The next day, the students, interns in the 16th summer research session of the Aspirnaut STEM pipeline program for diversity, were bound for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

He is the first from VUMC to receive the award, which recognizes “champions” of health professions education who have advanced the VA’s health care education mission.

The members of the incoming class include 88 MD, 15 Medical Scientist Training Program and one oral and maxillofacial surgery student. They were selected from a pool of more than 6,800 applicants and came to VUSM from 29 states, six foreign countries and 63 undergraduate schools with 57 majors.

The program will help Externs acquire valuable skills, gain self-confidence, and increase clinical competency under the supervision of experienced nurse preceptors.

The conference, which took place June 18-20 in Nairobi, Kenya, brought together non-physician anesthesia providers from 18 different countries in Africa for continued education and networking. The purpose was to reduce maternal mortality by improving safe access to anesthesia for pregnant women across Africa.

They are the only two from Tennessee named this year for the program, which provides support for each student’s dissertation research for up to three years.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Irving Zamora, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Pediatric Surgery, and Aimal Khan, MD, assistant professor of Surgery, have received a grant to support the development and validation of an objective robotic skills assessment tool for surgical trainees.