The scholarship was very important and inspirational because of the effort of an organization offering to assist me with my training expense,” he said.

Full story: https://www.aao.org/newsroom/news-releases/detail/new-scholarship-supports-american-academy-of-ophth