2011-2012

Alina Batool, University of Texas - School of Public Health
View a poster telling the story of Batool's Schweitzer project here.
Batool aims to increase access to preventive healthcare by designing and implementing an outreach initiative to increase enrollment in the Healthy Kids program at Ibn Sina Community Clinic. Batool’s program will focus on empowering low-income families to overcome the financial and social barriers that often prevent regular dental and medical physicals, and educating parents regarding the benefits of primary care. Community Site: Ibn Sina Community Clinic

Amanda Dave and Angela Lloyd, University of Texas - School of Public Health
View a poster telling the story of Dave and Lloyd's Schweitzer project here.
Dave and Lloyd aim to ease the resettlement process for adolescent Burmese refugees by working with Tzu Chi to develop a volunteer-led service learning program that provides refugees with assistance in learning English and adapting to American life. Community Site: Tzu Chi

2009-2010

Erin Bendure and Ryan Van Ramshorst, Baylor College of Medicine
This project focuses on early childhood literacy: improving and promoting literacy in the clinics and emergency center of Ben Taub General Hospital (BTGH).  They will work to expand and reinvigorate two formerly separate programs, Reach Out and Read and the BOOKS Program at BTGH.  Reach Out and Read is a nationally recognized program addressing literacy needs through pediatricians, while the BOOKS Program was established locally to address similar needs in the emergency center, inpatient ward and pediatric clinics of BTGH.

Gladys Browman, University of Texas School of Public Health
Gladys’ proposed community project is to work with the local refugee population to create a nutrition program that incoming refugees can benefit from. The program would be inclusive of a variety of basic nutrition education classes that focus on healthy eating habits and food safety as well as providing cooking classes and grocery store tours.

Ashley Grant, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Ashley is a student in the virology program at UTMB. She will work with Rosenberg Elementary, which being the only open elementary school in Galveston following Hurricane Ike, is overcrowded. Many of these children are living in temporary housing and largely come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This program focuses on encouraging children to learn about math and science. A basis in math and science early makes it much easier to fulfill a child's dream of one day becoming a doctor or scientist.  With a disaster like Ike and so much time taken off school it is easy for any child to fall behind.  This program will provide free tutoring to children who request it. She has hopes that this project inspires children to dream about becoming a doctor or a scientist.

Amber Higgs, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Amber will conduct a class at the St. Vincent's clinic to teach about nutrition and its direct effects on preventing/eliminating common diseases. It will teach people how to shop for low fare, healthy foods, and prepare recipes that would be inexpensive and healthy for their households, as well as education on how to maintain exercise, how to use lightweight exercise equipment (hand weights), and how to incorporate healthy changes into everyday life. She strives to make it a fun, interactive, lively class, with music, door prizes, demonstrations, and other interactive games to keep people interested.

John Hoover, Baylor College of Medicine
The goal of John’s project is to reach out to Houston’s homeless and use their artwork to raise awareness to the public of the homeless experience. He will identify artists in the community, record “their stories” and showcase their work in agencies serving this population. In addition, he will work with area agencies, such as Healthcare for the Homeless—Houston, to create a place for homeless artists to come together.  

Bhavika Kaul, Rice University
Bhavika will graduate from Rice University with a degree in biochemistry and cell biology in May 2009 and will start as a medical student at Baylor College of Medicine in the fall. She is developing an curriculum of interactive projects and activities to help young students learn about how they can improve their health through attention to food, exercise, immunization and basic sanitation. She began developing this curriculum in her bioengineering class at Rice and will expand and further develop it throughout her Fellowship year. She hopes to work with Ronald McDonald House Charities’ Caremobile and enlist the help of fellow medical students to visit underserved schools in the Houston area. 

Abhilash Krishna, Rice University
Abhilash is a graduate student in electric and computer engineering at Rice University. The primary aim of his proposed community service project is to design and conduct a cardiac educational program for schools, community facilities, and health organizations. Given the level of computational power at our disposal today, it has become possible to create accurate mathematical models of biological systems with user-friendly computer interfaces. He intends to work with schools through a collaboration with organizations such as SEEK (Student Engineers Educating Kids) and heart associations such as AHA (American Heart Association) to conduct presentations, demonstrations, and discussions that educate on cardiac electrophysiology, food and activity-related cardiac health risks, disease detection and prevention.

Aliya Laws and Irogue Igbinosa, Baylor College of Medicine
Thousands of people in the heart of Houston come together on Sunday mornings for worship and praise. Part of this involves people of all ages, shapes, and sizes clap their hands and stomping their feet to music that moves their souls. They look to help people tap into energy that is usually reserved for Sundays and funnel it into the form of coordinated, aerobic exercise - Gospel Aerobics. By partnering with local churches and community organizations, they will hold weekly exercise sessions set to the same familiar gospel music that gets people so energized and inspired on weekends.

Don Stader and  Mary Weeks, Baylor College of Medicine
Don and Mary’s project will be a patient education program through the Ben Taub Emergency Center (Ben Taub General Hospital). After patient's are seen and worked up by doctors and before they are discharged, they will educate patients in a one-on-one setting about their diagnosis and treatment plan in the hopes of increasing patient understanding and compliance. Moreover, in the time they have with patients, they will identify and when possible address barriers to compliance before the patient leaves the emergency center. They will also enlist first year medical students to volunteer with the program

Bianca Wyont, South Texas College of Law
Bianca will be working with Sana Maria Hostel, a program that houses chemically dependent women and helps them become drug and alcohol free while allowing them to remain with their children throughout treatment. She worked with the staff to develop a service project that will provide these women with information regarding various programs that might be helpful to them once they leave the facility, such as information about WIC, how to apply for food stamps/the Lone Star Card, TANF, navigating the court systems, job interview skills, dressing for success, etc. Women will start a binder that they add materials to after each class.