Project Heal

Project HEAL is an organization of DGSOM students that travels to Esteban Torres High School to teach students how to address common health issues and become stewards of health for their communities.

Project HEAL is associated with Esteban E Torres High School in East Los Angeles. Medical students within the organization teach health-related lessons to biology students twice a month and organize an annual health fair with collaboration from UCLA undergraduates and UCLA public health students. Our goal is to teach students at Esteban Torres High School how to address common health issues and become stewards of health for their communities.

Through delivering a series of engaging health education lectures, our goal is to promote well-being and foster a sense of excitement about careers in the health sector among our students, who represent a population underrepresented in medicine. The practical skills and professional pathways component of our program are directed at bridging disparities within the healthcare professions,?where minorities continue to be underrepresented. To meet these goals, we have worked with teachers at Esteban E. Torres High School to design and implement a customized health and nutrition curriculum containing a toolbox of 60-minute lessons based on teacher- and student-identified needs to be delivered throughout the school year.?Lesson topics range from mental health to nutrition to sexual health.

Project HEAL allows medical students to give back to the local Los Angeles community while developing leadership skills through teaching and mentorship.