In Houston, our nation’s fourth-largest city, we have the largest medical complex in the world, but entire neighborhoods have limited access to healthcare and healthy food. We also have fourteen major institutions of higher education, almost all with students focusing on health-profession studies. These students have innovative ideas and a desire to make a difference in their communities, but they lack the connections and training to make their vision a reality. We work with over 40 area agencies, ascertaining their greatest needs, and then deploy our 80-plus trained graduate student Fellows to create programs that address these unmet health needs.

We support and guide these Fellows as they design, implement, evaluate, and plan for the sustainability of their project, serving as an incubator for their inventive ideas. At the end of the year, we have a cadre of service-oriented professionals with the skills and experience to address health disparities and the commitment to continue to work with marginalized communities. In the process, the community is impacted, and Fellows are transformed.