Country of Residence
United States
Age
15
Project title
Stethoshope
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
StethosHope is a student-led initiative that fights preventable dental disease by teaching kids healthy oral hygiene habits, distributing free dental kits and care packages, building food pantries in food deserts, and advocating for dental hygiene in school curricula, while expanding its reach to schools in India.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.stethoshope.com/
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My spark came from realizing how invisible a preventable problem can be. Through HOSA and my interest in health advocacy, I learned that tooth decay is one of the most common childhood health problems, yet it’s almost entirely preventable with habits kids can learn in minutes. Still, dental hygiene is rarely taught in early grades, and families in food deserts often lack both healthy food and basic supplies like toothbrushes. The “aha!” moment was seeing that these problems connect, and that students like us could help close the gap. With my co-founder Aishwarya, I started teaching dental hygiene lessons to elementary students. Their pre/post knowledge scores rose 55.9%, and I realized this wasn’t just a nice idea, it worked. Partnering with Dr. Stephanie Su at Redmond Kids’ Dentistry let us put 75 dental kits in kids’ hands, and our donation drives grew into care packages and plans for food pantries. Today, StethosHope has reached over 60,000 interactions, and I believe a small team of teenagers can start a movement that makes preventive care part of every child’s education.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, yet it is largely preventable. The problem is that prevention depends on early education and basic resources that many kids never get. In Washington State, dental hygiene is rarely taught in the early grades, so many children don’t learn proper brushing and flossing until problems have already started. Untreated cavities cause pain, missed school days, and trouble concentrating, and they hit hardest in communities with the least access to care. The issue is even more serious for families in food deserts. They often lack access to healthy, affordable food, which affects oral health, and they may struggle to afford basics like toothbrushes and toothpaste. Many kids end up without the knowledge or the tools to protect their teeth. The gap isn’t only local. In many parts of the world, including schools in India, children have little access to oral health education or screenings, so preventable problems go unnoticed until they become painful and costly. This matters to me because I care deeply about health advocacy, and this is a place where small, early actions have lasting effects.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
StethosHope attacks the problem from four directions: education, supplies, advocacy, and global outreach. Education: We teach interactive dental hygiene lessons to elementary students using Washington State DOH’s free Tooth Tutor curriculum. In Lake Washington School District, we taught 126 students in grades 3-5 and saw a 55.9% increase in pre/post knowledge scores. In total, we’ve taught 231 students. supplies: We collect donated healthy non-perishable food, dental supplies, and money. Supplies become dental kits and care packages. With Redmond Kids’ Dentistry and Dr. Stephanie Su, we distributed 75 dental hygiene kits, donated 100 care packages to Seattle Children’s Hospital and HealthPoint, and gave over 1,000 items to Essentials First. Money will fund food pantries in food deserts, so families get healthy food alongside preventive care. Advocacy: We wrote a research-backed paper urging K-2 teachers and administrators to add dental hygiene to their curricula. Because Tooth Tutor is free, schools can adopt it without added cost. A public bus mural in King County is projected to reach about 771 people a week, and our website and Instagram share tips with families. Global outreach: We’re offering schools in India free dental hygiene kits plus a 30-45 minute lesson, either as a live webinar or teacher-led with our materials. We are also organizing free dental screening for those in underprivileged areas internationally. Together, these efforts have produced an estimated 60,000+ interactions.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
I assumed this is for StethosHope. Here’s a draft at about 1,300 characters: StethosHope began with a simple observation: kids can’t practice good dental hygiene if no one teaches them and they can’t afford the supplies. So we’ve worked on both. Direct reach: We taught 231 students, including 126 third-to-fifth graders in Lake Washington School District, where pre/post assessments showed a 55.9% increase in knowledge scores. With Redmond Kids’ Dentistry, we distributed 75 dental hygiene kits, donated 100 care packages to Seattle Children’s Hospital and HealthPoint, and delivered a 1,000+ item supply drive to Essentials First. Broader reach: A King County bus mural projects ~771 weekly viewers, and our website and Instagram (560 followers) generated 48,200+ estimated interactions. Across all activities, we estimate 60,000+ interactions. What’s next: We wrote a research-backed advocacy paper urging K-2 educators to adopt Washington’s free Tooth Tutor curriculum. We’re also planning food pantries in food deserts and expanding abroad, asking dental clinics in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kenya and more to volunteer free school screenings and offering schools kits plus lessons. We believe this works because the knowledge gains are measurable, and every kit pairs education with the supplies to act on it.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
