The History of Los Angeles (LA) Health Initiative
In 2020, two UCLA undergraduates in specialized biology majors decided to start an organization in the midst of the pandemic. They wanted to create a pre-health organization that redesigned the traditional club structure; an organization where every member had the right and the resources to lead the organization in a way they felt would best fit the club mission. Meeting frequently over Zoom, they began to brainstorm and draft the Los Angeles Health Initiative constitution, known as LAHI for short.
Their original mission was to support the low-income and geriatric communities in the Los Angeles area who were severely affected by the ongoing pandemic. They sought to address the current healthcare disparities that existed and to become initiatives of change.
However, they needed the help of other undergraduates who were also passionate about the cause. LAHI soon became a close-knit team with strong and dedicated students who planned a multitude of activities in preparation of reuniting in-person. In 2021, we held multiple MCAT-prep sessions, resume workshops, and socials over Zoom while UCLA was hybrid. In 2022, we volunteered at the Regional Food Bank in February of 2022, filling 6,968 boxes to combat food insecurity. We also invited Dr. Christy & Tamas Dolinay to talk about their medical careers, and hosted a workshop in collaboration with RivkinEDU about breast cancer awareness.
The main turning point for LAHI was the introduction of Literweekly, a tool that was designed to help underclassmen read and digest scientific journals. The founders soon realized that there was no undergraduate organization dedicated to writing for the pre-health sector, nor was there an organization that helped STEM students combat the daunting task of analyzing a scientific journal. This led to reinventing our mission statement with a more streamlined objective.
In 2023, LAHI will focus on increasing scientific journal literacy and writing skills for the pre-health sector. This will come in the form of seminars and workshops as well as community service events on the weekends for insight into the Los Angeles community. To this day, we have open floor meetings to value the voice of each member in our organization. We hope that you will continue to follow our journey and be a part of it!
