Confusion about healthy eating is widespread, especially among students, due to conflicting information and the influence of social media. Despite the critical role of nutrition in overall health, many lack the knowledge and skills needed to make well informed food choices. This project seeks to bridge that gap by providing clear, accessible nutrition education and practical cooking experience. To achieve this, two key approaches will be implemented. First, engaging informational flyers will be posted in high-traffic areas of the school, providing research-based content that debunks nutrition myths, simple health tips, and easy recipes. Additionally, cooking classes will be held during PRIME sessions. These sessions will focus on preparing quick, nutritious meals that require minimal experience, helping students build confidence in their ability to cook healthy food. To assess the impact, surveys will be conducted before and after each session to evaluate changes in students’ understanding of nutrition and confidence in cooking. By combining educational outreach with hands-on experience, this initiative aims to empower students with the tools they need to make healthier choices and develop lifelong cooking skills.

The jump from middle school to high school can feel overwhelming; especially for first-generation students who lack access to critical information about academic, expectations, resources, and opportunities. Many struggle with navigating course selections, extracurricular involvement, and high school expectations without guidance from experienced family members. Our project addresses these challenges by giving these students the correct resources, presentations, and acting as their older sibling that's trying to help ease this transition. Using qualitative research methods, we conducted interviews with a first-generation college student to understand common struggles and support systems. We also utilized content analysis to identify key themes from personal narratives. By applying action research, we continuously refine our project based on feedback from our target audience. Essentially, our goal is to empower these students with knowledge and confidence to ensure they step into high school feeling prepared and supported.

The proposed project has shown that students and parents need advocacy help with early literacy difficulties. There has been a lack of understanding of what early literacy difficulties mean and how it can be harmful for students especially elementary school students. The project will require working with a Bay Area elementary school to be able to read aloud with the younger grades where reading and writing skills are most critical in development. Doing a read aloud will help with making reading more engaging, fun, and beneficial because repetition with words greatly helps with comprehension. Another part of the project is to hang flyers explaining the importance of early literacy difficulties as well as passing out brochures targeted to parents explaining what early literacy difficulties are, when to seek support, and how to help at home. This will ensure that parents will be more aware of literacy difficulties and how it is important to spot in their children because the effect can be harmful in the long run.

Oftentimes, people, especially young people, want to go someplace but are not able to get a ride and it is too far to walk or bike, they just end up choosing to stay home and miss out on the opportunity. Public transit is usually not an option for them as it seems too difficult to figure out. That’s why the main goal of this project is to promote the use of public transportation (such as buses and trains) among young people, mainly high school students and to educate them on navigating the system. Learning to use public transportation in day to day life, as well as for leisure travel, can lead to more autonomy in teenagers as well as, in the long run, getting people into a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to driving. We plan to accomplish this by organizing weekend trips where we along with adult supervisors take teenagers on public transportation routes to popular locations nearby in the Bay Area. We hope that this entertainment-based activity will be a useful tool in getting people to want to keep using public transportation.

Many teenagers are particularly prone to littering, partially due to their ignorance about their impact. As such, our plan is to fill the gap in their knowledge by hosting a cleanup event during a social-emotional learning class after lunch at a school in the Bay Area, thus demonstrating to the students the importance of custodial work and illustrating the negative impact of leaving waste around. In essence, the custodians will not clean up trash left out for one lunch. The students, who have the SELF period after that lunch, will clean up the campus instead, supervised by the custodians. The goal is for the students to see the impact of them not cleaning up in a more comprehensible fashion, as well as understand that impact in the context of those who do have to clean up after them. There will also be a brief video presentation by a custodian, introducing them to the students to increase the connection between the student body and custodial staff. The students will fill out surveys before and after the activity asking about their perception of custodial duties and their littering habits.

Loneliness affects both teenagers and seniors, yet opportunities for meaningful intergenerational connections remain limited. BRIDGE (Building Relationships Intergenerationally and Designing Guided Events) seeks to close this gap by fostering relationships through structured, interactive events. Our project organizes recurring team-building activities, such as story exchanges, collaborative art projects, and interactive games, designed to encourage shared experiences. Through qualitative interviews, participant observations, and pre- and post-event surveys, we will assess changes in social connectedness and refine our approach. Ultimately, we hope to strengthen community ties and create a sense of sense of belonging amongst all participants.

The State’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment determined that Palo Alto is more than 6,000 units short of its housing needs (City of Palo Alto Housing Element Update). Many people do not know what the housing crisis stems from or how to solve it. This problem is complex, so we must start small. After researching, I discovered that Palo Alto teens could benefit from an awareness campaign targeting their demographic. I believe teens are relatively aware of this issue but do not know how to help. By providing educational resources and public discussion, I strive to increase their awareness and engagement in pro-housing initiatives, both now as teens and as future voters.

An abundance of stigma surrounds menstruation today, which prompted the project, Stopping the Stigma PERIOD. Although many laws have been passed to enforce menstruation education, they are not enforced in all schools, causing a lack of menstrual education amongst students. The first phase of the project works to close this gap in the Bay Area; an educational infographic flier will be hung in bathrooms and on walls around a Bay Area school’s campus to inform people about Period Poverty and the Tampon Tax and how to help solve them. The second phase of the project involves the spreading of an Amazon Wishlist, which includes menstruation essentials for community members to purchase. An event with the Youth Community Service Club at a Bay Area high school will be hosted to assemble kits using the purchased materials from the community, which will be donated to a local non-profit homelessness organization. Another gap is that many public restrooms have period products, but the question of what underprivileged menstruators do to access products in their homes remains a mystery; this part alleviates the gap as it will allow the community an opportunity to engage in social justice and help those struggling to access these products.

The issue of food affects everyone, everywhere. In fact, one in four people are food insecure. For many, food is difficult to obtain; for others, it is hard to consume in recommended portions. Many buy more than they can consume, simply because they CAN. 40% of food gets wasted, but only 20% of all wasted food could feed the US population. But why do we not just feed everyone? Shouldn't everyone have food? There are many programs repurposing wasted food to communities in need, but they are relatively unknown leading to low attendance. The reason for this is a lack of education. Many do not realize the impact of volunteering. The biggest issue is that the youth they target for volunteering don’t know they exist. Our project aims to educate the youth as they have the most potential to create a change. Education from a young age could change the way food affects people for the better. Our project is to compile media from our volunteer experience and then present it to elementary students along with an interactive activity to help them learn and create long-lasting impacts.

Childrens’ future success is often determined not by their potential, but by the cost and accessibility of early education programs. The formative years from birth to age five are crucial for social, emotional, and cognitive development. However, with disparities in access to early education, these children face long-term inequities in learning outcomes. Addressing this issue requires understanding not only the most effective education methods for young students, but also the factors that influence parents’ decisions in choosing early education programs. By doing so, more inclusive and equitable opportunities for all children can be created. This study uses a combination of phenomenological, narrative, and descriptive research methods to explore these critical factors. Parent surveys will gather quantitative data on income, employment, and program priorities, as well as qualitative insights through open-ended questions. To discover trends in data, descriptive statistics will be used for quantitative analysis, and thematic coding will show recurring themes from qualitative responses. Correlation and regression analysis will show the relationships between variables such as socioeconomic status and program selection. Lastly, a needs assessment will identify gaps in access to equitable, high-quality early education programs, offering actionable insights to drive systemic change.