Everyone Deserves a Fair Shot in East Palo Alto: Bridging Crosstown Gaps in Educational and Health Equity
#Partnerships
Andrea Jonas, MD
“I went through the Palo Alto school district myself,” Clinical Assistant Professor Jennifer Williams, MD, nods. “You kind of have a pathway laid out for you; if you grow up just two miles away, you don’t have that pathway laid out for you.”
When many think of Palo Alto, they think of Stanford’s sprawling campus and the opportunities that living so close to the university affords. But just outside the city of Palo Alto, opportunities in East Palo Alto look very different.
“Growing up here, I had friends all over in the area,” says Williams. “You see the contrast of the opportunity or lack of opportunity within just a couple of miles.”
Kids who can get into schools in the Palo Alto Unified School district have educational support that those just outside it do not – that’s where schools like Eastside College Preparatory School come in and where the Stanford Department of Medicine found a community partner.
Chris Bischof, the principal of Eastside College Preparatory School, founded the school in 1996 to fill an education gap in East Palo Alto that had been open since the city’s only high school closed in 1976.
Until Eastside opened, students living in East Palo Alto were bused out of their own community to schools in neighboring, more affluent areas.
“These students were assigned to non-college-track classes, and the results were dramatic: 65% of students from East Palo Alto didn’t finish high school, and fewer than 4% went on to attend a four-year college or university,” Bischof says. “We founded Eastside to turn back this tide that was limiting opportunities for so many young people, creating a college prep program based on high expectations and many layers of support.”
Eastside has succeeded in its mission: The school boasts a 99% graduate acceptance rate to four-year colleges and universities, including to Stanford down the road.
“Today, our students are demonstrating that with hard work and determination, they can succeed at Eastside, in college, and beyond,” Bischof affirms. Eastside built a network of trust with its community that would prove invaluable when an unprecedented crisis struck.
“The issues and barriers that I faced as a minority girl growing up were very apparent to me. I can’t even imagine throwing on other factors and barriers. That’s what other children have to deal with. I think everyone deserves a fair shot at developing their career, their life, and their goals. Everyone deserves a fair shot.”
– Jennifer Williams, MD
Responding to COVID-19 in the Community
Across town, the division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine (PACCM) founded the Critical Care Diversity Council in 2019 to address healthcare disparities in their practice and their local area.
“It emerged in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests,” Clinical Assistant Professor Andrea Jonas, MD, recalls. “It was our answer to address healthcare disparities in our community. How could we be part of the solution?”
The Critical Care Diversity Council’s work took on new meaning right away as the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Bay Area. Diversity Council members wanted to connect with local underserved minority groups, such as African American and Latino/a/x populations, who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic nationwide. Members of these communities, such as many who live in East Palo Alto, wanted answers they could trust, and Eastside agreed to use their trusted role in that community to connect locals with Stanford doctors.
“It started as doing a lot of COVID vaccine information sessions,” Jonas says. “We would meet not just with students but with their families in these open town halls. We had both English and Spanish language sessions. It was an opportunity for community members to meet some of the practitioners who were taking care of their loved ones in the ICU and an opportunity for us to answer any questions about COVID vaccination.”
At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic there were relatively lower rates of vaccination among populations that were disproportionately impacted by the virus.
Eastside and the Diversity Council used these town halls as a chance to foster connection, understanding, and improved health for the whole community.
Collaborating in New Directions
Fortunately, since the pandemic has subsided, this collaborative relationship has evolved in new directions. Now, Eastside and the Diversity Council host career sessions for students at the high school to learn about careers in the health sciences and to seek mentorship opportunities. These sessions continue to lead to new opportunities for the students, the school, and Stanford.
“We had a larger panel session. It was amazing,” remembers Williams. “We expanded our group. We had their incoming freshman class. We had PACCM faculty, some of our fellows, some internal medicine residents, some medical students, some RNs, some PA, respiratory therapists – a huge panel. Really, it sparked an interest in the students.”
These new sessions have also had small-group conversations, CPR instruction with manikins, and a mixture of discussion and hands-on activities. Such changes to this partnership align well with Eastside’s mission, which has expanded from preparing students for college to supporting their alumni through college and into professional careers.
“We are eager to introduce our students to a variety of career paths, expanding their horizons and showing them what is possible,” Bischof says. “The opportunity to partner with Stanford has been tremendous.”
The More, the Better
“Stanford has the foundation and the resources, but you have to look at everyone. The more opportunity and resources you can provide for everyone, the better,” says Williams.
The Diversity Council aims to continue this relationship and expand their outreach programs to new areas, such as other local high schools and community efforts to reduce disparities in healthcare access and education. These physicians see this work as integral to their healthcare mission.
“We can advance the science of medicine to take out and to dismantle the underlying disparities that have been baked into the way that we think about medicine for our patients,” Jonas says.
Willams agrees and stresses the indelibility of professional, academic, and personal interest in medicine.
“The issues and barriers that I faced as a minority girl growing up were very apparent to me. I can’t even imagine throwing on other factors and barriers. That’s what other children have to deal with,” Williams says. “I think everyone deserves a fair shot at developing their career, their life, and their goals. Everyone deserves a fair shot.”
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