At Xavier University of Louisiana, students are encouraged from the moment they arrive on campus to pursue excellence for the rest of their lives. In pursuit of that excellence,  Xavierites Mallory Johnson and Brayanna “Sunshine” Jones have had their hard work rewarded through their selection as American Heart Association (AHA) HBCU Scholars for the 2022-2023 school year.

The AHA HBCU Scholar program, like Xavier’s College of Pharmacy has been doing since it was established in 1927, seeks to close the gap between health disparities and achieve health equity by increasing the number of Black students who apply and are accepted into graduate science, research, and public health programs. It has been shown that medical professionals from underrepresented backgrounds tend to practice in those communities where systemic obstacles and health disparities are most apparent. The program selects two students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and gives them opportunities and resources to network with each other and other working health professionals through workshops, connect them with mentorship to support, and offer valuable research and lab experience. For Johnson, participating in this program was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I really liked the program...Not only did I gain research experience, but the program is so catered to taking care of all of us because we [as Black and African Americans] are such a small margin in the STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] fields,” said Johnson, a sophomore studying biology pre-med at Xavier. “There are a lot of opportunities out there, but this one is such a close-knit program. Everyone is there for you. It was just very personal, and I enjoyed that.”

Johnson was interested in coming to Xavier because of the university’s history of fostering a sense of community and its reputation of being one of the top producers of Black graduates who go on to finish medical school. After hearing about the AHA HBCU program from a family friend, Johnson hurried to gather the materials to apply for such a well-suited opportunity for her. The promise of mentorship and lab experience is what drew her to the program. The first in her family to go to college to be a physician, she did not have a roadmap to follow and, therefore, was eager to participate and receive the guidance and mentorship from the program that would be invaluable for her on her path. She recommends that others seeking a mentor to help guide them through the daunting journey of becoming a physician also apply for the program.

For Jones, the 2023-2024 Miss Xavier University of Louisiana and an avid participant in student affairs at Xavier, the program felt perfectly catered to her.

Jones, a Louisiana local and biology pre-med major on the cusp of completing her junior year, chose to come to Xavier because of the familial environment the university developed and its location. The AHA HBCU program’s design to cater to HBCU students, as well as the AHA emphasizing research on cardiovascular disease, appealed to her the most, especially since she had family members affected by that disease.

“The American Heart Association is known for the cardiovascular aspect of science, and at the time, my ‘parrain,’ my godfather, he had passed away due to cardiovascular disease,” said Jones, “I thought the stars kind of aligned. It was kind of like a sign for me during that time to go more in-depth with, ‘Okay, how can I learn more about cardiovascular disease, especially in underrepresented communities since it affected someone personal and close to me?’”

For Jones, what was truly valuable about the experience was hearing from health professionals who not only shared a similar cultural identity as her but also went down the path she wishes to embark on herself. These professionals were able to share not only their experiences and struggles but also their perseverance and resiliency in the face of those struggles, information that Jones found encouraging and inspiring.

“Hearing people in leadership at the American Heart Association...them being minorities and telling their stories, and dropping gems and motivation to keep pushing forward is one of the most valuable things,” said Jones, “As an African American, especially an African American woman, I feel as though we can have imposter syndrome and feel as though we don’t belong here, we’re not as good as our counterparts, and there’s so many microaggressions and racism and discrimination and things we have to overcome just to get the same respect as others. Just hearing their stories and their journeys and how they got to where they are. That perseverance and resiliency- It really motivated me to continue on this path.”

For both Johnson and Jones, seeing this type of representation was invigorating for them. They believe that other Black students aspiring to be health professionals could also be encouraged by this program and by seeing other Black health professionals in positions of leadership. While the workshops frequently went beyond just medicine and science and into spaces such as how to network and increase one’s chances of being accepted into graduate-level medical programs, that level of representation and familiarity that the program fostered is what truly inspired them. They gathered that it is not only possible for them as Black women to pursue a medically related profession, but that, in many ways, it is necessary.

“They [healthcare] need more representation. They need more people who look like us in those settings,” said Jones. “So that others can be inspired, we set the precedent, ‘Hey, you can do this.’”

“That is something that [the director of the program] would tell us and preach to us every time she saw us,” said Johnson, “She would tell us, ‘You are necessary.’ That is something she instilled in us.”