2006 Medical Student Community Leadership Grants

Alhambra High School Mentoring
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
The USC Chapter of Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association continues its mentoring partnership with Alhambra High Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Program. Each year, an average of 40 medical students are paired with approximately 60 MESA students. This program motivates high school students to seek positive role models and demonstrates the importance of community involvement. The program mentorship has also created opportunities for medical students to serve and make a difference in the lives of young people.

AMA Smoking Prevention Program
University of California, Irvine
The UC Irvine Chapter of the American Medical Association has developed an educational curriculum targeting elementary and middle school schools in Orange County on the dangers of smoking. The program consists of short lectures about the harmful effects of smoking, interactive sections in which elementary students will use props such as straws to breathe through to simulate the breathing problems associated with smoking, molasses to simulate the tar found in cigarettes, and real smoking ads for the students to analyze the misleading messages behind the ad. The children will have the opportunity to participate in a poster contest illustrating the positive effects of living tobacco-free.

Community Outreach Juvenile Hall
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
Community Outreach at USC Keck School of Medicine is a program that sends medical students to LA County Juvenile Hall weekly to provide preventative education to the teens detained there. Each Friday afternoon, 10-15 medical students visit Juvenile Hall to teach classes on Drugs and Alcohol, Dating, Violence, Decision Making, Contraception and Sexually Transmitted Infections. Community Outreach is the largest community service program at Keck, with over 230 students trained to teach at least one of our five topics.

Emergency Medicine Disaster Preparedness & Safety Fair
University of California, Irvine
The Emergency Medicine Symposium promotes the culture of disaster preparedness and begins the critical process of educating and training current and future generations of Emergency Medicine physicians, residents and medical students in disaster management. Educational materials will be provided to the symposium participants will be in the form of four didactic sessions/lectures and three hands-on skills workshops consisting if advanced suturing, airway management and splinting.

"Healthcare 101" Lunchtime Seminar Series
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
"Healthcare 101" will provide a lunchtime seminar series to be hosted to achieve the following goals: to increase student awareness and knowledge about pertinent health policy and public health issues and generate dialogue on campus concerning such issues. Various medical professionals, public health and NGO workers and local politicians will speak to students for one-hour seminars at lunchtime.

HIV Panel
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
The HIV Panel will assist current students in grasping the new reality of HIV. The HIV Panel includes a two-hour panel discussion with an HIV physician who previously directed Highland Hospital's HIV clinic in Oakland, California, an African-American HIV+ woman from downtown Oakland, California, a transgender HIV+ male ---> female, and a gay HIV+ man.

Patient Education Center Los Angeles County
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
The Patient Education Center is to be established in the waiting area at the LA County USC Hospital. The purpose of the Education Center is to take advantage of the patient wait time as an outreach opportunity to enhance preventive care provided to underserved LA County USC Hospital patients and their families. The Patient Center will provide education on twelve topics, including management of hypertension, prenatal care, STD's and drug/alcohol rehabilitation.

Project HOPE
San Bernardino Medical Society & Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Project HOPE is a mentoring program that pairs Loma Linda University students with pregnant and parenting teens in the San Bernardino City Unified School District. The project seeks to educate young women about healthy pregnancies (including proper nutrition), teach them parenting skills, help them develop long-term goals, and provide them with role models. Once a week medical students go into classrooms dedicated to pregnant/parenting teens in the city of San Bernardino to give presentations and help the teens with curriculum and craft projects. These help the young moms think about their own lives and the decisions they will face as parents and as they become adults. The teens involved have the opportunity to learn important life skills and spend time with positive role models.

Screening for Hepatitis B in the San Diego Asian Community
University of California, San Diego
The UC San Diego medical students are training to educate and screen 50 Asian Americans in the San Diego metropolitan area. This training supplements the curriculum at UC San Diego with valuable information about disease disproportionately affecting one of the most rapidly growing minorities in the United States. During the screening, student educators will distribute pamphlets and teach patients about HBV. Patients subsequently testing positive will have a follow-up appointment with partner organizations.

Sugar Busters
University of California, Irvine
UC Irvine Sugar Busters complements the monthly service provided by the UC Irvine Sight Savers Program that provides free glaucoma screening to the indigent population. Many people screened by Sight Savers either have diabetes or are at risk. For those with diabetes, Sugar Busters will educate them about the disease and council them on the importance of maintaining proper blood sugar levels and having frequent exams with trained health care professionals. For the at-risk group, including children, Sugar Busters will focus on preventative medicine by educating them about the disease and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Both the diabetic and at-risk groups will be given information about the ocular affects of diabetes and will be provided a free visual acuity and fundoscopic exam. Sugar Busters' community goal is to reduce the health problems of diabetics while preventing the disease for those at risk.

Working Within The System- Practical Ways To Increase Access To Health Care
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Working Within The System exposes medical students and faculty to various ways to decrease the number of uninsured patients in California. These tactics include items such as Providing lower income employed citizens with tax credits to help cover the cost of private insurance and Expanding the Healthy Families program to cover working parents of children enrolled in the Healthy Families program.

Click below to view grants given in previous years or return to the Medical Student Community Leadership Grant project page.

2005
2004
2003
2002-2001