ProjectBrain2heart: Bridging the Gap Between Underprivileged Students and a Future in Medicine

Brain2heart is a fiscally sponsored non profit organization that aims to bridge the gap between underprivileged students and a future in medicine. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), only 5.5% of medical students come from the bottom 20% of household income, while almost half of all medical students come from the top 20% of household income. There is surely something that is preventing these low-income students from pursuing a future in medicine; this may be because they do not have access to quality education or extra opportunities outside of school. Brain2heart has taken many steps to address this issue. To give a general overview, brain2heart has established a virtual and in-person mentorship program, a research program, partnerships with schools and other non-profits, local chapters, and blogs to give information about various health topics. First, brain2heart started off by establishing a mentorship program. Our mentorship program pairs up mentors and mentees for an individualized, 1:1 mentoring session about health and medical topics. Our education directors plan and create lesson slides, and middle schoolers are able to digest high school content due to our fun, simplified, and interactive lessons. Our curriculum ranges from the different specialties of medicine to anatomy to biology. Our mentorship program has reached Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, Michigan, and Hong Kong, to name a few. In addition to our mentorship program, we also provide additional opportunities for students to pursue. For instance, we have recently started a breast cancer research program for high schoolers interested in medicine and cancer to participate in. One of our education directors has conducted cancer research at the prestigious Northwestern University, and she is spearheading a team of students to start up a group research project regarding breast cancer. This program allows us to give students research experience, instead of just teaching students the necessary curriculum to pursue a career in medicine. Moreover, we have established partnerships with middle and high schools. These partnerships allow us to receive more students for our program, while we provide educational opportunities for these students. We also support these underfunded schools by providing a percentage of our donations to them, allowing them to develop their education system. Furthermore, we have established local chapters in some areas of the United States. Currently, we have 3 chapters in New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. We are in the process of establishing even more chapters, and students may create their own chapters when they meet the requirements to create a chapter. These local chapters organize fundraisers, events, and provide in-person mentorship to students. To achieve everything we have done thus far, we needed people in our team to help out. Our executive board consists of the presidents, vice presidents, head of operations, education directors, head of outreach, and the head of social media. The executive board focuses on the management of the entire organization and our different departments, which consist of the outreach department, writing/research department, marketing department, and the design department. We are proud to say that we have over 70+ members that are involved within our organization and have reached 15 U.S. states and 10 countries, including Lebanon and Mozambique.

Our expertise is building a tight-knit community of young leaders. We can support other organizations by collaborating with them.