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| Brianna Bradley (left) and JoMarie Garcia study hard over the summer. |
Traveling from all over the United States, 84 young adults came to UND to take part in the Indians into Medicine (INMED) yearly Summer Institute over six weeks in June and July. The academic enrichment program provided the students with room and board in a UND dormitory and saw them through six advanced courses. The students, under the direction of INMED’s permanent staff, Summer Institute coordinator, nine counselors, two head counselors, and six instructors, spent the six weeks becoming familiar with life on a university campus away from their families and home communities.
The Indians into Medicine program is a component of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) that recognizes and works to correct the low number of American Indian doctors serving tribal communities. Through INMED’s services during the academic year and its three summer programs—Summer Institute, Pathway, and Med Prep—INMED has assisted a significant number of American Indian students through their undergraduate and medical study careers. As of 2010, the program has seen 188 medical doctors graduate. However, before these young students pick up an application for UND, they have the opportunity to take part in the Summer Institute, which serves for many as the first steps to becoming a successful student and doctor.
While the students come from all over the country, the majority of Summer Institute participants represent the five-state area of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming, the states that are INMED’s general focus. The goals of the Summer Institute, as explained by INMED Director Eugene DeLorme, are to provide students with the academic skills and preparedness to successfully transition into a university setting, and to familiarize the students with the physical environment at UND by acquainting them with the availability of resources and establishing some degree of comfort in the community in order to assist their social and psychological adjustment to attending an institution of higher learning away from their home communities.
