Project Descriptions
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Creative Care
The Creative Care project advocates for social, mental, and community health through preventative methods such as art, meditation, and yoga. We offer several self-care workshops on campus throughout the year for students. In the past, we’ve held highly popular events such as Harry Potter themed yoga, guided painting sessions, and Open Mics. Currently, we are focusing on integrating ourselves more within the Houston community by seeking partnerships and participating in city-wide, creative events like FotoFest. The project is student-led and provides interdisciplinary opportunities for students pursuing a career in health.
Contact Roba Abousaway (rbabousaway@uh.edu), Jessica Tran (jttran26@uh.edu), or Emerald Zaw (emzaw@uh.edu) for more information.
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Community Greens
We are a growing group of students working alongside UH Faculty, local community leaders and houston partners. Collectively, we aim to change the dynamics of food accessibility, green spaces and wildlife habitats by creating educational spaces, volunteering opportunities, discussions, and sustainable efforts within the contexts of health, food, nature, and politics. The Community Greens (CG) project is involved in helping create healthier neighborhoods by mitigating food desert areas throughout the Greater Houston area by collaborating with community partners through urban farming/gardening efforts. CG is also involved in environmental resilience efforts to help preserve, promote, restore and enhance urban green spaces for the welfare of communities and wildlife.
Contact Sabine M. Hill (smmeyerh@uh.edu), Mariana Rendon (mrendonorozco@uh.edu), or Jose M. Alducin (jmalducin@uh.edu) for more information.
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STEM
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Project aims to introduce and encourage kids of all ages to explore the STEM field in the classroom and their community. We strive to accomplish this through developing interactive and interdisciplinary curriculums to teach 6th to 12th grade students. The lesson plans cover a range of topics from lead poisoning in “Community LEAD-ers” to space exploration in “Mars Habitation.” We have presented to and worked with 30+ teachers to tie in other important aspects to the lessons, such as community, health, and policy. We engage students with discussions about their decisions and their impact within the lesson and how it relates to the real world. Currently, we are going out to multiple communities to encourage students to think creatively and critically about the world around them.
Contact Isabelle Nguyen (itnguyen@uh.edu) for more information
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CHAT
This is an opportunity to participate in the Community Health Workers (CHW) program, a project-based learning program that promotes the health and wellness of underserved communities and helps connect individuals to healthcare services and resources. The community partner for this semester will be Culture of Health-Advancing Together (CHAT), a non-profit that provides after-school mentorship and tutoring to refugee and immigrant children, as well as social services to refugee and immigrant adults. As a volunteer tutor for CHAT, you can work with elementary and middle school aged children on a variety of school subjects, including math, science and reading. Along with providing educational support for the children, tutors can become volunteers for other CHAT opportunities, such as one-day promotional events and the community health clinic. Tutoring hours are from 5:00-7:00pm Mondays through Fridays during the school year.
CHAT Address:
6711 Hornwood Dr. #245
Houston, Texas 77074
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Vision Screenings
PEERS
PEERS (Project Engagement Encouraging Rising Students) is a community health initiative that focuses on promoting community and educational engagement in high school students within the Houston area. We partner with University of Houston undergrads to form mentor teams to work together on community projects that are meaningful and relevant to the students, and in the spring, we will have a competition to determine our project winners and award prizes!
As a PEERS mentor, you will be working on solving real problems that are applicable to real people. You will also help guide and advise students on questions they may have about college, different majors, scholarships, and life. PEERS aims to build a natural mentorship between UH students and students within the community through these side-by-side projects. We hope to culture professional development and academic success, and wish to inspire students through our program and various workshops throughout the year.