//“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies . . . Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die . . . It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.” -Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451// 
My mother moved to England from Ghana at the age of about 17. She then traveled the world (for a few years, since she currently is 29 and 3/4) and eventually moved to the United States just a few years before I was born. Growing up with an amazing intelligent and well-traveled mother afforded me a different world view. I saw the world as a first generation Ghanaian-American who was brought up in a fully Ghanaian household. My culture was not American, my food growing up was not American and my relationship to African-Americans was often difficult to cultivate due to this difference in perspective. I have grown and learned and forged many relationships with many different people from many different backgrounds, but I cherish the mindset I learned from my mother. That is the beauty of passing on knowledge, experiences, thoughts, culture, etc from generation to generation. My mother helped me navigate this world...and she taught me not to be selfish in my knowledge, but to help my fellow brother or sister. She engrained in me the drive to pass things along, to help others, to pave a way, to be thankful to those who came before me, to share the wealth...to aspire to inspire. 
I am a dark-skinned, Ghanaian-American, assertive, strong-minded and intelligent FEMALE Medical Doctor in a Caucasian, male-dominated field. I experience things that many of my colleagues never even think of. My dream is that the medical field becomes more diverse and fully saturated with minorities! 
What advice do you have for girls that aspire to be a “ Black Woman, White Coat?” 
First and foremost, never let anyone tell you that you cannot achieve your dreams. Anything that you aspire to do or be, you can do it! The road to attaining your goals may not be easy, it may have great triumphs and failures, but you should always remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and people will be put in your path to help you...sometimes when you least expect it. 
My advice is to follow your dreams. Do well in school. Be prepared to always be your best, because unfortunately, a lot of people are waiting for you to make a mistake. Seek help when you need it! Having the skill of knowing when to ask for help is invaluable. Find a mentor who has recently been through what you are planning to go 
through. Sometimes just hearing stories of success can be the greatest boost in confidence. Lastly, NEVER GIVE UP. 
What do you hope to accomplish while practicing? 
I recognize that practicing medicine means that I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me. I hope to continue to become a well-rounded, competent, and compassionate physician. I want to make a positive impact in the lives of my patients and in my community. I want to give back to my community and help others attain their goals, through mentoring. I want to inspire and motivate young people, especially young African-Americans, to work hard for their dreams and to help them realize that you can really do anything if you put your mind to it and ask for help when you need it...and I want to help with this process in any way that I can. I have made it this far and will continue to reach greater heights...and I want that for everyone. If I can do it, you can too! 
-Dr.Z

 
Hello to the White Coat Black Doctor family!
 
We want to send a special thank you to the WCBD family for providing us with this platform to share our story. Our names are Nneka and Jessica and we are currently 2ndyear medical students from Texas. We created our YouTube channel, The Chocolate Docs, during our first year in medical school with the intent of sharing our authentic advice to premedical students. We know that the rate of physicians of color is growing slowly. So, we wanted to deliver content catered to students of color to show them that aspiring to become a physician is an attainable and realistic goal. In addition, we acknowledge how important it is for individuals to see people of similar ethnic backgrounds pursue careers that their interested in and now after a few months of producing content for our channel and connecting with our viewers we truly understand how important our voices are to the next generation of minority physicians. 
 
We strive to always remain very accessible to our supporters by encouraging them to email or DM us their pressing questions. In this post, we wanted to address the most popular question we receive from our supporters, “My GPA isn’t competitive, can I still get into medical school?” 
 
The answer to that question is simple. Yes. We believe that if you are passionate about medicine and becoming a doctor is your goal, you can get into medical school with hard work, discipline and determination. We never want a low GPA to deter students of color from achieving their dreams to become a physician. However, you must know that it is not going to be easy and your journey will most likely be non-traditional. And that’s okay. Everyone’s path before medical school is so different and your unique experience will be what builds your character, patience, and resilience. The common options we suggest for improving your GPA include post-baccalaureate and special master’s programs. We strongly advise those programs for students who are near the completion of their undergraduate college career. For more information on these options, we always (always) direct our supporters to the AAMC website. It is the holy grail for premedical students and is a great resource for your most common application questions. For students who are still in the early stages of their undergraduate career with ample time to improve their GPA, we suggest that you reevaluate your study habits and seek help from academic coaching or tutors. 
 
Although your GPA is an important component of your application, you must be aware of other factors that add to the quality of your medical school application and your standing as a competitive applicant. Thus, leadership, clinical, and research experience as well as community involvement should be a high priority for all applicants. By incorporating these experiences into your undergraduate career, you can show the admissions committee that you are a well-rounded and strong applicant.
 
Ultimately, positivity and words of affirmation are vital components of our channel and they dictate how we interact with our supporters. We’ve encountered so many qualified students of color who don’t feel worthy or capable of entering the medical field due to a well-known feeling of “imposter syndrome”. Imposter syndrome occurs when individuals feel inadequate despite their evident success. We admit to struggling with imposter syndrome, but we make conscious efforts to replace those negative thoughts with uplifting and empowering reminders of our accomplishments. To help others battling “imposter syndrome” we intentionally open all our videos with words of affirmation and encouragement. It is so greatly needed!
 
We are so blessed to be in this position to serve others and help future minority physicians reach their goals. The overwhelming love we have received from our supporters is truly amazing. We are just two goofy and down to earth black women who have a passion for mentorship and changing the face of medicine. We are overjoyed that people can relate to us while picking up some gems along the way. Again, thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your amazing platform. 
 
If there is nothing else that you take away from this blog post, just remember, “You are worthy, and you can do this!”
 
