CHS juniors Aashi Jhawer and Suhana Jain have founded a non-profit organization called “MEDItalks & Thoughts.” This organization allows highschool students to explore a variety of different medical topics by speaking with professionals and participating in service learning projects.

Jhawer and Jain were inspired to do a passion project during the pandemic, so they got together and talked to people who had also started non-profit organizations. They decided they wanted to create a project that included both service learning and education.

“We really saw that a lot of students at the time were confused about what career path they wanted to pursue,” said Jhawer. “We wanted to help people learn about different career opportunities since healthcare has a variety of careers. 

There are two aspects to MEDItalks & Thoughts: an educational program and community service opportunities. The educational “sessions” include debates consisting of meetings for introductions, research and case studies, as well as Q&A sessions with medical professionals. 

“We usually have the doctors create a slideshow or videos,” said Jain. “We once had a radiologist describe to us some of his live cases that were coming in, so we have [these opportunities] to make it more interactive.” 

The other side to MEDItalks & Thoughts is service learning, which serves as the non-profit aspect. The program works to provide aid to health-care related organizations. The club recently fundraised for a local homeless shelter, and also put together over one hundred care packages for them. 

MEDItalks is an international organization and the founders look forward to opening even more chapters and expanding the service learning aspect. It is also a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization, so members have the opportunity to get volunteer hours. 

“We want to keep the organization growing, keep fundraising [and] keep helping benefit our community through service activities,” said Jhawer. “We feel it has already benefited a lot of people, and that is why the organization is growing internationally.”

MEDItalks is open to any student from eighth to twelfth grade. To join, students can sign up for the upcoming session four (Saturday, April 23) on the website.