Start ‘Em Early, Start ‘Em Young 

Introducing Minority Youth to Health Professions 

By Brigette Settles Scott, MA and Kauthar B. Umar, MA


Closing the Gap, Working Toward Our Goal • August 2003


Health care providers play a critical role in keeping communi- Aspiring Youth 

ties healthy. The lack of minorities in the health field is a 

significant public health issue. Fewer minorities often mean By addressing the educational problems facing minorities before 

that racial and ethnic minorities receive unequal treatment, thereby they reach college, programs like ASPIRA are able to influence youth 

contributing to higher morbidity and mortality rates from chronic to pursue fields such as science, math, and health. “The success rates 

diseases. Culture and language are fundamental factors in how health of minority youth will rise, particularly if there is a collaboration among 

care services are delivered and received. There is an overwhelming the community and the parents,” said Hilda Crespo, vice president 

need to increase the number of physicians—par- for public policy at ASPIRA Association, Inc., headticularly physicians of color—who can effectively “The student body at communicate both linguistically and culturally 

with their patient base. medical schools lacks 

Many experts believe that the key to expand- minorities and 

ing the number of minority health care profes­ that’s not what we want...” sionals lies in improving the education system and 

introducing minority youth to opportunities in 

the health field during the formative years—ulti- Dr. William A. Robinson 

mately leading to more minorities entering the 

health professions. 

“The student body at medical schools lacks minorities and that’s 

not what we want,” said Dr. William A. Robinson, director, Center for 

Quality and chief medical officer, Health Resources and Services Administration. “We know that the school experiences for minority children are not what they need to be. In many instances minority children are still going to separate or unequal schools, and this affects 

students regardless of whether they are African American, Hispanic, 

Asian, or American Indian.” 

Students, regardless of race and ethnicity, face pressures each day 

which act as barriers to academic success. However, Robinson adds 

that many minority students have to jump additional hurdles in order 

to succeed. 

“If we don’t deal with the psychosocial issues in our community, 

we are wasting our time thinking that our numbers [in the health 

field] are going to be increased,” said Marilyn Johnson of the National 

Public Health Forum in Columbia, Md. “First of all, we have to have 

parental support, and unfortunately, we have a lot of parents that are 

just struggling to survive,” she added. 

Johnson said many people have a vague idea of what it takes to 

make it in today’s world. “People have no concept of what it takes for 

their children to go to college, better yet, to be a doctor or an allied 

health professional,” she said. “It’s just not heard of—to be a scientist 

and to conduct research at NIH,” she added. 

According to Johnson, several issues prevent students from feeling confident and being prepared academically to enter the health 

field, such as lack of positive parental influence, peer pressure, low 

self-image, lack of academic guidance, and inadequate preparation for 

tests. 

While students in affluent school districts are being “programmed” 

to pass standardized exams like the SAT, minority students in poor 

school districts are often considered to be “doing well” if 

they simply pass on to the next grade, Johnson said. 

quartered in Washington, D.C. 

ASPIRA, which comes from the Spanish 

word aspidar, meaning to aspire, was founded in 

1961 in New York City. According to Crespo, 

parents and the community collaborated efforts 

to address the high school drop out rate of Latino 

students in NYC, which was nearly 70 percent at 

the time. 

“The community felt that something had to 

be done, because the social and economic development of the Latino 

community depended on future leaders, and the youth were our 

future,” said Crespo. 

Today with offices in seven states, ASPIRA’s 3,000 staff members 

and volunteers work with approximately 40,000 youth each year. 

Each state has an office with multiple centers. Crespo said ASPIRA 

developed agreements with public school systems to have staff members work in schools promoting empowerment for the Latino youth. 

Programs like ASPIRA’s Math and Science Academy work to 

improve the math and science skills of Latino middle school students 

by incorporating hands-on activities, mentors, field trips, and academic assistance. Through its Youth Leadership and Community Service initiative, youth are able to take part in programs that expose 

them to a variety of professions, including medicine and the health 

sciences. 

“In an era when Hispanics have a drop- out rate of 55 percent, 

ASPIRA participants have high school graduation rates of 98 percent,” said Crespo. “Approximately 84 percent of our graduates go on 

to attend college. These kids are from urban areas and are the first to 

attend college in their families,” she added. 

ASPIRA believes that by working with youth and developing 

them socially and academically, it is fostering the doctors and lawyers 

of tomorrow. “We introduce youth to health-related fields by providing workshops and mentors from the health field. By improving the 

educational experiences of youth and exposing them early on in their 

academic career to math and science and the health professions, we 

believe we will have more kids choosing to work in health care,” she 

concluded. 

For more information on ASPIRA, go to http://www.aspira.org or 

call 202-835-3600.

Start ‘Em Early, Start ‘Em Young Introducing Minority Youth 

To Health Professions is based on the Summit workshop “Lost 

Opportunities: The Difficult Journey to Higher Education for 

Minority Medical Students.” 

Office of Minority Health Resource Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services