The Chocolate Docs
Nneka Madu and Jessica Green
 
 
 

We introduced you all to what it means to be a WCBD Ambassador a few months ago. Now, the WCBD Ambassadors program has fully taken off! It's been only a few short months since we announced this opportunity to get involved with WCBD, and already over 50 students across 14 states have signed up to reach out and inspire the next generation. We have two ongoing pilots- one is at the undergraduate level, with medical students visiting colleges in their area to talk to pre-meds about everything from what to major in to how to spend a gap year. 

The other pilot is taking place at the middle and high school level, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ambassadors from Wake Forest University School of Medicine made their pre-med advising outreach an initiative run by their Student National Medical Association chapter. We interviewed Christel Wekon-Kemeni, a third-year medical student who has taken on a major leadership role in executing this initiative. Christel first reached out to us after an introduction at the annual National Medical Association meeting. His simple question was how to get his SNMA chapter involved in the community as Ambassadors. 40+ emails later, they've already conducted four visits to a local middle and high school. We wanted Christel to share a little bit about his experience in organizing these visits, and what it means to be an Ambassador. Check out the interview below, and if you're interested in joining our undergraduate pilots, sign up to be an Ambassador today! 

Christel where are you from, and where'd you go to college?
I'm from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia- cities of Norfolk and Chesapeake specifically. And, I attended the University of Miami for college. Go Canes!!

Why did you want to get involved in the WCBD Ambassadors Program?
I decided to get involved with the WCBD Ambassadors Program because I understand how important and powerful it is to see someone who looks like you in a position that you would like to be in. Representation really does matter, and it can have a huge influence on what people decide to do with their lives. Although I was fortunate enough to know that I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare ever since high school, I still wish that I had the opportunity to have Black medical students come and talk to us when I was in high school. I say that because it would have not only given me even more ambition and drive to succeed, but it would have also provided a good amount of hope to me and my fellow classmates, some of whom never even considered a career in medicine as a possibility for themselves. With that said, I wanted to play an active role in engaging with students who want to establish successful careers in whatever they choose to pursue, as well as with students who don’t even realize how possible it is to pursue a career in healthcare. I also have an unrelenting desire to inspire individuals to become the best version of themselves that they can be. So, this program perfectly aligns with my own personal mission!

What was the most challenging part of being the lead organizer for your school's participation in the Ambassador Program?
As a third-year medical student, I don’t have nearly as much free time as I had in my first two years of med school. It doesn’t help that I tend to commit myself to multiple responsibilities at a time either. So with that said, I think that the most challenging part of being the lead organizer for my school’s participation in this program is having to coordinate presentation times between the schools and the student presenters while staying engaged in my clinical rotations and preparing for my shelf exams. Coordinating presentation times is a dynamic process that involves keeping the schedules of multiple people and the school systems in consideration and finding free time within each of their schedules in order to allow for a presentation to occur. Thank God for Doodle! However, having a supportive group of students who are willing to be flexible in their schedules in order to help promote this mission makes the job a whole lot easier!

What advice/encouragement do you have for other medical students who want to be WCBD Ambassadors?
Being a WCBD Ambassador has been a really rewarding opportunity! It allows you to interact with students who aspire to be in the shoes that you currently occupy and really forces you to put certain things into perspective. Talking with these bright-eyed hopeful students reminds you of where you once were early on in your journey towards a career in medicine and they end up motivating you to continue working towards your own vision of success. The best part about this whole program is that it really isn’t a hard thing to do! Plus, the WCBD founders are a great bunch of people and are more than willing to serve as a helpful resource for the advancement of this program at your institution. I definitely recommend becoming a WCBD Ambassador if you haven’t done so already!

​We understand that being a black woman in medicine can be difficult. Part of that struggle is exactly why we're here to help.

Just because you are pursuing a career in medicine doesn't mean you should have to lose who you are, or otherwise change what you feel is so integral a part of your being. Even within WCBD, we have founders who wear dreadlocks, relaxers, and natural hair. Some naturalistas (like myself) don't mind having "heat trained" hair and are able to wear their hair pressed, bunned or in a ponytail 24/7. But we also understand the desire to maintain your unadulterated natural texture.

As you go throughout your medical career, there will be ebbs and flows during your schedule much like in undergrad. Just like you may forgo doing your hair or getting it done during finals week, you may feel similarly when studying for a board exam or on your surgery rotation. During these times, some classmates opt to get braids or other low maintenance long term styles as they continue to grind. For many students, braids are a style that allow them to continue to express themselves culturally while not having to manipulate their hair on a daily basis.

Other students with natural hair continue to find time to maintain their hair. Some students take the summer (or semester of college) to master their wash-and-go so that they don't have to do more than fluff their "pineapple" and go during the week. We acknowledge that it may look slightly less than perfection by the end of the week, but medical school is a grind and everyone knows it. Another option I would encourage would be to have a stylist on hand that can do natural hair styles (twists, braids, perm rod sets) more efficiently than you may be able to. Even if she is simply twisting up your hair on Saturday, you wear it that way for two days while studying, you can rock a bomb twist-out from Tuesday to Friday. (Many stylists these days even let you book online, so you can always make adjustments to your changing availability.)

If you manage your time well, yes, many weeks you will be able to donate 6 hours of your time to doing your hair. However, I would not plan on this being the norm, particularly not as you are just starting to get a rhythm for how to master the material. Maintaining our hair is yet another obstacle that we have to conquer, but with adequate foresight and realistic expectations, we are confident you can graduate from medical school with the flowing, healthy tresses you came with (or better)!