Macy’s Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund continues the retailer’s ongoing support for the Go Red For Women Movement
(Utica, NY – Oct. 2013) The American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women and Macy’s, its national sponsor, are offering a way to help multicultural students in the medical field cover the rising cost of higher education. Applications are open once again for the Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund.
Le Moyne College student Jainty John was awarded a Go Red Multicultural Scholarship earlier this year. Jainty was born in India and lived in Dubai before coming to the Syracuse area and graduating from West Genesee High School. Now she is studying to be a physician’s assistant at Le Moyne College. She says this scholarship gives her the opportunity to focus on her education. “In the future I wish to dedicate my life to caring for others,” Jainty says, “and this scholarship has only made this dream more possible.”
The fund — now in its third year — provides $2,500 scholarships for multicultural women pursuing college or graduate school degrees in healthcare fields. Besides easing the financial burden for students, the American Heart Association and its supporters are striving to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in medicine and increase culturally-sensitive, patient-centered care.
The number of minority medical school graduates is increasing steadily, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. However, the figures are still low compared with the population at large. For example, among 17,364 medical school graduates in 2011, 1,129 were black (6.5 percent), 1,336 Hispanic (7.6 percent) and 3,767 Asian (21.6 percent).
Only 5.4 percent of African-American and 3.6 percent of Hispanic nurses in the nation are registered nurses, according to the 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics. In contrast, minorities make up 36.6 percent of the U.S. population.
“Building a diverse physician and medical workforce is a critical component in the delivery of patient-centered care to the multicultural communities that will enter the healthcare system once the Affordable Care Act is implemented,” said Dr. Jennifer Mieres, senior vice president in the Office of Community and Public Health, chief diversity and inclusion officer for North Shore — LIJ Health System and American Heart Association Go Red For Women spokesperson. “The recruitment of talented, young diverse women into the healthcare field is a critical step in the delivery of quality, culturally-sensitive, patient-centered care.”
Numerous ethnic groups — including African-Americans and Hispanics — are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease and risk factors. They also face barriers to diagnosis and care and experience worse health outcomes than Caucasians.
“Patients like to receive medical care by providers who can speak their same language and understand their cultural background,” said Celia Trigo, executive director and CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. “Meeting the needs of ethnically diverse patients leads not only to a better quality of care, but it also provides opportunities to improve the health of underserved minorities.”
The Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship is made possible by the Macy’s Multicultural Fund, which was created in 2009 to focus on increasing diversity in the medical field. Macy’s is a founding national sponsor of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women® and Go Red Por Tu Corazón raising more than $46 million since 2004.
“As a long-time partner of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Movement and a proud supporter of diversity, Macy’s continues the fight against heart disease in women with the Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund,” said Bill Hawthorne, Macy’s senior vice-president of Diversity Strategies. “Encouraging and supporting multiethnic students as they join the ranks of healthcare professionals will more effectively impact the disproportionate rates of heart disease among women in their own communities.”
For more information and to complete an application, visit GoRedForWomen.org. The deadline to apply for 2014 scholarships is Dec. 31, 2013