Meharry Medical Students Use Fashion to Increase Enrollment

FASCIA is a fashion forward, social-justice-oriented organization founded by two medical students, Theodor Uzamere and Abbas Rattani, at one of the oldest surviving historically black medical schools in the country. They aim to create fashion representative of the communities they’re in and use proceeds to build a sustainable model of educational enrichment. FASCIA teamed up with the socially conscious accessories brand, Radical Dreams, founded by medical student Shannon Pringle, to release the “Abundant Hope” pin collection.

Borrowing its name from a poem by Maya Angelou written in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the pin collection pays respect to the civil rights leaders who paved the way for equal rights. FASCIA knows the manifestations of their dedication; historically black medical school faculty and students were prohibited from training in and patients were barred from receiving care from white facilities before the Civil Rights Movement. There is still much work needing to be done, and in trying to pay their appreciation forward, 100 percent of the proceeds from these pins will help pay for enrichment opportunities for black pre-medical students via the Five Hundred Scholarship Fund. 

Every year, 20,000 students matriculate in medical schools. According to Altering the Course: Black Males in Medicine, a report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, only 515 black males matriculated into medical school in 2014. read more