New program pushes students seeking medical careers

By Tom Gresham

“Dr. Jeffrey Limones.”

Jeffrey Limones likes the sound of that. The freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University has been dreaming of a career in medicine for years. As he embarks on his college education, the field of neurosurgery holds a particular appeal and wonder.

“I’m most interested in how the brain works with the body,” Limones said. “That’s something that has interested me for a long time.”

Limones plans to major in psychology at VCU, taking a pre-med roster of courses. In addition, Limones will live and study in VCU’s innovative new Acceleration Program, a residential learning program for minority and disadvantaged students aspiring to careers in health-related fields.

The Acceleration Program was launched this summer with an inaugural class of 24 students. The program is designed to help students whose previous K-12 educational environment might have limited their ability to acquire the math and science skills necessary to pursue a career in the health sciences.

The Acceleration students are required to live together in a dormitory during their freshman and sophomore years and during two summer immersion programs. Program participants take a specific set of courses together throughout the first year. There are also mandatory requirements for tutoring sessions, study groups and health-related internships and volunteer hours.

Seth Leibowitz, the director of pre-health sciences advising for VCU, said students will remain in the Acceleration Program for the length of their stay at VCU. For those who continue their graduate studies on the MCV campus, the support system of the VCU Acceleration Program will remain with them. Scholarship opportunities are available upon acceptance into a professional program on the MCV campus through the MCV Alumni Association.

Leibowitz said the program represents an ambitious step forward for residential learning communities, which typically gather students with similar interests together for only a semester or a year. Leibowitz envisions a support structure that could aid Acceleration students into the early years of their health careers.

“No one has ever done this before,” Leibowitz said. “We’re going to take our support services and follow these students potentially for eight, 12 years down the road.”

Cheryl Chesney-Walker, M.Ed., director and coordinator of student academic support services and service for students with disabilities at the VCU Medical Center, said the strength of the Acceleration Program is the relationships that will develop among the students.

“This program is a way of working with these kids and supporting them in order for them to be successful,” Chesney-Walker said. “Kids like these are often derailed because of their background. They might be first-generation college students who come into college with a lack of confidence. Then they get a bad grade and that can throw them.”

“In this group, they are supported by other students with similar backgrounds working toward the same goals. They can get help going over those bumps in the road, so they don’t give up too easily and too early.”

Limones said the sense of collaboration among the Acceleration students is already apparent.

“We all live with each other and know each other,” Limones said. “We have easy access to each other, most of our classes are together and we can prepare for tests together. We can push each other to succeed.”

Limones particularly enjoyed the four-week session of classes Acceleration students took this summer, calling it “a helpful transition into college.” Courses included physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. Chesney-Walker said the session gave the students an opportunity to work with keen focus on their studies, while offering program administrators the chance to gauge the strengths of the students.

It was also an opportunity for the students to assimilate to college life and begin new friendships. Leibowitz said the students used the summer session to select their roommates for the upcoming school year and to settle on which rooms they would inhabit.

“One of the big advantages of this program is that when the students come in the fall for classes, they do not feel alone and isolated,” Leibowitz said. “They already know 23 other individuals with similar interests and goals. Coming back is like a small reunion.”

The bulk of the Acceleration students are pre-med, but students are also eying careers as dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and clinical laboratory technicians. Chesney-Walker said she expects some students to adjust and shift their goals during the course of their undergraduate education. Program participants will be exposed to a broad range of health practices, she said.

“We think this program will train these students to take a holistic approach to patient care,” Chesney-Walker said. “They are going to understand the entire world of health care and that will make them better practitioners.”

Limones learned about the VCU Acceleration Program during his senior year at George Wythe High School in Richmond. Originally from Texas, Limones had been leaning toward attending college in his boyhood home state. However, he changed his mind after discovering the Acceleration Program.

“This is what drew me to VCU,” Limones said. “I thought this would be my best chance to do what I want to do.”