Danielle Potter receives a Minority Scholars award
Outstanding Creighton University medical student NAMED AMA FOUNDATION MINORITY SCHOLAR
(CHICAGO) – The American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation is proud to announce Danielle Potter of Creighton University School of Medicine, as a 2006 Minority Scholars Award recipient. As one of only 10 medical students in the country, she will receive a $10,000 scholarship in recognition of her excellence as a medical student and outstanding promise for a future career in medicine.
From Honolulu, Hawaii, Potter is a first-year medical student at Creighton University School of Medicine. She is a graduate of University of Northern Colorado and has received many academic honors. She serves as the Community Service Chair for the Student National Medical Association and volunteered at Minority Bone Marrow drives at Omaha community health fairs. She spent her spring break this year at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the poorest county of the United States, where she taught basic anatomy to students. For two years she has assisted with labor and delivery classes at the North Hawaii Community Hospital on the Big Island of Hawaii. Potter also traveled to Cambodia and Manilla, to work at different clinics in those areas.
The Minority Scholars Award recognizes scholastic achievement and promise for the future among students in groups defined as “historically underrepresented” in the medical profession. Less than seven percent of U.S. physicians fall within these groups, which include African American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latino.
“We are pleased to recognize the outstanding achievements of Danielle Potter, and to provide her with substantial financial assistance for medical school,” said Peter Carmel, M.D., AMA Foundation President. “The AMA Foundation is committed to introducing more minorities into the medical profession in order to better reflect the needs of our diverse society. We must ensure the cost of medical education remains within reach of our most talented students.”
The AMA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Association, has made a priority of helping medical students handle the rising cost of their education. On average, future physicians graduate approximately $120,000 in debt, and in many cases the debt load is much higher.
Since its founding in 1950, the AMA Foundation has contributed more than $90 million in educational, research and public health grants.
The Minority Scholars Awards are given in collaboration with the AMA Minority Affairs Consortium, with support from the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative.
For more information, please contact:
Dina Lindenberg
AMA Foundation
dina.lindenberg@ama-assn.org
312-464-4193