OUR IMPACT

We’ve had an amazing past 3 years! Here are some of our biggest accomplishments….

1) We grew to 400+ youth advocates across California representing 22+ counties.

2) SEL members pitched, drafted, and successfully convinced California legislators to introduce 3 pieces of state-level legislation:

  • AB 703 (Assemblymember Alex Lee, 2025) – Creates a childhood cancer voluntary tax contribution fund
    Drafted and pitched by SEL Member Sahil Mehta

  • "Teen Girls' Reproductive Health Awareness Month" Resolution (Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, 2026) – Establishes awareness month in September 2026
    Drafted and pitched by SEL Member Sim Sidhu

  • "Student Cancer Education, Detection, and Prevention Week" Resolution (Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, 2026) – Establishes awareness week in October 2026 featuring cancer education in schools across California
    Drafted and pitched by SEL Member Kaitlyn Lee

3) We established and expanded the County Leads program, a program that empowers SEL members to engage with their communities through grassroots organizing and advocacy efforts in their respective counties. Each County Lead is required to host 1 grassroots/tabling event in the region per month (e.g. collecting petition signatures at a farmers market or health fair). Currently, we are at:

  • 30 county leads across 20 counties

  • Ran 45+ grassroots tabling events throughout the state

  • Collected 1,000+ petition signatures for legislation that expands healthcare access and affordability

4) We established and expanded the Schools of Emerging Leaders (ScEL), a chapter-based program that extends the SEL platform and mission to schools across the country through clubs where students engage in fundraising, advocacy, and community education. Currently, we are at:

  • 16+ active chapters at schools across the country, including Brown, UCLA, and CalTech

  • 100+ ScEL members

  • Fundraised $2,570 through restaurant profit-shares, bake sales, and door-to-door fundraising

5) We run multiple health-equity-oriented projects through our “Passion Projects” program. The projects are listed below, but we encourage you to learn more about these projects through the “Our Projects” page:

  • Health Education Curriculum Project: implemented in 12 schools, led to “Student Cancer Education Week” resolution.

  • AB 703 Project: campaigning to draw grassroots support for AB 703.

  • Hepatitis B Chatbot Project: created a chatbot to provide more information about Hep B.

  • Women's Health Project: led to “Teen Girls’ Reproductive Health Awareness Month”, developed a policy brief.

  • Hack4Hope: virtual Hack4Hope event in October 2025 drew 115+ attendees, in-person Hack4Hope event in February 2026 had 150+ participants.

5) Our members both testified at Assembly & Senate committee hearings for critical state-level legislation at State Capitol in Sacramento and also provided public comment for local-level ordinances. Check out the links below to see some of our members amplify their voice!

6) We launched our fellowship program where fellows gain hands-on experience in advocacy, grassroots organizing, policy analysis, and writing policy briefs. We hosted 13 fellows for the “Fall 2025” term, and will have 15 fellows for the current “Spring 2026” term.

7) Our members increased ACS CAN’s overall engagement on coalition-building by sending SEL representatives to coalition meetings for California's largest healthcare access coalitions: Health4All, Fight4OurHealth, and Care4AllCA.

8) We amped up our organizational efforts at increasing lawmaker engagement by hosting a Q&A with Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan with 60+ participants, in which we all shared a lively & engaging discussion on the state of health policy in California. More legislator events planned!

Our Story
Our Projects