A memorandum of understanding was signed Nov. 30 in the A.I. Thomas Administration Building Auditorium to signify the establishment of the Undergraduate Medical Academy at Prairie View A&M University and a partnership between the university and the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center.The signatories were Dr. George C. Wright, president of Prairie View A&M University, and Dr. Nancy W. Dickey, president of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and vice chancellor for Health Affairs. Dr. Dennis E. Daniels, director of the Undergraduate Medical Academy, presided at the ceremony.
The main goals of the Undergraduate Medical Academy are to increase skills that are needed for students to enter medical school and to create a cooperative network between the faculty, students of the academy and the medical community.
“The memorandum of understanding seals a partnership between the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, its medical school, and Prairie View A&M University’s Undergraduate Medical Academy,” said Dr. E. Joahanne Thomas-Smith, provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs at PVAMU. “This legislatively mandated academy is designed to expand access to medical education for all groups, but especially for persons from ethnic minority groups. There will be a new degree program that focuses on public health sciences and the expanded opportunities for first hand research and study in medical school environments.”
Thomas-Smith said the academy does not replace the outstanding pre-medical program that has been built under the direction of Dr. George Brown and his faculty. Instead, she added, it expands the work of the pre-medical educational incentives at the University.