Alvarez Spark Innovation Award recipient Michael Yang founded the New Orleans Elementary School Cooking Class Initiative, a STEM and cooking program aiming to increase early access to health and wellness education. Michael is a junior, Class of 2023, majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology with a minor in Public Health.
The culmination of my undergraduate experiences, from volunteering in the local community gardens with the Food Justice Advocates to conducting research on age-related macular degeneration in Dr. Wang’s ophthalmology lab have nurtured my aspirations to pursue an MD/MPH to help address diseases on both the individual and community level. Additionally, through courses like “Nutrition and Chronic Disease” and an internship at the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine that opened my eyes to the importance of nutritional food access and health education, I have developed a particular passion toward preventing diet-induced disease. I am incredibly grateful to have received support through the Taylor Center and Alvarez Spark Innovation Award that have helped empower the launch of the New Orleans Elementary School Cooking Class Initiative (NOESCCI).
Months of planning entailed recruiting an executive board, creating curriculum slides, and visiting local elementary schools to promote our program dates. This past spring semester, I am beyond proud to have held four programs reaching 76 local elementary school students from 25 different schools and 21 different zip codes. Our program dates were held on the Saturdays of 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, and 4/15 from 9:30-12:00 at the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine (GCCM). This would be the first Kids Cooking Class held at GCCM since before the pandemic in 2020, and the first cooking and STEM program created at GCCM.
While I strived to meticulously plan and preemptively prepare for each scenario during the launch of NOESCCI, such as delegating to the executive board the creation of curriculum slides over winter break and then refining the slides together in January upon our return to campus, I have learned that certain scenarios cannot be entirely controlled for, and that is okay. When we began promoting our program dates on social media, our 80 space capacity was filled within five days, and I needed to close the Google form and create a waitlist. Confirmation emails would be sent out one week and then three days before each program to all of our participants. Logistically, it became difficult coordinating date preferences for our attendees, and unfortunately, there would be times when some registered participants would not be in attendance. However, I am still incredibly proud of being able to reach 76 local elementary school students for our programs.
The feedback has been tremendous, with parents asking if they would be able to register their children again for the following weekend, if our team would be able to lead lessons at their elementary school, and if any programs would exist in the fall. Through this experience, I am grateful for the funding provided by the Taylor Center that enabled us to provide these free cooking and STEM education programs that aim to inspire local New Orleans elementary school students to incorporate healthier lifestyle choices into their daily lives, and I am motivated to continue growing NOESCCI for year to come.
NOESCCI has plans to host six more programs reaching 120 more students the following year, with three sessions being held in the fall and spring semester. While in England, I will still be actively involved with NOESCCI, and I am committed to helping NOESCCI grow, where our curriculum can ultimately be expanded to include middle school participants, and possibly be used in a school setting. NOESCCI has represented the culmination of my undergraduate passions and future aspirations to increase access to health education and resources in the communities I am privileged to reside.
Just two weeks ago, I was notified of my selection as a Fulbright Scholar for the Fulbright / University of Reading Award in Food Security. I am beyond excited to pursue an MSc in Nutrition and Food Science in the United Kingdom while conducting cardiometabolic research at the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition while creating an initiative to share information and research on food security between the US and UK. The skills I have gained through the founding of NOESCCI will undoubtedly carry over toward not only my endeavors for Fulbright but ultimately my entire career as an aspiring changemaker in the medical field.
