Your zip code shouldn'tdetermine your health
We recognize the students who build what doesn't exist.
A 501(c)(3) national medical honor society.
For Students
Get recognized for the work you build in your community — a lifetime credential.
How it worksFor Faculty
Charter a chapter at your school — $100/year, free to every student.
Start a chapterFor Funders
Back a volunteer-run movement — every dollar reaches student-led work in the community.
See the impactA third pillar of recognitionin medical education
Alpha Omega Alpha recognizes academic scholarship. The Gold Humanism Honor Society recognizes compassion. Aequitas Health recognizes the students who build what doesn't exist — and do it where it's needed most.
Every Aequitas fellow completes a health-focused project addressing a real need in a real community. That work is presented, published, and funded through competitive grants — training the next generation of physician leaders who don't just study disparities but build solutions.
"I've written countless recommendation letters. But when I write one for an Aequitas fellow, I'm not describing a student who joined something — I'm describing a student who built something. That's a different letter." Dr. Elizabeth Mack, Aequitas Health Chapter Faculty Advisor
Recognition · Action · Research
Action, not just achievement, is the highest honor in medicine.
Recognition
Fellows are elected by their chapters — the top 5–10% of their class, recognized for demonstrated commitment to improving health in their communities. The fellowship is a lifetime credential listed on ERAS applications and residency materials.
Action
Every fellow completes a health-focused project — a free clinic, a screening program, a community partnership — addressing a real need in a real community. Projects are designed with community partners and built to sustain beyond a single academic year.
Research
Fellow work can be published in the editorially reviewed Aequitas Health Journal and presented at the annual National Conference. Competitive grants fund chapter and fellow projects — turning what works in one community into evidence others can build on.
Chapter. Fellowship. Impact.
Start a Chapter
A faculty advisor and a group of committed students charter a chapter at their medical school. Cost: $100/year. Cost to students: $0.
Elect Fellows & Complete Projects
Each chapter recognizes the top 5–10% of their class as Aequitas Health Fellows. Every fellow completes a health-focused project addressing a real community need.
Publish, Present & Compete for Grants
Fellow work can be published in the editorially reviewed Aequitas Health Journal, presented at the annual National Conference, and is eligible for competitive grants and awards. Fellows graduate with a lifetime credential, certificate, and cord.
Action, not just achievement,is the highest honor in medicine.
What fellows are building
Every project starts with a real community need. Here's what fellows built next.
Tribal Health Infrastructure
A fellow — an enrolled citizen of a Native American nation — partnered with his Tribal Council to secure more than $40,000 in grant funding for community health improvements, including walking trails now used daily by families and a telehealth building that gives elders access to healthcare without leaving home.
Pediatric Vision Screening
Fellows partnered with a Head Start program to address transportation barriers preventing young children from receiving follow-up eye care. Before the project, only 33% of children under three reached their ophthalmology appointments. The initiative used rideshare health services to close the gap.
Street Medicine & Outreach
Fellows established healthcare outreach services targeting a city's homeless population, 75% of whom identify as Native American. The project is building toward a student-run clinic providing basic health services to a community that previously had none.
Mini Medical School
A four-year-running program introduces underserved elementary school students to science and medicine through hands-on activities — splinting, learning about vaccines, take-home experiments. Bilingual family materials extend learning beyond the classroom into homes.
Built with communities,not for them
Every fellow project begins with a real community need and a real partner — screenings, clinics, outreach — designed alongside the people it serves and built to last beyond a single academic year.
McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund
2023 Awardee
The John P. McNulty Prize recognizes leaders leveraging their talents to make a meaningful difference. Aequitas Health was honored for building a volunteer-run movement of medical students committed to improving health in their communities.
"Physicians need to work on the front lines delivering compassionate, effective care but they also need to lead fundamental change in the system and in their communities to achieve health equity."
Read the McNulty Foundation profile (opens in new tab)Bring Aequitas to yourmedical school
Because action, not just achievement, is the highest honor in medicine.
$100/year to start a chapter. Fellowship is free to every student — forever.