By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on December 29, 2024
Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee offers academically gifted high school graduates a chance to become doctors and dentists in seven years -- debt free.
The students enter TSU on an academic scholarship provided by the Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. Institute. The Institute was established in 2020 by the Office of President at TSU and endowed with a major gift from the Watkins family.
The Institute welcomed its first cohorts in the Fall of 2021. During the 2023-24 academic year, there were 48 cohorts in the Institute.
As cohorts, these TSU students take accelerated undergraduate academic courses for three years. They must also maintain a GPA of 3.5, or higher.
Once the cohorts graduate from TSU with a B.S. degree in Biology, they are automatively admitted to Meharry Medical College in Nashville on a "full ride" to pursue their four-year course of study in medicine or denistry
The program is called the "Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. Meharry/TSU Medical/Dental Accelerated Pathway Program."
The program is creating a pipeline of young and gifted students from underrepresented and underserved communities who seek to become physicians and dentists. The cohorts must demonstrate the compassion, knowledge, and mastery of medical skills exhibited by Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., a well-known heart surgeon, civil rights activist, and alumnus of TSU.
Dr. Watkins co-developed the automated cardioverter-defibrillator and implanted the first device in a human patient in 1980. The device is still the first line of treatment and prophylactic therapy for patients at risk for sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.
Meharry Medical College is where Dr. James Watkins, Levi's brother and a well-known Charlotte, North Carolina surgeon, received his medical education.
The First Cohort Graduated in May 2024
In May 2024, the first graduating class of 14 cohorts in TSU's Accelerated Medical and Dental Program completed the undergraduate portion of their journey. In the Fall of 2024, they began their medical and dental school education at Meharry.
Ms. Barbara C. Murrell, Chair of the Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. Institute, put in the hard work to make it possible for these 14 cohorts to complete the accelerated undergraduate program at TSU and continue with their four-year medical education at Meharry, all on a full ride and debt free.
While all 14 cohorts graduated with a 3.5 GPA or higher, two of them -- Jaden Knight and Samantha Altidort -- maintained a 4.0 GPA.
Knight, a Dayton, Ohio native, is attending Meharry to become an orthodontist. He is a first-generation college student. Knight looks forward to addressing the underrepresentation of African-American men in the medical field and improving underrepresented patient satisfaction.
Samantha Altidort, a Nashville native, is attending Meharry to become a family medicine physician. She is following in her parents Michel and Guerda Aldidort’s footsteps, who are both TSU alumni and work in the medical field.
Among active physicians, only 5.7% identified as Black or African-American in the United States, as of 2023. While 3.8% of dentists in the country identify as Black, according to the American Dental Association.
The Watkins family congratulates the first cohorts of the Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. Institute, who are now medical and dental school students! They are:
Samantha Altidort
Alan Bethea, Jr.
Taylor Brown
Chaun Cheaney
Kayla Davis
Xavier Erves
Camille Haskins
John Kim
Jaden Knight
Brooke Majors
McKhia McCrary
George Picken IV
Ashton Terrell
Ryla Traylor
[Author's Note: This article is based upon an original article written by Alexis Clark and published by TSU News Service on May 16, 2024 at: https://tnstatenewsroom.com/tsu-celebrates-first-graduates-of-dr-levi-watkins-institute/]
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