{"id":4980,"date":"2025-08-14T15:18:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/?p=4980"},"modified":"2025-08-14T15:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:32:09","slug":"more-about-the-explore-club-interview-with-fellow-kellie-askew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/more-about-the-explore-club-interview-with-fellow-kellie-askew\/","title":{"rendered":"More About The Explore Club: Interview with Fellow Kellie Askew"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left to right: Kellie Askew with Meagan Edwards, YES Prep Head of Schools, Dr. Andrea Link, ASFHG Executive Director, and Ariana Martinez, Kellie's site mentor, during a session of Explore Club.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

What drew you to the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF)?<\/strong>
\nWhat drew me to ASF was the emphasis on empowering the people. I say that because I was involved in many service opportunities before where, of course, we would serve the community, but there was a big lack on the empowerment part, and it felt like I was just putting a bandaid on situations that needed surgery.<\/p>\n

Why did you choose YES Prep Public Schools as your project site?<\/strong>
\nIt goes into the same reason why I picked the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. If you read the YES Prep mission statement, their mission is to empower Houston students to succeed in college and pursue lives of opportunity, which is ultimately aligned with the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship and my goal to empower students. It was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Kellie reviews an Explore Club activity sheet with a YES Prep student. During these sessions, Kellie and the students have conversations regarding their future careers and interests.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

What is the goal of your project?<\/strong>
\nThe original goal was to inspire 20 students to pursue a career in health-related careers, but specifically dentistry. Right now, I\u2019ve already surpassed that goal; we\u2019re already at 32 kids having picked a career, and we\u2019re only halfway through.<\/p>\n

How are you achieving this goal?<\/strong>
\nIt started as 6 weekly workshops, but it got extended to 10 workshops. In those 10, we focus on students exploring different careers. They hear from people; we grabbed medical students, social work students, and more from ASF. Each week is a different workshop, but I think the variety and goal of these workshops is to help students expand their minds into what\u2019s possible. Moving forward, I want to bring in some pre-med and pre-health students because their experience in undergrad is nearer in the future to the YES Prep students.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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A panel of four health professionals speaking at an Explore Club session.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

How did you approach the project and connecting with the students?<\/strong>
\nThat one was all about immersion. When I first got there, the students were quiet; they were a little hesitant because they didn\u2019t know me, and I didn\u2019t know them. Really putting myself out there and being vulnerable first was important. I started by telling them about my journey and who I was in high school. Talking to kids one-on-one, I found, was probably the best way to get immersed into their world. They want to talk, but all it takes is to ask the right questions.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s been a big takeaway or impact on you from this experience so far?<\/strong>
\nFor me, my biggest takeaway has been the importance of planning out the details in advance. The logic model and project description plan we did at the beginning of the Fellowship really helped guide me throughout the year. Planning it out was the hardest part because that\u2019s a weak spot for me. I just have an idea and go for it, but my ASF mentor, Jacquita Johnson, really pushed me to stretch my limits and get better at the planning aspect. Now that I know what\u2019s supposed to happen with my project, it\u2019s okay if we go outside of that because we still have the major plan to fall back into.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Upon completion of the Explore Club, Kellie throws a graduation for the students to celebrate the knowledge they've gained and commitments they've made to achieve their goals.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Is there a special story you\u2019d like to share from your project?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d like to tell a story from my first session and how I felt versus what happened. When I got there, you remember, I said they were hesitant and didn\u2019t really know who I was, so I was getting a lot of blank stares, and the crowd was quiet. I was discouraged, honestly, because the students were much quieter than I expected; they didn\u2019t ask many questions, and I couldn\u2019t gauge their interest. Later that same night, I got an email from Ms. Martinez, who\u2019s my site mentor, and she talked about how after I left, the kids were talking to her about how excited and grateful they were about the club, and they even wanted to invite their friends. There were more students who wanted to join the club, but the room was at capacity, so we had to cut off the marker at 32. The main point of that story for me was to not get discouraged by the blank stares because you are making an impact on someone. It might not show right there, but it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

Is there anything else that you would like to share?<\/strong>
\nThank you to the team at the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship for the work you do. I feel like I have grown from this, and I\u2019m growing as a leader because of this, so I\u2019m thankful for the opportunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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About Kellie:<\/strong>
\nKellie Askew is a first-year Dental student at UTHealth Houston. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Being a long way from home, he enjoys fitness, watching sports, and exploring all the food Houston has to offer. As an ASF Fellow, Kellie started a new project in collaboration with YES Prep Public Schools. He is hosting career exploration workshops at Yes Prep Charter Schools, chosen for their mission to empower all Houston students to succeed. These workshops aim to empower students to pursue doctoral degrees or other careers of interest by exposing them to healthcare professionals who can inspire them and give relevant advice. Askew also plans to give them a blueprint to make their dreams of becoming a healthcare professional a reality.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4989,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions\/4989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monsoon.dev\/projects\/schweitzer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}