Health Sciences grad found support at UC

For Alice Amaniampong, the University of Cincinnati represented a winning trifecta. It offered a superb education in the health sciences. It was close enough to home that she could regularly spend time with her mother, who was being treated for breast cancer. And it offered compelling, time-tested support for minority students within a student body that was a tapestry of diversity. 

Amaniampong, who graduated in August from UC's College of Allied Health Sciences, found everything she had hoped for as a Medical Laboratory Sciences major while earning her Interprofessional Education Certificate and completing all the prerequisites for applying to medical school. She is especially thankful for the support she received from her professors.

“Ever since I started, I felt like someone from my college was in my corner,” Amaniampong said.

“They are really committed to making sure you graduate. I feel like we were also pushed to understand and interpret professional connections. We had lots of opportunities to explore not only how we work together in our major, but also how we work together in a hospital or other healthcare sites. I loved my teachers in the program. You graduate with the teachers you have your freshman year, so you are really able to grow.”

Amaniampong is grateful that her education was supported by several scholarships.

“My scholarship has really helped me because sometimes, especially in this major, it can be really taxing to work along with studying,” she said. “The scholarship helped me to not compromise my education. Because your money goes to a lot of different places. Sometimes you think it’s just tuition, but there’s more on top of it, including commuting and living on campus. The scholarship took a burden off my shoulders. I don’t think I’d be able to say I’m graduating on time without it.”

To the donors who supported her scholarship — generous individuals who don’t know Amaniampong and who she herself may never know — Amaniampong says thank you.

While attending high school in Monroe, Ohio, Amaniampong thought she wanted to go to medical school but wasn’t absolutely sure. She knew that she also liked “the lab life,” which she had discovered during her senior year while job-shadowing in a UC Medical Center lab in West Chester.

The College of Allied Health Sciences provided the clarity Amaniampong needed. She could complete all the prerequisites for medical school while earning her laboratory certification in case she decided medical school wasn’t for her. Her UC education, steeped in experiential learning, included four clinical rotations in the Cincinnati and Dayton area.  

With graduation now behind her, Amaniampong will work in a clinical lab for two years to save money and study for the MCAT exam. Her long-term goal is to become an oncologist or cardiothoracic surgeon.

Amaniampong, assumed several leadership roles while at UC. She was president of UC’s Medical Laboratory Sciences Student Organization and a representative of the CAHS Undergraduate Student Tribunal. She was also part of a CAHS service trip in Mexico and served as a learning assistant for a cell biology class.

“It shows how much you care. Even though you don’t know me, you care about my future and how I’m going to end up. Because schooling really affects what your future is going to look like, what kind of job you’re going to have, and how you’re going to support your family. I really appreciate how selfless these donors are, and they don’t even know me. I think that shows even more of their character.”

Featured image at top: Alice Amaniampong is a student in UC's College of Allied Health Sciences. Photo/UC Alumni Association