The Office of Service Learning has announced 2023’s cohort for the competitive Health Equity Scholars (HES) program. This three-year program develops knowledge of health inequities while cultivating the ability to challenge social and professional issues affecting historically marginalized communities.
The HES program’s goal is to develop students’ skills for providing fair and just health outcomes and quality health care “regardless of one’s race, gender, nationality, age, ethnicity, religion and socioeconomic status” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Scholars participate in curricular and extracurricular activities, including 20 hours of service learning electives, 40 hours of direct service work, a scholarly project focused on health equity issues, and teaching opportunities. During each year of the program, scholars will complete HES training sessions to learn more about health equity. Third year students also complete a week-long health equity Special Topics course.
The students selected to this year’s program are Chidimma Anunobi, Reina Deol, Olivia Drake, Cody Grier, Henry Haken, Sri Ponnazhagan, Sidhvi Reddy, Sunya Reddy, Nikki Reh, Maggie Rosenthal, Erin Tarnoff, and Timberly Washington. “We selected these students from an extremely competitive applicant pool because we believe they have tremendous potential to develop into physicians who will advance health equity in Alabama and the world,” remarked Caroline Harada, Assistant Dean for Community-Engaged Scholarship.
