Virginia M. Alexander educated at University of Pennsylvania
Education
Alexander attended high school at the William Penn High School for Girls, where she graduated with honors before receiving a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Pennsylvania to complete her undergraduate education. Alexander took work as a waitress, clerk, and maid in order to cover her living expenses through college. She was also a member of the black sorority Delta Sigma Theta. She continued her medical education at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. In a school-wide medical aptitude test, Alexander earned the second-highest score, which was higher than the score earned by the school's own dean. An article published in The Crisis years later stated that the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania was hostile toward students of color and that it was extremely difficult to get through the program at all because of the acts of racism that took place there. With the help of private philanthropy and by working jobs as a clerk, maid, and waitress, Alexander graduated medical school in good standing in 1925. With the help of private philanthropy, Alexander finished medical school in good standing.During the 1910s and 20s, aspiring physicians were usually required by law to complete a clinical internship in order to take the state licensing exam and be able to practice medicine. Nonetheless, when Alexander began looking for a medical internship, she faced rejection from many Philadelphia hospitals on the basis of race. For example, the president of one of the hospitals that rejected her stated, "If you were first among a thousand applicants you would still not be admitted."The hospital operated by the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania would also not accept her, but the school did help Alexander and another student, Mae McCarroll, secure internships at the Kansas City Colored Hospital in Missouri in 1925. Alexander and McCarroll were the first two women members at the hospital because before them, the rules prohibited women from interning. Alexander remained in Kansas City to complete a pediatrics-surgery residency at Wheatley-Provident Hospital.
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