Each year, the Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows Program offers seed grants to Fellows for Life interested in beginning, sustaining, or building on innovative community projects. Fellows for Life commit to designing, implementing, and reporting on direct service-oriented projects with existing community-based organizations. We are pleased to share our 2024-2025 Seed Grant recipients!

Carol Blendowski, 2003-04 Fellow for Life, will work with the compassionate volunteers of the Care for Friends Foot Clinic, who serve the most disenfranchised fragment of our population, providing basic healthcare, comfort, and social support.

Dr. Ashok Jagasia, 1998-99 Fellow for Life, Evan Patel, 2023-24 Fellow for Life, and Trevor Poulson, a current Fellow, will work in collaboration with local homeless shelters to provide the homeless and migrant residents of Chicago with high-quality, comprehensive otolaryngology care via a multimodal clinical approach.

Zhong Huang, 2022-23 Fellow for Life, will work with the Supporting Healthy Aging Resources & Education (SHARE) Network and community partners to develop an advance care planning program for aging individuals, individuals living with serious illness, and minority communities.