Health Disparities Student Collaborative: Training future leaders and health professionals to eradicate health disparity

Issue: Though there are coalitions in Boston organized to promote health equity, they have yet to meaningfully include students' voices, experiences, or resources in addressing issues of health disparity. This omission is a missed opportunity to train future leaders while they are still students to confront and eradicate injustice in the social, educational, and political systems that impact community health. Description: The Center for Community Health Education Research and Service (CCHERS), and Critical MASS for eliminating health disparities have sponsored a mentoring relationship to the Health Disparities Student Collaborative (HDSC), based out of Northeastern University. This student collaborative has worked to involve students in different components of the health care/health consumer system to raise awareness around health disparity in the community. Students' activities have ranged from working with a high school Health Careers Academy, collaborating on Disparity Action Network (DAN) policy action, and creating a community-based survey to assess the quality of service provided by local health centers. HDSC is crafting a group-work model with the ambition of connecting all universities in Boston and rallying students to the issue of eliminating health disparity and affirming health equity. Lessons learned: The function of mentoring relationships is critical in teaching student leaders organizing, evaluating, and program planning methods, as well as connecting student groups to the health-policy network. Recommendation: Student collaborative efforts with university and community support cultivate a generation of leaders who are equipped to transform the very systems that perpetuate health disparity as they build their own professional careers.