Academic excellence, community service and a sense of compassion and empathy have earned ten fourth-year students in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at The City College of New York (CCNY) $30,000 scholarships for their medical studies.

The 2010 Sophie and Leonard Davis Scholarship recipients are: Christopher Bandera, Akia Caine, Anna Chan, Christina Chien, Lucyna Cieciura, Amy Edelstein, Helen Ho, Melissa Jackson, Mandeep Kainth and Maria Khalid. Dr. Eitan Friedman, Acting Dean of the Sophie Davis School, announced the scholarships. 

The awards support the students for their last two years at Sophie Davis and their two years of clinical study at cooperating medical schools. "Through the generosity of Sophie and Leonard Davis, we are honoring their spirit and commitment to education by recognizing ten outstanding young men and women," Dr. Friedman said.

Now in its 37th year, Sophie Davis offers a unique seven-year B.S./M.D. program that integrates an undergraduate education with the first two years of medical school. After five years at CCNY, students transfer seamlessly to one of six medical schools – Albany Medical College, Dartmouth Medical School, New York Medical College, New York University, SUNY Downstate School of Medicine or Stony Brook University School of Medicine – for the final two years of medical education and their M.D. degree.

The School's mission is to increase accessibility to careers in medicine for inner-city New York City youth, especially minorities underrepresented in medicine, and to train primary care physicians to serve in medically underserved communities. At a time of declining enrollment of underrepresented minorities in medical schools across the country, approximately 40 percent of Sophie Davis students are African-American or Hispanic, representing diversity unparalleled at other U.S. medical schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Davis, whose original gift of $1.2 million helped establish the Sophie Davis School, also bequeathed $6 million to endow the "The Sophie and Leonard Davis Scholarships." The Sophie Davis School currently has 368 students.

A list of the honorees, their hometowns and the medical schools to which they will transfer in 2011 follows. Individual profiles can be obtained on request.

Christopher Bandera, Woodside, Queens; NYU School of Medicine
Akia Caine, Staten Island; Dartmouth Medical School
Anna Chan, Chinatown, Manhattan; SUNY Downstate School of Medicine
Christina Chien, Elmhurst, Queens; SUNY Downstate School of Medicine
Lucyna Cieciura, Maspeth, Queens; SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine
Amy Edelstein, Lynbrook, Long Island; New York Medical College
Helen Ho, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; SUNY Downstate School of Medicine
Melissa Jackson, Elmont, Long Island; Dartmouth Medical School
Mandeep Kainth, Glen Oaks, Queens; SUNY Downstate School of Medicine
Maria Khalid, Hicksville, Long Island; SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine