Medical Student Receives Prestigious National Scholarship

Josepha Iluonakhamhe, a second-year medical student at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), is one of eight students in the country selected to receive a $1,200 National Association of Medical Minority Educators, Inc., scholarship. This program works to increase the number of minority health care professionals in the United States.

Josepha, whose family moved to America from Nigeria when she was 12, received the award for her academic standing, community service and work with MCG’s Student Educational Enrichment Program (SEEP), a seven-week summer program that exposes high-school and college students each summer to health sciences. She served as a SEEP assistant, tutoring and mentoring participants.

Josepha herself is a SEEP alumna. “It made me want to give back and help other students,” Josepha says. “I had mentors who really inspired me and introduced me to different things, and I wanted to do the same.”

Linda James, the program’s director, says she succeeded.

“She was an outstanding employee and role model and was a tremendous asset in helping SEEP students be successful in and out of the classroom,” says James, who nominated Josepha for the scholarship. “I could always depend on her.”

Wilma Sykes-Brown, assistant dean for the School of Medicine’s Office of Educational Outreach and Partnerships, says Josepha’s compassion is one of the many reasons she received the scholarship.

“She’s very humanistic in how she deals with people, and that’s one of the things that impressed me about her,” Sykes-Brown says. “I wasn’t surprised she was selected for the award.”