Empowering students to pursue medical careers and become their own health advocates, Health Education and Development Services for Underprivileged Populations has spent five years connecting with schools across Ohio. Courtesy: Lovette Azap

Health Education and Development Services for Underprivileged Populations — a student organization — has spent five years connecting with schools across Ohio to empower underprivileged students to pursue medical careers and become their own health advocates.

Brielle Davidson, a second-year medical student and president of HEADS UP, said tackling racial disparities is often an internal job within the College of Medicine through discussions, coursework and initiatives. However, Davidson said it is rare for doctors to go into the community to seek out youth in need of mentorship and access to resources.

“A lot of parts of medicine are very gatekept until you get there, and so something we’re all passionate about is, kind of, removing that gate,” Davidson said. 

Davidson said HEADS UP has collaborated with schools and organizations specifically tailored for disadvantaged youth communities in Ohio, such as Northland High School, the I Promise School and Stowe Mission of Central Ohio to expose kids to otherwise inaccessible medical practices. 

Davidson said there are several communities in Ohio and around the world where children are cut off from quality educational backgrounds that could guide them to higher education.

“Underprivileged looks different in a lot of different ways,” Davidson said. “It’s not just race, it’s low socioeconomic status, first generation, it’s sexual orientation and gender expression. You are the one in control of your health care, but you do have to understand your health care, so we go into those communities for the kids, teaching them why these things are important.”

Lovette Azap, a second-year medical student and volunteer coordinator for HEADS UP, said it only takes one professional to act as a model for kids from underprivileged communities and encourage them to pursue higher education. 

“People who go to schools that are under-resourced don’t have the same amount of equipment and access to these really important opportunities to show them that there is a place for them in the medical field,” Azap said.

Dr. Corey Thompson — founder of HEADS UP, former Ohio State medical student and current resident at the University of Colorado — said he started the student organization as a means to fulfill a community project requirement in his first year of medical school.

Thompson said his background in volunteer work with Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services encouraged him to combine youth services and health education to allow newer generations to understand and advocate for their health.

“We just wanted to help out Columbus inner-city kids,” Thompson said. “With this really fortunate opportunity of being physicians, we have to figure out a way to give back. And in my mind, that way has to be education, especially with younger kids.”

Suzy Bangudi, a second-year medical student and curriculum coordinator for Northland High School, said bringing health education to schools is both crucial to encourage kids to pursue medical school and to learn the importance of taking care of their bodies.

“Once a month, we’re having a workshop with them, and every workshop there’s going to be a specialty spotlight,” Bangudi said. “We’ll teach them blood pressure or parts of the bone. We’ll also expose them to reflexes and just different things for that early encouragement.”

Davidson said HEADS UP interacts with youth around Ohio to reduce the barrier between people and doctors by consistently showing up to schools and programs as well as making science and medicine seem fun. 

“For I Promise, we go in there three times a year,” Davidson said. “For Stowe, we do about twice a year. Even in the times that we come in, we’re seeing the same students and reinforcing that excitement.”

Brittany Mosley, patient safety associate e at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and 2019 Ohio State graduate in chemistry, said she served as an ambassador for the LeBron James Family Foundation in high school. Mosley said while serving as the HEADS UP liaison during her undergraduate years, she connected the organization and I Promise School in hopes to end the cycle of academic neglect in underprivileged communities. 

In its initiative to encourage the youth to pursue medicine, Azap said HEADS UP partnered with Kaplan Inc. to host a supply drive for books for the ACT and resources to arm kids with tools to make sense of “medical jargon.”  

“Everyone deserves health care,” Azap said. “Everyone deserves to be advocates for their own health. We really want them to feel comfortable with the medical field by exposing them to ways they can directly work with some of the things physicians do.”

Bangudi said understanding the importance of health and body early in life helps young people prioritize their health and can work to bridge the gap between medicine and people of color. 

“That exposure makes you less scary,” Bangudi said. “I know a lot of people from our community don’t go to the doctor unless they’re really sick, and that is what leads to more chronic conditions that could have been prevented early on.”