Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, during the 1980s wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It was more like a sprint through a minefield. Most people look at the Newark of that era and see statistics—crime rates, poverty levels, the crack epidemic. But for three teenagers, the city was just home, a place where the gravity of the streets constantly threatened to pull them under. The Pact by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt isn't just a memoir about becoming doctors. Honestly, that's a bit of an oversimplification. It’s a gritty, sometimes uncomfortable look at how peer pressure, when aimed in the right direction, can actually save a life.
Most "success stories" feel sterilized. You know the type. The protagonist is a misunderstood genius who overcomes every hurdle with a smile. This isn't that.
The Day Everything Changed in a Dental Office
The whole thing started because of a presentation at University High School. It sounds so mundane, right? A recruiter from Seton Hall University came to talk about a minority recruitment program for careers in medicine and dentistry. George Jenkins was the one who caught the spark first. He'd wanted to be a dentist since he was a kid, mostly because his own dentist made him feel comfortable and sparked a curiosity about the tools and the science.
But he didn't want to go it alone. He looked at his two best friends, Sam and Rameck.
They weren't exactly "model students" in the traditional sense at the time. They were smart, yeah, but they were also getting into trouble. They were flirting with the lifestyle that claimed so many of their neighbors. When George proposed that they all commit to becoming doctors together, it wasn't a formal contract signed in blood. It was a verbal agreement between three guys who were tired of seeing their friends end up in the back of a police car or a funeral home.
Why Newark Was a Character Itself
Newark in the '80s and early '90s acted as the primary antagonist in their lives. You can't talk about The Pact by Sampson Davis without acknowledging the environmental weight. Sampson himself almost derailed his entire future before it even started. He spent time in a juvenile detention center after being involved in an armed robbery. Let that sink in. A future Emergency Medicine physician was once facing years behind bars for a stick-up.
It's a stark reminder that "potential" is a fragile thing.
The streets offered immediate rewards. Fast money. Status. Protection. School offered a "maybe" that was ten years down the road. For a kid in the projects, ten years feels like an eternity. Most kids there weren't planning for thirty; they were trying to survive until Friday.
The Anatomy of a Brotherhood
People often ask if the pact was ever close to breaking. All the time. Constantly.
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Rameck Hunt had a temper that nearly cost him everything. He once got into a physical altercation with a teacher. He even spent time in jail during college after a fight involving a knife. These weren't "oops" moments; these were life-altering crises.
What kept them together wasn't some magical bond. It was the sheer terror of letting the other two down.
When one fell behind, the others didn't just offer "thoughts and prayers." They dragged him back to the library. They shared money. They shared food. They shared the emotional burden of being "the only ones" in rooms full of people who didn't look like them or understand where they came from.
The Seton Hall Years
The Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Plus Program (PMPP) at Seton Hall was their lifeline. But even with the program, the transition was brutal. Imagine moving from the block to a prestigious university campus. The culture shock is real. You're constantly code-switching. You're trying to figure out if you're "selling out" by succeeding, a toxic mindset that often plagues high-achievers from low-income backgrounds.
They had to navigate:
- Developmental courses to catch up on what Newark's underfunded schools missed.
- The skepticism of professors who didn't think they belonged.
- The pull of home, where friends were still doing the same old things.
- Financial instability that made buying textbooks a genuine hardship.
Sampson Davis and the Reality of the ER
Sampson Davis eventually became an ER doctor, returning to work in the very community where he grew up. There is a deep, poetic irony in that. He’s treated people he went to elementary school with for gunshot wounds and overdoses.
He’s talked openly about the "survivor’s guilt" that comes with it.
The pact worked because it gave them a tribe. Humans are social creatures. If your tribe is doing drugs, you’ll probably do drugs. If your tribe is studying organic chemistry until 3:00 AM, you’ll probably do that too. It sounds simple, but in an environment where the "default" setting is failure, creating a micro-environment of success is a revolutionary act.
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Challenging the "Bootstrap" Myth
One thing that bugs me when people talk about this book is the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" narrative. If you actually read the story, you see that they had a ton of help. They had the Seton Hall program. They had specific mentors like Carla Dickson. They had George's mother, who was a rock.
Success is never a solo mission.
The pact was the structure, but the community—even the fractured one in Newark—provided the raw material. They didn't succeed despite where they came from; they succeeded because they decided to change what that origin story meant.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Story
A lot of readers think the book is a "how-to" guide for medical school. It’s not. If you’re looking for study tips for the MCAT, look elsewhere.
This is a book about social psychology.
It’s about how Rameck, Sam, and George navigated the "crabs in a bucket" syndrome. You know the one—where as soon as one crab starts to climb out, the others pull him back down? They decided to be the crabs that pushed each other out of the bucket instead.
The Medical School Hurdle
After Seton Hall, they headed to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. This was another level of pressure. The academic rigor was one thing, but the emotional toll was another. They weren't just students; they were symbols.
Sampson has mentioned in interviews that there were times he felt like he was performing. Like he couldn't afford to fail because if he did, he'd be proving the stereotypes right. That's a heavy backpack to carry while you're trying to learn the anatomy of the human heart.
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Actionable Lessons You Can Actually Use
If you’re sitting there thinking, "Great, but I'm not a teenager in Newark and I don't want to be a doctor," you're missing the point. The mechanics of their success are universal.
1. Audit your inner circle immediately. Look at the three people you spend the most time with. Are they pushing you toward your goals or are they the ones buying the first round of drinks when you should be working? You don't have to cut people out aggressively, but you do need to find your "George"—the person who looks at a dream and says, "Let's do it together."
2. Lean into "Positive Peer Pressure."
We always talk about peer pressure as a negative. Flip it. Create a situation where it's more embarrassing to quit than it is to keep going. That’s what the pact was. It was a social contract that made quitting socially expensive.
3. Find your "Anchor."
For the Three Doctors, it was the PMPP program at Seton Hall. For you, it might be a professional organization, a tight-knit CrossFit group, or a coding bootcamp. You need a structured environment that expects excellence from you.
4. Accept the "Ugly" parts of the journey.
Sampson didn't hide his arrest. Rameck didn't hide his fights. If you've messed up, it doesn't disqualify you from the finish line. It just becomes part of the "before" picture.
The Long-Term Impact
Decades later, the Three Doctors (as they are now known) have influenced thousands through their foundation. They didn't just get their MDs and disappear into the suburbs. They stayed visible.
The real power of The Pact by Sampson Davis isn't that they became doctors. It's that they stayed friends. In a world that's increasingly lonely and disconnected, the idea that three guys can hold onto a promise made in a high school hallway for thirty-plus years is arguably more impressive than the medical degrees themselves.
Final Thoughts on Resilience
You’ve got to realize that resilience isn't a fixed trait. It’s not something you’re born with or you’re not. It’s a muscle. Sam, George, and Rameck flexed that muscle every time they chose a textbook over a party, or a hospital shift over a street corner.
Success is boring. It’s a series of small, repetitive, correct decisions made over a long period. The pact just made those boring decisions a little more bearable because they were making them together.
Next Steps for Implementation:
- Identify Your "Pact" Partner: Pick one person in your life who has a similar ambition. Schedule a 15-minute call this week to formalize a shared goal.
- Identify Your "Newark": What is the biggest environmental distraction holding you back right now? Is it your physical space, your social media feed, or a specific habit? Define it so you can distance yourself from it.
- Document the "Small Wins": The Three Doctors celebrated getting into the program, then passing the first year, then the second. Break your ten-year goal into six-month "contracts" to maintain momentum.