HealthCorps®

The best place to educate teens on better nutrition, fitness and other health-related behaviors is to meet them where they spend a great deal of their day—in high schools across the country. HealthCorps®, one of CDC's newest partners has been working since 2003 to do just that.

The groundbreaking educational program currently operates in 44 high schools in 7 states. The HealthCorps® Strategic Plan calls for implementation in 1,000 high schools in all 50 states by 2012. The program impacts from 400–600 high school students per school per year.

Based on a peer-mentor model, the in-school program teaches teens practical life skills and healthy behaviors through fun, interactive seminars focused on the value and power of students' bodies and minds. Teens become educated consumers and health activists and are encouraged to develop positive behavioral shifts that enhance self esteem.

HealthCorps® "coordinators,"—such as the one pictured to the right in the photo—are recent college graduates who defer medical school or graduate health program studies to participate in public service. Each coordinator is assigned one school in which they lead seminars five days a week on fitness, nutrition and mental resilience. The seminars are taught through health classes or other classes or afterschool clubs as designated by the school principal.

At least 40 celebrity ambassadors—actors, musicians, athletes, authors—also volunteer their time to raise funds, generate media attention and build awareness for HealthCorps® at community and fundraising events.

HealthCorps® Responds to the Obesity Crisis

Founded in 2003 by Mehmet Oz, MD, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons, HealthCorps® is responding to the obesity crisis through its proactive health movement, program of school-based health peer mentoring and community outreach to underserved populations—mostly Hispanic and African American as well as populations with lower than average educational levels.

In February 2009, HealthCorps® will present the results of an independently conducted two-year efficacy study overseen by methodologists from Cornell University and funded by Affinity Health Plan. The focus of the study was to quantify the impact of the HealthCorps® program on a predominately Hispanic New York City intervention group. Results of the study show that HealthCorps® students exhibit a significant decrease in soda consumption and a significant increase in physical activity.

HealthCorps® Founder: The "Health Expert"

HealthCorps® founder and chairman, Mehmet Oz, MD, is one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons as well as a bestselling author, and the noted health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show.He presides over the Board of Directors and guides the organization and its program. Oz will serve as a keynote speaker at CDC's 2009 Leaders-to-Leaders Summit this upcoming May.

For More Information

• HealthCorps® has a variety of resources, including cookbooks for teens! For more information, visit www.healthcorps.net/resources.jsp.
• High-resolution photographs are available for download at http://www.healthcorps.net/media.jsp.
• HealthCorps® On the Web