School of Dentistry students named 2024-25 Albert Schweitzer Fellows

Dental students Kellie Askew and Stephanie Hoang from UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry have been accepted into the 2024-25 cohort for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship gives graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to design and implement a yearlong, mentored, community project that addresses an unmet health need for an underserved population. Fellows are paired with mentors, field experts, and community sites to enhance and extend the services of existing community organizations who serve vulnerable populations, with the goal of creating an immediate and lasting impact in the Houston-Galveston area.

Hoang and Askew, members of the DDS Classes of 2025 and 2027, respectively, join students from other UTHealth Houston schools, as well as students from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Houston, North Texas, Texas A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern University, Texas Women’s University, and to make up the 87-member ASFHG class.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship prepares the next generation of health care professionals who will serve and empower vulnerable people to live healthier lives and create healthier communities.

“Being named an Albert Schweitzer Fellow is valuable opportunity for me to channel my skills and passions for the greater good,” said Hoang. “I am thankful for the chance to make a positive impact on a vulnerable community with the support and guidance provided by the Fellowship.

“Over the past three years at the School of Dentistry, my education and training have challenged me to expand my focus beyond oral health to include a broader understanding of overall health.”

Through the fellowship, Hoang has decided to partner with a medical student fellow to develop a wellness program for adults with disabilities at the Brookwood Community, a nonprofit residential and vocational community.

ASFHG fellows complete their projects in areas such as children and elderly health, family and teen support groups, HIV/AIDS care, health care education, homeless support, human trafficking survivors care, LGBTQIA+ support, mental health awareness, mobile health clinics, oral health, nutrition, refugee health, and smartphone health apps since the fellowship began in 2008.