Lily Huynh/ The Cougar
An Honors in Community Health project, Project Engagement Encouraging Rising Students, or PEERS, connects undergraduate mentors to local high school mentees in underserved HISD schools to create a yearlong project about public health.
In the fall, mentors drive to high schools East Early College, Challenge and Austin to teach about public health. Each year, project leads choose a new theme for students to relate their projects to.
“Last year, we did environmental health, with a focus on the effects that Hurricane Harvery left in Houston,” said psychology senior Angela Nguyen. “This year, our theme is ‘If you had 5 million dollars, how would you prevent the spread of communicable diseases?’”
In the spring, mentors help their mentee groups create research proposals to compete for the chance to present at the UH Undergraduate Research Day.
“I had a mentee that was really nervous of their work in the research competition, and told them that it’s not just about winning, but rather showing hard work that you’ve done,” said biomedical sciences junior Maryam Kausar. “On competition day, her group didn’t place in a prize, but their presented superlative was ‘most lively presenters.’ I was so proud of them and they were all so overjoyed to have been recognized.”
For many of the mentees, PEERS was more than just a way for them to learn about research, their mentors became people they could confide in and ask for support.
“It was really heartwarming when the kids realized we were a safe space to talk to,” said psychology senior Maryam Khan.
One of Khan’s mentees was initially adamant that college wasn’t ‘for her,’ and she couldn’t imagine herself pursuing higher education.
“When we brought her to UH for our annual mentee tour, she was amazed to see the liberal arts college, and that was the moment she decided to work towards being the first person in her family to earn a degree,” Khan said.
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