Advocacy and Mentorship

Advocacy and Mentorship

Encouraging activism

We encourage students to “find their voices” and speak out in classrooms and public forums. As students become confident in their abilities, they learn to advocate for issues important to their communities. They become powerful spokespersons, testifying at city council and school board meetings.

Students testify at Mountain View City Council about an education initiative

We offer workshops to the students’ parents as well. It can be difficult for parents to understand and advocate for the academic needs of their children, especially if they have limited experience in an academic environment. Our workshops teach them which questions to ask and how to better support the education of their children.

Parents attend an advocacy workshop

Near-Peer models

We link local middle and high school students with Stanford students and health care professionals. Our goal is to create near-peer models, exposing students to college and future careers and making them feel like they belong in higher education.

Student panels

During one of our college field trips, Latino students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade spent a day at Stanford’s School of Medicine. They interacted with a panel of Stanford Latino medical, postdoctoral, and undergraduate students. They learned these students were from families like theirs, noting the importance of taking challenging classes and working hard, keeping track of financial aid, and tapping into resources to make college a success.

Stanford students talk to middle school students about their college experiences.
Stanford students talk to middle school students about their college experiences

Practicing emergency medicine

We partner with Stanford health professionals to lead hands-on workshops. In this emergency medicine workshop, led by a family medicine physician and physician’s assistant, students were assigned the role of a victim, responder, or educator. They learned how to conduct an initial assessment of a trauma injury,  communicate with a 911 operator, apply sterile bandages and pressure to a cut (illustrated by props including a plastic tomato, knife, and fake blood) and how to use an EpiPen to respond to a life-threatening allergic reaction caused by a bee sting.

Stanford medical students teaches emergency medicine to middle students
Stanford medical students inform middle school students about emergency medicine
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Students learn they belong on a college campus

Personalized campus tours

Field trips are taken to college campuses to demystify college. Middle and high school students are shown the diversity of college students and engage in conversations with college students and professors.

Student comments

“I learned that you can go to Stanford even if you are poor but have good grades and test scores. And they will even pay for you if you don’t have any money!”
“Thank you for teaching us how to tell if someone is hurt. I know to ask them if they can say their name and open their eyes. Then when you call 911 you stay on the phone so the operator can tell you how to help the person.”
“I had never talked to a real doctor before and I want to become one! Thank you for showing me how to clean a bad cut, press on the skin with the gauze to stop the bleeding, and put on a Band-Aid. My mom will be amazed.”
“I learned that it is better for getting into college if you take a hard class in high school like honors chemistry and get a B than if you take an easy class and get an A.”

A comment from a Stanford Partner

“The students’ words exemplified that determination has the power to help each individual reach their potential; it was a beautiful thing to see all that potential in the room."