First-year medical student Lonetta L. Postell, who hopes to practice medicine in an underserved area and "give back heavily in community service," has secured a National Medical Fellowships scholarship.

The NMF, founded in 1946, exists to increase the number of underrepresented minority physicians in the United States. The organization provides scholarships to boost the numbers of minority physicians, educators, researchers, policy makers and health care administrators; train minority medical students to address the needs of their communities, and educate the public and policy makers about health problems in underserved populations.

Postell, 27, originally from Huber Heights, Ohio, and now living in Auburn Hills, completed her undergraduate studies at Oakland University.

She said she will apply the $4,000 scholarship toward tuition and expenses.

Postell became interested in medicine as a child, when her grandparents died of cancer. "My grandparents died beginning when I was 4 years old, which did not allow me the opportunity of remembering much of them," she said.

She is interested in surgical oncology because of the battle her grandparents fought.

The newly elected 2009-10 secretary for the Black Medical Association/Student National Medical Association Black Medical Association, Postell is also a member of the Surgery Interest Group, the American Medical Association and the Christian Medical Association. Outside of medical school, she serves as president of a weekly tutoring and mentoring program for students of all ages in Pontiac. She also volunteers at the Mercy Place free clinic in Pontiac.

"I chose the Wayne State University School of Medicine because the university chose me when I thought that I was not good enough to become a physician and because of the awesome training in the Detroit metro area," Postell said.