Students Mentor Kids Through Sports
By Felicite Fallon
Friday afternoons at P.S. 128 have become a site of mentorship in motion. A VP&S student-led initiative called Pick Up Sports and Health (PUSH) is combining sports and science lessons as a way of motivating community youth to pursue health-oriented careers and promote health equity.
The student volunteers running PUSH— who represent VP&S, Mailman School of Public Health, and College of Dental Medicine—hold semimonthly sessions at P.S. 128 on West 169th Street, as well as community events at the Harlem Polo Grounds and at P.S. 128. Each session engages children and teens in sports drills, games, and exercises before transitioning to interactive health and wellness lessons designed to expand health literacy and improve health outcomes. Lesson topics include asthma, sugar consumption, heart health, mental health, bone health, and more. The curriculum is developed by Columbia students based on models pro- vided by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Joshua Dawson’25, a PUSH co-founder and board member, says the program isn’t just about encouraging kids to pursue careers in health science; it’s also about encouraging them to explore their own potential.
“With my background in health equity research, it made sense to formalize a program where we use sports as a vector to motivate these kids to pursue careers in health,” Mr. Dawson says. “Over the past few years, the program transformed more to just giving kids the option to pursue careers in health fields, as well as helping the kids learn more about their bodies, one more way to tap into their own brilliance and natural curiosity.”
PUSH has so far engaged more than 200 children and teens in Washington Heights through partnerships with local community organizations and activists. Student leaders have published research on the program, with abstracts accepted at the 2024 Social Mission Alliance Conference and the 2024 Wilbert C. Jordan Research Forum. They also have secured grant funding from the VP&S Department of Pediatrics and the Ameri- can Academy of Pediatrics and presented on the impact of the program at an AAP conference in October of 2024. Julie S. Glickstein, MD, professor of pediatrics, serves as the club’s faculty adviser.
The student volunteers in the program have the opportunity to take their learning from the classroom and adapt it for kids, a valuable experience for future health services providers in making medicine accessible for all.
“Oftentimes we’re hesitant to create les- sons that are too complicated for the kids, and they always blow us out of the water with their ability to retain what they learned two weeks ago,” Mr. Dawson says. “It challenges us to think about how we can make these lessons engaging and stimulating. These kids are sponges, and we just have to give them the opportunities and resources to channel their innate greatness.”
Part of the appeal of the program is mentorship, giving both students and local youth the chance to foster long-term relationships and trust.
“We asked the kids how many of them had ever considered a health career before and none of them had, and none of them knew someone who worked in medicine,” says Jude Okonkwo’25, PUSH co-founder, board member, and coach. “Then a few weeks later, I ran to PUSH after a late day in clinic and the kids were fascinated with my white coat. I remember one of the second graders running up to me to give me a high five, telling me that he would have a white coat just like mine in the years to come.”