Songs and dance to benefit minority high school students

Medical students strutted their stuff in January at the Seventh Annual Grannum Jamboree, showing once again that they are as familiar with a guitar or dance steps as they are with the 206 bones in the human body. The jamboree’s selections ranged from songs by the Yale Gospel Choir to a humorous song about life in New Haven performed by Mike Fehm and accompanists. LaLisa Alita Anderson read from her collection of oral histories, On the Other Side: African Americans Tell of Healing, to be published next spring by Westminster John Knox Press. Rashida N’Gouamba choreographed a dance set to kweito music from South African black townships.

The show’s proceeds benefit HPREP, the Health Professions Recruitment and Enrichment Program, a 10-week program that brings area high school students to the medical school on Saturday mornings for classes on health-related topics. This year 43 high school students participated and at the end of the program the top students received college scholarships.

The jamboree is held in honor of the late Dr. Peter Grannum, former director of medical studies in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and two-time winner of the Francis Gilman Blake Award for outstanding teaching in the medical sciences.