In 2019, a meeting with his academic adviser at Morehouse College would change the course of Bryson Houston’s life.
Sitting in his adviser’s office was Dr. Horace Delisser, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He was there to recruit Houston into the Penn Access Summer Scholars (PASS) program — an opportunity for students who are underrepresented in medicine to gain research experience over two summers.
“Beforehand, I didn’t know anything about Philadelphia,” Bryson said. Born in Texas, he’d never been north of his home state. “At that point, med school was on my mind. But where I was going and how I was going to get there, pay for it — that hadn’t crossed my mind yet.”
Houston enrolled in the PASS program that summer. Two years later, he was admitted into Penn’s medical school.
“It was a great experience to come into that space during that summer,” he said. “To get acclimated to a different culture. I felt like I was supposed to be there; doctors allowed me to go shadow and ask a lot of questions.”
Created in 2008, the PASS program allows undergraduate students to shadow physicians, participate in student-led clinics, and create support networks with faculty to prepare their transition to med school. The program originally served undergrads at Penn, or other schools nearby, Princeton, Haverford College, and Bryn Mawr College.
Penn expanded the program to specifically attract students of color. Recently, they signed an official agreement with five HBCUs: Morehouse College, Howard University, Oakwood University, Spelman College, and Xavier University of Louisiana.
Students who complete the program are eligible to apply to Perelman without taking the MCAT, as long as they maintain a cumulative 3.6 GPA. The Medical College Admissions Test is often viewed as a significant barrier to entry into the medical field. It requires extensive prep, costs over $300 to take the exam, and many students pay for tutoring courses to achieve higher scores.