The 2003 Summer EA Program class began its NIH residency training on June 2, 2003, and completed its training August 8, 2003. That class included Dr.Sunday A. Adesuyi from Saint Paul's College, Lawrenceville, Virginia; Dr. Delroy M. Louden from Lincoln University, Lincoln, Pennsylvania; Dr. Philip K. Peake from Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts; and Dr. Thomas E. Snowden from Florida Memorial College, Miami, Florida.

This EA Program class began its NIH residency training on January 3, 2003, and completed its training May 23, 2003. The class included Dr. Wilfredo Resto, from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey in Cayey, Puerto Rico; Dr. Joe Emily from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina; Dr. Arlene Horne from

The EA Winter Class of 2003 was the inaugural class to experience a formal graduation ceremony.The ceremony was held on the NIH campus at the Lawton Chiles International Center.

The EA Program invited university officials to attend the ceremony and to give greetings. The officials present were Dr. Rafael Aragunde, Chancellor, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey; Dr. Sue Wesselkamper, President, Chaminade University, Hawaii; Dr. Clarence Sanchez, Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, New Mexico Highlands University.

The graduation ceremony afforded the university officials the opportunity to meet privately with Drs. Yvonne T. Maddox, NICHD deputy director; Matthew Kinnard, EA program director; and Hinda Zlotnik, representing the EA Program Advisory Board. The event also allowed them to hear firsthand of the trans-NIH commitment to the EA Program. The keynote address from Dr. Ruth Kirschstein, senior adviser (advisor?) to the NIH director, was a highlight of this first graduation ceremony.

Because community colleges originally did not participate in the EA Program, particularly after the initiation of the EA EARDA in 1994, the EA Program staff has considered a number of options that would allow for the institutes' participation. It was hoped that these options would result in an EA Program experience that would be most advantageous to community colleges.

Dr. Maria Alvarez, a member of the 1998 EA Program summer class and an EARDA recipient, proposed to bring three or four faculty members from her institution, El Paso Community College, to Bethesda for two weeks. Her thesis was that the two-week exposure of these faculty to the Program, familiarization with the Program's culture and experience with some NIH intramural research labs, in addition to sitting in on didactic activities scheduled for the regular EA Program class, would be highly beneficial to these individuals.