Mentoring Program
Ansh Salwan, Amaani Sood, Olivia Yoon
Saanvi Pipalyia, Drake Nguyen, Amaya Arora
Ansh Salwan, Amaani Sood, Olivia Yoon
2026 Scientific Symposium Research Posters
About the Program
S.C.A.R.F.’s Career Guidance and Mentorship Program partners with students in high schools and colleges, giving them the unique opportunity to learn, practice, and prepare for their future while helping their community at the same time.
Keeping up with S.C.A.R.F.’s mission to raise awareness and decrease the incidence of sudden cardiac-arrest/death, our students, upon successful completion of the requirements of the program become lifelong ambassadors of our organization.
Through the summer program, S.C.A.R.F. is laying the foundation to positively impact and educate our students and community in the coming year.
How The Program Started
In the summer of 2012, S.C.A.R.F. delivered its first official Mentorship and Career Guidance program. The mentoring program unofficially began around 10 years ago with just a few students shadowing Dr. Nguyen and debriefing in our office kitchen. Students gained much-needed guidance and the requests from new students increased. In 2013, S.C.A.R.F. decided to formalize the program and since then, it has been expanding by leaps and bounds.
The Basics
Every year S.C.A.R.F.’s Mentorship and Career Guidance Program steadily grows. An application to become a SCARF student must be completed by February 1st for the upcoming summer. After applications are submitted, selected students are invited to meet for an in-person interview. If you are a student that has a strong desire to learn, commitment to service, and passion to save lives, we invite you to apply to S.C.A.R.F.’s Mentorship and Career Guidance Program.
The program is designed to be a hands-on learning experience for students who want to learn about health, professionalism, and ways to make a difference in their community. The sobering truth about heart disease is that it’s becoming increasingly prevalent and starting at an early age. Students take part in a variety of activities including listening to lectures, observing doctors and nurse practitioners in clinic, working on group and individual research projects, and volunteering in community awareness events.
Over the course of the summer, students build a foundation for a lifetime of analytical learning, critical thinking, teamwork, and higher education. One of the ways this is achieved is by pursuing a project, which is tailored to each student’s individual interest and goals. At the end of the program, S.C.A.R.F. hosts its Annual Scientific Symposium, where students present their research projects and the knowledge that they have acquired over the summer.
Why S.C.A.R.F.?
Our students are given the rare opportunity to directly observe patient interactions and learn from Dr. Paul Nguyen and his team of affiliated doctors, surgeons, and nurse practioners. Through our program, students get a comprehensive view of healthcare early on and are taught about cardiovascular disease and sudden cardiac arrest through real cases. We challenge our students to think like doctors as they navigate our complex curriculum in electrophysiology. Our rigorous educational series has recieved praise for being difficult, yet extremely rewarding as it pushes students to learn at highly advanced levels.
We also have a vested interest in our students' professional development. Whether it’s coaching students on their interview skills or reviewing applications for college/graduate schools, we help our students unlock their strengths and the confidence needed to succeed in today's world.
S.C.A.R.F. and Beyond
Every summer the S.C.A.R.F. family grows. Students from the previous summer become S.C.A.R.F. ambassadors, striving to spread awareness of sudden cardiac-death within their own communities and forging cultures of awareness. Many of our ambassadors go on to become members, who continue to shadow and benefit from our professional development series.
Many of our ambassadors have continued to fulfill S.C.A.R.F.'s mission while pursuing their professional endeavors. Our ambassadors have found creative ways to fundraise for free AEDs, mentor our younger students, and even establish highly competitive S.C.A.R.F. chapters at their very own institutions. Our older cohorts are now successful doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, and most of all, driven changemakers.
S.C.A.R.F. @ UIUC aims to provide students at UIUC with exclusive research opportunities while raising funds for the placement of free AEDs in local Champaign facilities.
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Picture yourself in S.C.A.R.F.
