Giving back to the program that shaped her experience at The Ohio State University's College of Medicine.
Dr. Demicha RankinDr. Demicha Rankin had a life-changing opportunity as an undergraduate microbiology student at The Ohio State University. Rankin was invited to apply to the Medical Careers Pathway Post Baccalaureate Program (MEDPATH), a one-year post-baccalaureate program for people who belong to ethnic or socioeconomic groups underrepresented in medicine. The Ohio State University College of Medicine is one of a few institutions nationwide to offer such a program. MEDPATH involves a year of intensive study, after which students take the MCAT and apply to medical schools. Those with a score in the 51st percentile or higher are offered conditional admission to the College of Medicine.
Each year, 13 to 15 students are accepted to MEDPATH. In 2001, Rankin was among them.
Rankin credits MEDPATH with her excellent study skills and time management. She learned she does well studying with groups, so she joined people at the library where they would work, quiz each other and occasionally take study breaks together. Rankin developed lifelong bonds with the other members of her MEDPATH cohort after their close-knit year – bonds that exist today and that she cherishes. Rankin maintained a 4.0 average during her time in MEDPATH.
“It helped build a sense of community for me,” she says. “It was having a shared identity. I wear it as a badge of pride.”
Rankin graduated from Ohio State University’s College of Medicine in 2006 and completed her residency as a Buckeye. She is now the College’s Associate Dean of Admissions, the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Department of Anesthesiology, and a Professor of Anesthesiology at the Ohio State College of Medicine. Rankin remains in touch with her MEDPATH cohort and wants more students to benefit from MEDPATH and programs like it.
“If it weren’t for programs like this, I wouldn’t be here,” says Rankin. “Success is when opportunity meets preparation. It’s a confidence booster, a feeling that ‘I belong here, I am as good as anyone else.’ I know a lot of students wrestle with imposter syndrome.”
When Rankin learned about the new Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Center (IHSC), she wanted to support a space for MEDPATH students in the building. Together with her husband, Chaffon Rankin, Vice President and Senior Wealth Advisor with Huntington Financial Advisors, and Dr. Kevin Hollis, the Chief Financial Officer of Anesthesiology Consultants of North Carolina and a fellow Ohio State University College of Medicine alum, Rankin decided to use the Ohio State University Physicians’ matching gift opportunity available to current or retired Wexner Medical Center faculty and staff to dedicate a space in the IHSC for the MEDPATH program.
“The program believed in me and gave me an opportunity,” says Rankin. The foundation for her confidence in herself as a medical professional was laid by MEDPATH, and Rankin wants other students from underrepresented communities to have the same enriching experience she did.
How to help
If you work for (or are retired from) the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center or College of Medicine, you can join Dr. Rankin to take advantage of the IHSC match to make a lasting impression on the future of medicine.
If you’re not an employee, you can contribute to the general IHSC fund here.