PHILADELPHIA — In the highly competitive process of finding students with the best potential to become doctors, Temple University has turned to a previously untapped resource: members of its North Philadelphia community, who know better than anyone whom they would like to see treating them and their family members.
For the first time, five people who live and/or work in the community surrounding the campus and its hospital helped interview hundreds of candidates for the Lewis Katz School of Medicine class that will enter in fall 2022. And one of those members had a seat on the 25-member admissions decision committee, largely made up of medical school faculty and physicians.
The idea came from members of Temple medical school's Student Diversity Council, who worked alongside medical school leaders to hammer out details, including a decision to pay community members for their time to prove the value of their input. The goal was to make sure prospective students understood Temple's values and had the capacity and empathy to appreciate and respect their future patients.
