Program helps UNC medical students mentor Durham youth

UNC’s Minority Men in Medicine program has been helping mentor students at Durham’s Eno Valley Elementary School for a few years now, and they are hoping an upcoming auction will help grow their program.

The 2017 Banquet and Lecture is an annual series of events honoring Dr. Lawrence Zollicoffer, the fourth African-American graduate of UNC’s School of Medicine. The events recognize the minority presence at the School of Medicine. This year’s banquet will be on Feb. 23.

Eno Valley Elementary School teacher Nashonda Cooke reached out to UNC’s Minority Men in Medicine in 2012 to see if they could volunteer with children at the school.

She had been inspired at a ceremony for a UNC summer program her daughter was attending at the medical school.

“My first initiative with them was to just serve as homework helpers for my boys and just so they can see somebody who looks like them a few years from now and what the possibilities are, and it just grew from there,” Cooke said. “They started becoming mentors outside of homework helping. We’ve gone on field trips and they’ve been there and done Christmas giveaways for the kids.”

Claudis Polk, administrative director of Minority Men in Medicine, said the program is part of a broader vision by the group, with Eno Valley being phase one of three.

Polk said the second phase is to bring the program to a middle school and phase three is to bring it to a high school.

“Essentially trying to create a pipeline to where, theoretically, we would be able to put our hands on a student at the age of 10 and see them all the way through the age of 18 to maybe even matriculate to UNC,” Polk said.

Cooke said the medical students have had a lasting influence on the younger students.

“I have students now who are getting ready to go to high school, like in middle school right now, who remember these experiences so they’re paying more attention to their math and their science classes and they’re already considering careers in the medical field,” Cooke said.

Becoming a part of Eno Valley’s community has left a mark on the medical students as well, who spoke positively about their experiences with the children.

“I think that if they have those role models — someone who’s a doctor, lawyer, engineer, in the field of nursing — then they can imagine themselves in that field,” said Prosper Amponsah, UNC medical student and member of Minority Men in Medicine. “Growing up I didn’t really have role models and I think that’s one of the reasons why I want to give back, and I want to kind of serve as role models to these kids.”

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