Kevin Fang

// Education Architect // MED ‘13 // 28 //

Kevin Fang was a biology and psychology major at Duke University with an eye toward becoming a biomedical researcher like his parents. But research, he learned, was void of the “people” aspect he enjoys—and especially the potential to directly impact a child’s life.

So, after teaching ninth-grade biology in Atlanta through Teach for America, Fang enrolled in Case Western Reserve’s School of Medicine. His goal: combine the joy of working with students and his aspiration to affect social change through school-based health.

He’s already done it.

To encourage academic achievement by exposing high school students to medicine, Fang founded the Horizons Program at Cleveland’s MC2 STEM High School with four medical school colleagues and one of the high school’s biology teachers.

Since 2009, Horizons has grown from a two-day, 15-student pilot project to a six-week program with 48 students, each mentored by Case Western Reserve pre-med undergraduate and medical students. The high schoolers shadow medical students and doctors, attend lectures and anatomy lessons and talk to patients at area hospitals.

Fang began a three-year pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles this summer. As the Horizons Program continues, Fang already has created a legacy. “I hope so,” he says.” —Bill Lubinger