Halee Yue

Halee Yue
Halee Yue

Halee Yue

Health Equity Challenge 2025 Finalist

PROJECT: Build resilience in and teach leadership skills to youth in foster care by engaging them in a program to train shelter dogs, making the animals more adoptable.

 

Halee Yue is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a major in developmental genetics.

Inspired by her loving sister who has Down syndrome, Yue is working towards creating a more inclusive and equitable society. Her involvement with the special needs community has included founding and coaching a Special Olympics track and field team, volunteering for the Special Needs Aquatic Program and CalStar yoga, and creating resources for individuals transitioning from childhood to adulthood at the Down syndrome clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. In addition, Yue created a story writing program for underserved elementary school students.

During her gap year before medical school, Yue was a fellow at Stanford University’s Clinical Observation and Medical Transcription program, where she was a medical scribe and research assistant at the Center for Marfan Syndrome and Related Aortic Disorders.

Yue is currently part of the UC-LEND program at UCLA, where she is learning how to improve care and health outcomes for individuals who have neurodevelopmental disabilities.

During her free time, she enjoys playing pickleball and taking her dog, Brea, on walks.

For over 35,000 youth in the Los Angeles foster care system, the basic necessities to build a healthy and successful future are often absent, which feeds cycles of poverty, homelessness, and incarceration. In addition, Los Angeles has a serious problem with its animal shelters, which are overcrowded and under-resourced, causing dogs to be euthanized at a historic rate. These two very vulnerable populations are often misunderstood and overlooked; however, if given the environment and tools to succeed, they will have the capacity to change the world. I propose the development of a program that connects foster youth with shelter dogs, certified dog trainers, and peer mentors, where purpose, belonging, confidence, and leadership can be cultivated.

Halee Yue