Andrew Aboujaoude says, “I’ve just always wanted to fix the world around me.” And the junior biomedical sciences major at the UCF College of Medicine is doing just that by providing blood pressure screenings to Orlando’s homeless. His efforts have earned the pre-med student statewide recognition and a feature in the national business magazine Forbes.
Aboujaoude established a nonprofit organization, Hearts for the Homeless, three years ago after he and two friends, Alexis Ghersi and Jennifer Carvel, were volunteering to serve food to the homeless in downtown Orlando. “A homeless man was telling us about his life, how his kid had died and how he suffered a heart attack,” Aboujaoude said. “He had gotten dragged down in bills and ended up here. As we were talking to him, a car came right by, the passenger rolled down the window and egged us. We all stood staring at each other for a couple seconds in disbelief about what had just happened. We were in shock because someone had just tried to assault us. And the homeless man continued to talk, uninterrupted, as if nothing happened. That’s when a fuse got lit.”
While looking for ways to help, Aboujaoude and his friends learned that hypertension and cardiac disease were leading causes of death among the homeless. Connecting with a local church that gives free meals to the homeless, they began to provide blood pressure screening opportunities and general heart health education to Orlando’s homeless population. Those who need medical attention are given information to connect with Grace Medical Home.
“Most homeless people are just trying to find their next meal – health is secondary,” Aboujaoude said. “So, we came up with a plan to provide free, easily accessible blood pressure screening opportunities at food shares so that when people came out to eat, either before, after or during, they would gravitate to our table and take a blood pressure test while they wait.”
What started as a trio has now grown to a group of close to 300 volunteers who serve the community twice a week. Hearts for the Homeless also has expanded to other universities in Florida, serving communities in Gainesville, Tampa, Miami and Tallahassee. Aboujaoude is now focusing his efforts on enlisting even more schools around the nation to join him in serving the indigent. “We don’t often take the time to listen to their stories. They are people just like me and you who rolled the dice and got a bad roll in life.”
Aboujaoude received the Florida Campus Compact Student Excellence in Service Award for his work. The award recognizes university students for outstanding service to Florida’s communities. “This award is a testament to what we do,” Aboujaoude said. “It represents the good, wholehearted work and team ethic of those around me. It’s also, for the homeless community, a testament that we have not forgotten them and helps spread awareness that their wellbeing is a very important issue.”
Forbes magazine also wrote about Hearts for the Homeless when the group worked to warn homeless people ahead of Hurricane Irma’s arrival in September.
Aboujaoude is an outstanding student – he maintains a 4.0 GPA, is a member of the UCF Burnett Honors College, and he also conducts undergraduate research on malaria. He is currently interviewing for medical school, where he wants to channel his passion for helping others into a career as a physician. “There are so many issues we have, so much negativity and destruction, and I feel like the role of the physician is to do the exact opposite,” he said, “to heal, fix and mend wounds and make everyone happy.”
