Meet the Team
Hi! We are Group 11 from the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine Future Physician Leaders 2021 Cohort. We all aspire to have a future career in the field of medicine, and we want to dedicate our efforts to improve the quality of life and health of our community.
As Team 11, we collectively decided to choose Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) as the focus of our Community Health Project.
We are passionate about women's health and raising awareness to this topic as it impacts 1 in 10 women and is not talked about enough. By spreading awareness and sharing resources and support, we hope that we are able to have a positive impact in the members of our community.
Join us in our journey to inform, uplift, and support our community!
Alice Lan
LOHS 2022
Interested in Biochemistry
Issues as important and prevalent as PCOS almost always get downplayed and stigmatized. Through this community project, I wanted to bring more awareness to these issues by focusing on a specific illness, PCOS. Women with PCOS often get no treatment- or even worse, don’t know they have it- because of the lack of education surrounding it. I hope that this project sheds some light on this less-discussed topic.
Dana Morshed
UCR 2022
Biology
I feel that women’s health topics such as PCOS, deserve more awareness and greater effort towards decreasing any surrounding stigmas. Personally, I had researched PCOS by myself in the past and recognized the lack of knowledge of resources available to women. As a result, I wanted to be able to facilitate more open discussions about women’s health topics and I felt that PCOS was perfect. By increasing awareness of such issues, symptoms can be detected earlier which will allow for more prompt and proper treatment. In addition, I feel that by choosing this topic more women are able to feel like they are not alone.
Desiree Lin
UCR 2023
Biochemistry, Medical Sciences
Prior to FPL, I have never heard of PCOS. As I grew up, I often heard about how my grandmother had ovarian cysts and how she could never get rid of them. After learning about PCOS, I know realize that she has many risk factors that are prominent in PCOS development. This shows how common it is for women to show symptoms, yet be undiagnosed due to the lack of education of topics like PCOS. I'm excited that I get to use this opportunity to further educate myself, loved ones, and our community.
Emily Wilson
UCR 2022
Neuroscience
I think as an all-girl group, it was fitting for us to work as a team to highlight a women’s health issue that’s often overlooked. As someone with a history of ovarian cysts in her family, I have a personal interest in spreading awareness on the symptoms of PCOS so that women in our community can become more aware of this syndrome and feel connected and inspired to speak up. My hope is that our group’s materials will erase a stigma surrounding PCOS and open up the door for future conversations.
Jasmin Garcia
UCR 2025
Psychology
As an all female group I thought it was very important to focus on health problems that women face. PCOS is a health topic that not many people are aware of. I myself didn’t know much about it until we started this project and because of that I think it’s important that we spread as much awareness as we can. Now that I know more about it, my eyes have really opened to the lack of discussion this syndrome has and we hope to be able to leave long lasting impressions on the community and help those struggling with PCOS.
Shreya Kakade
UCR 2024
Biology
Although I hadn’t heard of this specific syndrome before, I had definitely heard of the symptoms in conversations and from people who were experiencing them on a daily basis. It was clear that PCOS is not discussed enough, especially with younger female audiences who can obtain the ability to detect symptoms early-on and know exactly how to begin treatment. Along with my interests in bringing awareness to this topic, it is crucial that people also know about other diseases related to PCOS, and how they may be at risk depending on their pre-existing conditions. With research and informational materials, we hope to bring awareness to this condition and provide support to our audiences.
Trish Le
UCR 2019
B.S. Biochemistry, Medical Sciences
I find that some women’s health topics such PCOS, endometriosis, etc.. are not commonly discussed among the general population, even though there are many women who struggle with these illnesses.
I thought it would be special for our all female team to highlight PCOS and bring more awareness to this syndrome. Because PCOS is linked to female infertility, I felt a personal connection to this topic, as I know several women who struggle with conceiving. They shared with me the negative comments they had received regarding their infertility. There is currently a stigma about infertility, and I hope that we are able to shine light on this topic, and normalize these discussions, and help members of our community.