When Aishwarya and I started looking at what other dental outreach programs do, we noticed most of them stop at one thing: a school visit, a kit giveaway, or a clinic day. We wanted StethosHope to keep going after we leave the room. So we put a few things together. Our drives collect healthy non-perishable food along with dental supplies. The supplies become kits, and the food and donations go toward pantries in food deserts. A family that can’t afford fresh food usually can’t afford dental care either, so it made sense to us to work on both. We also didn’t want to write our own curriculum when Washington’s Department of Health already has a free one, Tooth Tutor. Instead, we wrote a research-backed paper asking K-2 teachers and administrators to use it. One class we teach reaches maybe 30 kids. A school that adopts the curriculum reaches every student, every year. We’re still advocating for that, since no school has adopted it yet. We also measure results. After our presentations in grades 3-5, quiz scores went up 55.9%, which tells us the lessons actually work. Now we’re taking this abroad. For schools in India, we offer free kits and a 30-45 minute lesson, live over webinar or taught by their own teacher using our materials. We’re also asking dentists in Karnataka to volunteer for screenings at schools near them. None of this is new technology.
How many people are on your team?
2
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
StethosHope has two co-founders, Aishwarya Sreenivas and me. We make big decisions together and each lead the projects we’re closest to: (for example, I run the Karnataka outreach and our advocacy paper, and Aishwarya leads school presentations). We meet weekly and copy each other on every outreach email, so neither of us is ever out of the loop. Dr. Stephanie Su of Redmond Kids’ Dentistry partners with us on dental kits and school visits.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next year, we want to take StethosHope from a local project to one that works in more than one place. The first priority is international education. In October, we emailed 17 schools in India offering free dental kits and a 30-45 minute lesson, and we’re waiting to hear back. Once schools say yes, we’ll ship the kits and run the lessons, then give students the same pre/post quiz we use here so we can compare results. At the same time, we’ve started contacting about 28 dental clinics across Karnataka, asking dentists to volunteer for free screenings at nearby government and children’s schools. Our goal is twenty five schools and around ten to fifteen volunteer dental clinics by next fall. Second, we want to move our advocacy paper from a document to a decision. We plan to present it to Lake Washington School District staff to pilot our original curricula in K-2 classrooms. Washington runs on district-based decisions, so that’s where it has to start. Third, we’ll build the food pantries we’ve been collecting for. We’ll use donations to open our first pantry in a food desert, stocked with healthy food and dental kits. We’re looking for a community partner to host the pantry.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
supplies. The simplest way in is our supply drives. People donate healthy non-perishable food, dental supplies, or money, and we tell them exactly where it goes: dental kits, care packages, and eventually pantries. One drive brought in over 1,000 items for Essentials First. [Add how many people or families donated, and any schools, clubs, or neighbors who ran a drive.] We also reach people where they already are. Our bus mural in King County is projected to reach about 771 people a week, and our Instagram (560 followers) and website share dental health facts and ways to get involved. In classrooms, we’ve taught 231 students, and the kids take what they learned home to their families. We also ask professionals and educators to join us, not just donate. Redmond Kids’ Dentistry partners with us on kits, and we’re now asking dentists in Karnataka to volunteer for free school screenings. We’ve also asked schools in India to teach our lesson themselves, so the work doesn’t depend on us being there. Next, we want to build a student volunteer team that helps run drives and present in classrooms. We also plan to put together a starter kit with a drive checklist, lesson materials, and a donation guide, so students at other schools can run their own StethosHope drives especially in national and international chapters.
