The Dr. Chika Oriuwa Award advances Black health

Mar 19, 2024 Chika Oriuwa served as an ambassador with Temerty Medicine’s Black Student Application Program and was named valedictorian — the first Black woman to become Temerty Medicine’s sole valedictorian. Photo by Christie Vuong. Chika Oriuwa (MD 2020) is passionate about supporting people. A psychiatry trainee with the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a mother of two young children, Oriuwa continues to seek out new ways to support both the patients she cares for and the medical community to which she belongs. Her latest demonstration of support is a philanthropic gift to establish the Dr. Chika Oriuwa Award for the Advancement of Black Health at Temerty Medicine. Each year, in perpetuity, the award will recognize a graduating MD student who has demonstrated their dedication to advancing health in the Black community. “When a medical student has invested into the Black community, which historically has maybe not been valued the same as other areas of medicine, I want them to know that they are seen and appreciated,” says Oriuwa. Supporting community members Oriuwa has spent her life examining what it means to truly support community members in vulnerable positions. Medicine has always been her main goal, but...