Today we’d like to introduce you to Francis Ihejirika
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The program started in 1996 when I began by teaching this new technique of integrative learning to medical students at University of Illinois. The students enjoyed it, engaged with it, and learned to apply it to so many topics in medicine. This showed me that it is more important to teach a student HOW to think rather than WHAT to think. It was also important to teach a student how to integrate the basic medical sciences into clinical application. This helps them MASTER the information rather than MEMORIZE it.
Thereafter, I realized that it was important to make this information accessible to any medical student. Therefore, I resigned from the University of Illinois and established the PASS Program in February of the year 2000. The first program began with only two students. They passed. Then it was five students. They passed. Then it was seven, then fifteen, and so on. Each group passed. And their scores were stellar. And when this information was relayed to the different medical schools by their own students that had attended, I began to receive calls from many medical schools; and, in time, I received calls from Osteopathic schools for help with their COMLEX exams.
In no time, we had surpassed the passing rate of all other prep programs for the USMLE and COMLEX exams. The PASS Program has continued to grow, with more and more participation by students, and schools, in our program. We pride ourselves in being the first program to offer one-on-one tutoring for its participants, which was something that the student clients really appreciated. During these sessions, you are concentrating on that one student as an individual. When you learn how that person learns and understands information, then you can help him/her correct any inefficiencies. Now that we have expanded to Texas, we are excited to be expanding our staff, expanding our services, and expanding our reach to so many new medical students, physicians, and medical schools.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The first struggle was getting the word out to medical students about the newly established PASS Program, something that was totally different than they were used to seeing. I started by attending as many medical conferences as I could, advertising myself to the Deans that were in attendance, as well as the medical students who stopped by our booth. After that, we began to offer our own housing when we found out that this was a problem for other programs to offer. This attracted many clients.
The next challenge was to build our own facility so that the students understood that the PASS Program was planning on being around for a long time. At that time, so many smaller programs operated out of a rented room in a hotel. Financing it was a challenge. But we were able to overcome that.
And of course the COVID years were the most challenging. We saw so many programs go out of business. So many parents lost their jobs and could not help their children pay for an additional program to help them pass an exam. Travel came to a halt. And most of our students had to travel to the town where we were established. Fortunately, I had brought on my son as the CEO of the company, as well as my stepdaughter as the Director of Operations. They both proved to be very valuable to the company. It was they who engineered the PASS Program online program, mechanized and monetized all of the PASS Program services for online access, help hire excellent staff and train them, and also attended key conferences that had excellent outreach to many students and schools.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I was blessed with a gift of understanding, first awakened by my mentor. He did it so methodically and so efficiently. This was because he was so patient, so respectful, so understanding of my mistakes, and never disparaging. And one day, I finally made a connection between the basic medical sciences and clinical practice, and even to everyday life. I suddenly rediscovered the excitement that I had always had for medicine. I could not stop reading, going to the library, or reading journals. That excitement still exists today.
My special talent is patience. I do not compare students to each other. And I tolerate student’s mistakes until they finally understand the information. I strive to bring them out from the walls that they had built for safety. In the end, so many finally find and love themselves again. And many of them find God in all the goodness that was shown to them.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happy is seeing the look on the face of a student when he or she actually understands something that seemed hard to understand before. They get excited; they have a new look of confidence; their self-esteem grows; and they start to believe in themselves again. That moment always takes me back to the moment that I felt the same thing when my mentor, Dr. Shah, did the same thing for me.
Another thing that makes me happy is playing the game of basketball with the fellas on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Feeling good about playing and feeling grateful to God that I can still play at the age of 62. I am only one of two guys of this age that still play.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pass-program.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepassprogram
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepassprogram
