Ten Fairfax County Health Department Youth Ambassadors (PHYA) traveled to Georgetown University to present their community health projects to faculty members of the School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine on Monday, January 12. The program marked the final competition for students from Justice and Mount Vernon High Schools who participated in the Youth Ambassador program during the fall semester.

Top Awardees were:

• Jaelin Smith, Mount Vernon High School, Best Individual Project entitled “Insiders Perspective on Autism.”  
• Christopher Ramirez, Mount Vernon High School, second place for his project that aimed to increase access to in-home blood pressure and glucose monitoring.
• Miriam Gargis, Thomas Jefferson High School, third place for her project on educating young adults about the dangers of opioid misuse.

Students in the PHYAP are required to develop a community health project to successfully complete the program. Participants select health issues that are relevant or meaningful to their communities and create actionable plans on how to address the issue. Projects are judged on originality, cultural relevance, and feasibility.

After two rounds of preliminary judging by Fairfax County Health Department staff, 10 students advanced to a final round. Issues that students addressed included: Elder nutrition and physical activity, green spaces for stress management, gun violence, mindfulness strategies, and cancer.

The panel of judges included Georgetown University staff: Dr. Khaseem Davis, MD, Senior Associate Dean of the Department of Family Medicine; Dr. Kim Bullock MD, Associate Professor; Lady Nwadike, Adjunct Faculty Advisor; and Dr. LaTasha Seliby-Perkins, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Community-Based Learning at the School of Medicine. 
At the conclusion of the competition, students received a tour of the Georgetown University School of Medicine facilities.  The event was coordinated by Dr. Seliby-Perkins, who also served as MC and host of the event.

This is the second straight year the Georgetown University School of Medicine has welcomed PHYAP’s students, while playing an equally important role as a partner to the program. Throughout the Fall cohort, medical students from their program served as mentors to the ambassadors, while providing in-class instruction that helped re-enforce some of the curriculum’s medicine-based modules. PHYAP’s goal is that its high school students will develop mentor relationships with the med students that will continue to blossom as they seek careers in medicine, education, and other related professional fields.

For anyone interested in joining the program for the Spring 2026 semester, applications are open now. Learn more about the Public Health Youth Ambassador Program, including how to submit an application.