“I AM ABEL FOUNDATION, is a 501(c)3 charitable organization I founded following the murder of my young cousin then paralysis of my even younger cousin due to south side gun violence all in the same year. I determined that I had to do more than just speak on the problems in Chicago but had to become an agent of change. I founded I AM ABEL FOUNDATION to engage untapped talent amongst Chicago’s inner-city youth interested in careers in medicine and to empower THEM to become doctors as healers that are prepared to change the narrative in their communities. Each student participates in an intense pre-health and STEM curriculum that is preparing them to be our future researchers, innovators, advocates and physicians. We also connect each student one on one with their own physician and medical student mentors and provide them support in a pipeline program that follows them from their first pinning ceremony until the day they dawn their short white coat. We have a powerful mentoring community and our students are saturated with affirmations that further empower them to believe in themselves and their goal to become physicians as healers. Our goal, through our highly impactful programming is to raise up our next generation of healthcare heroes who will become agents of change in their own communities through the platforms of research and medicine. We believe and teach our mentees that medicine and society are inextricably tied. There is no pill that can take away the pain of the voiceless so community leadership as well as humanitarian service both locally and abroad is woven through our pre-health programming and is an expectation for our mentees.”