Health Corps

Cathedral High students, pioneers in new program, get visit from the doctor who started it

By CLAUDIA McDONNELL

GOOD AND HEALTHFUL Dr. Mehmet Oz, left, heart surgeon and founder of Health Corps, a program for children and teens, observes cooking demonstration during his visit May 10 to Cathedral High School, where Health Corps has been introduced. Elizabeth Johnson, right, a chef and graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, which partners with Health Corps, shows students how to make tabbouleh. In center at rear is institute's founder, Annemarie Colbin. At far left in rear is Alice D'Orazi, director of Gateways to Health, a program at Cathedral for students interested in health careers

Photo by Maria R. Bastone

Students at Cathedral High School in Manhattan are pioneers in a new health program launched by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the nationally known heart surgeon who developed the program to promote healthful eating and physical activity in children and teens. It's called Health Corps, and Dr. Oz visited Cathedral May 10 and met with a group of students, many of whom are participating.

He joined them in a cooking workshop and tried out a computerized exercise routine that involves speedy footwork. The students gave him an enthusiastic welcome. Sophomore Jessica Martinez liked the way Dr. Oz joined in student activities.

"I was impressed about how he's so interactive," she said. "He followed what the students did." Because of Health Corps, she said, she is exercising more and trying to "eat more healthy and natural foods."

Dr. Oz is the vice chair of surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan and co-author with Dr. Michael Roizen of "You, the Owner's Manual." He has appeared on national television to spread his message about diet and exercise; he is particularly concerned about obesity and inactivity in children, not only because they are conditions that affect children's health now, but because they set the stage for diseases such as diabetes.

He told CNY that he is seeing patients as young as 25-people too young to have heart disease-and he wants to reverse the trend. That's why he founded Health Corps-to help children live healthier lives now and as adults. A nonprofit program modeled on the Peace Corps, it places young college graduates in schools to teach students about diet and exercise and to act as mentors.

Dr. Oz told CNY that the program rests on "two pillars"-good nutrition and regular exercise-that are intertwined with "mental resilience"-teaching young people how to handle challenges, "be sharp" and maintain a positive outlook.

He said that he founded it because of what he saw at his children's schools. He and his wife, Lisa, have four children.

"I would give talks at my kids' schools...I'd sense that (the students) really wanted to hear what I was saying," he said. "I'd see these same kids start to get fat, lose their focus, start to have problems in life."

He discussed the problem with a friend, Tim Shriver, son of Sargent Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps. They developed the idea for the Health Corps. One of its underlying premises is that knowledge is power, and knowledge about health will help children to change their own lives and be, in Dr. Oz's words, "agents of change" for others, especially other young people and their own families.

Cathedral is one of three high schools where Health Corps has been introduced. The volunteer coordinator at Cathedral is Jessica Crawford. A graduate of Duke University, she did two years of premedical studies at Columbia University and plans to begin studies at Albert Einstein College of Medicine this year. She said that students have been "exuberant" about the program. She holds weekly health workshops attended by 120 students, about 14 percent of the school's enrollment of 860.

"They're all very enthusiastic; they participate in all the events," she said. She added that one of Health Corps' principles is that "health is more than the absence of disease; it's also about having a healthy environment" and giving students the skills "to make healthy choices."

She has a Health Corps Council-ÔÔa really active group" of students who wanted to "get more involved," she said. They came up with the idea for the T-shirts the girls wore when they greeted Dr. Oz. The shirts, in springtime shades of blue, yellow and green, had the word "Diets" on the front in a circle with a line through it, the international symbol signifying "not allowed." On the back were the words "Be Suspicious." The message: fad diets don't work. Good nutrition does.

About 30 girls met with Dr. Oz. They are sophomores in Cathedral's Advanced Health and Careers program for students planning careers in health-related fields. They took him to the "Wellness Zone," a long room adjoining the gym that contains exercise equipment: treadmills, an elliptical machine, stationary bikes, game bikes, weights and a rowing machine.

Several girls demonstrated their skill at a "Dance Dance Revolution" exercise program; the user stands on a mat while watching a computer that gives fast-moving instructions for moving the feet to various spots on the mat. Dr. Oz, who is tall and lean, took a turn-and joked about mixing up the footwork and getting a low score.

Next Dr. Oz and the students moved on to a cooking workshop sponsored by Natural Gourmet Institute in Manhattan. Two young women, chefs who graduated from the institute, made tabbouleh, a Middle Eastern salad. As they worked, they taught nutrition, sanitation and safety in the kitchen, showing students how to cut safely, how to handle knives and how to avoid contaminating food.

The teens loved it. It reflected something Dr. Oz told CNY: to be effective, any health program for kids would have to present information in a way that appeals to them and holds their attention-a way that's "cool," he said.

The workshop was a case in point. Marisa Stone, 15, called it "a very fun experience" and said that the chefs were "amazingly influential."

"All the stuff they said to us and taught us was easily implemented in our lives," she said. She added that she has started eating more healthfully and cutting back on sweets, as the chefs suggested. "It was really truthful, everything they said, because I already started having more energy," Marisa said.

Maryellen Sofiste, 15, took the chefs' recipe and made the tabbouleh at home.

"It was really good, and I got my Mom to try it. She really liked it, so I was able to get her into the whole healthy eating thing," Maryellen said. She called Health Corps "a really good thing that our school brought for the students."

"It's helping me improve my eating habits, and my exercise habits as well," she said.

Besides Cathedral, Health Corps is in George Washington High School in Manhattan and Cliffside Park High School in New Jersey. Ms. Crawford said that it is expected to expand to schools in Philadelphia and California next year. Expansion depends on funding; Health Corps seeks its funding from philanthropies and the business community, and Dr. Oz himself is a donor. The program also is associated with Touro College, based in New York.

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