Congratulations to all of our Class of 2022 graduates!

Ernie Chambers, a Biochemistry major, was recently featured in an article, copied below, by Sandra Baltazar MartÍnez on UCR News.

To view the full article, please visit the UCR News site here.

Ernie Chambers 

This biochemistry major’s mission is clear: become a medical doctor to help underserved populations, such as the Native American community. 

After graduation, Ernie Chambers plans to spend a year volunteering at a hospital where he’ll shadow a doctor while studying for the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT. His inspiration? The Diné people he’s met at his mother’s Indian reservation in Arizona. While at UCR, Chambers was part of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and Native American Student Programs, or NASP. He was also a recipient of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Native Pathways Scholarship, which helped him purchase school materials, he said.

Ernie Chambers, 32, biochemistry major. (UCR/Stan Lim)

“Having Native American Student Programs as a resource was really awesome,” Chambers said. They facilitate a place to gather and study, they are a resource to make college much easier.”

It was through his involvement with NASP that his interest in native health grew. The center connected him with an American Indian health provider in San Diego, from whom he hopes to learn from. 

“I want to be a physician because I wish to help people,” said Chambers, a community college transfer student. “I want to be that bridge for people who don’t have access to medical care. There’s also financial and cultural barriers I want to help solve.”