Ask any kid who Michael Jordan is, and he might tell you not only who he is but also what number he wore when he played basketball for the Chicago Bulls. Query a third grader about pop star Mariah Carey, and she might be able to sing her latest song. But positive role models other than sports and entertainment figures, especially for African-American children growing up in rough, inner-city neighborhoods, can seem few and far between.

And if you ask a child who Sampson Davis is, odds are he will be stumped. Nevertheless, someday Sampson Davis, M.D., hopes that his face, like that of Michael Jordan or Mariah Carey, will be commonly associated with his career - medicine - and the education that brought him to it.

"Everybody has big dreams at some time early on in life. For many of these kids, their dreams are lost, smashed, or destroyed," says Dr. Davis, a third-year emergency medicine resident at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. "We want to make education appealing for youth in inner cities."

To promote education and health care in urban communities, Dr. Davis and his longtime friends Rameck Hunt, M.D., a third-year internal medicine resident at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and George Jenkins, D.M.D., an oral medicine fellow at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, started the Three Doctors Foundation in March 2000.

The doctors are drawing on their personal experience to guide them in directing the foundation. Growing up in inner-city Newark, N.J., they saw their friends look up to drug dealers and car thieves, not doctors and lawyers. Most professionals didn't drive through their neighborhood, let alone mentor the children there. It was in a high school math and science program for gifted students that the three forged a bond that lasted through high school, college, medical school, and now through their work with the foundation.

Each of the doctors attended Seton Hall University through the school's Pre-Medical, Pre-Dental Plus program, which was specially designed for students from lower-income families who demonstrated their academic potential in high school but needed extra social and academic support in college. At Seton Hall, Drs. Davis, Hunt, and Jenkins met Carla Dickson, a student development specialist who served as the young men's guidance counselor and mentor. Dr. Jenkins calls Dickson their "guardian angel." She helped them see what college was all about and showed them what their lives could be if they stuck with the program, he says.

They all admit there were challenges that seemed insurmountable. "Education sometimes felt like a dim road with a lack of guidance," Dr. Davis says. As he advanced further in his education, there were fewer and fewer people like him. Medical school was the hardest, he says, and he wanted to give up. But he didn't, because he had his friends to lean on and who needed him to lean on in return.

The three friends hope, through their foundation, to make the path they followed easier and more accessible to children growing up in the inner city. To that end, the three doctors have established three priorities: education, health care, and mentoring. The foundation recently established a scholarship to support students accepted into a four-year college or university. Applicants must be residents of Newark.

As part of its focus on health care, the foundation Web site, located at www.threedoctorsfoundation.org, includes general information on hypertension, smoking cessation, genital herpes, dental health, and more. The site also includes tips on getting the most from doctor visits. The doctors' hands-on approach to the foundation is clearly evident on the site. Drs. Davis, Hunt, and Jenkins list their direct e-mail addresses for more information on any of the included subject matter.

Mentoring is the last theme of the organization, and perhaps its most important. The foundation aims to serve as a model group for inner-city communities, using its visibility to encourage positive neighborhood and community development. Its founders also want to make lasting impressions on young people in these communities. "My passion exists because others believed in me, and if I can trigger that passion in someone else, then I'll try my best to do just that," Dr. Hunt says.

While they describe it as a "work in progress," the foundation is already receiving acclaim. Last year, the doctors were presented the Essence Award for their community service. They have told their stories in the Washington Post and on Oprah, and they hope their organization will grow to become a national foundation, awarding multiple scholarships, promoting health screening, and educating communities across the country. The doctors want every child to pursue his or her dreams, whether in medicine, dentistry, or space exploration.

After they complete their medical training, Drs. Davis, Hunt, and Jenkins hope to start a clinic in their native Newark, with each physician and dentist not only providing needed health and dental care but also mentoring children in local schools. "Kids need a mentor - someone who can identify with them, call them by their first name, and create motivation and inspiration," Dr. Davis says.