Photo by Kyle Green / The Roanoke Times

Forty percent of the second class at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine are women, up from 29 percent in the inaugural class.

Now that the second class of students at Roanoke’s new medical school are enrolled, the school has revised the information it released in June about those attending.

Most of the information didn’t change. Although instead of 43 students the class size is 42.

For me, the most interesting new statistic is the growth in women attending the school.

That’s because more than a year ago Dean Dr. Cynda Johnson said she was interested in attracting top female candidates.

“That might be a niche for us to really work on, to identify these women to make sure they are applying to med school and to make sure they are considering us,” Johnson told me back in 2010.

In a broader context the school also emphasized its goal to increase diversity. In publishing the revised information, the school said about a quarter of its student population is from ethnic minorities.

Most of the minority students are Asian, Dr. David Trinkle, the school’s associate dean for community and culture, told me. No African Americans students are attending currently, he added.

“It’s our goal to have as diverse student body as possible,” Trinkle said. “We’re making progress.”

Besides attracting ethnic and racial minorities and females, Trinkle said they also hope to attract a geographically and economically diverse student population.