Morristown High School grad named Schweitzer Fellow

Pedro Urday, a Morristown High School graduate, has been named to the 2014-15 class of Albert Schweitzer Fellows from New Orleans.

“Schweitzer Fellowships change lives, both of the individual Fellows as well as those of the many vulnerable community members they serve through their Fellowship projects,” said Sofia Curdumi Pendley, program director of the New Orleans Schweitzer Fellows Program.

Urday is one of 12 graduate students who will spend the next year learning to effectively address the social factors that impact health, and developing lifelong leadership skill, according to a press release from the Fellowship.

“Fellows like Pedro learn to lead and innovate as they tackle complex health needs—skills they will use again and again throughout their professional careers, Pendley said.

Schweitzer Fellows develop and implement service projects that address the root causes of health disparities in under-resourced communities, while at the same time fulfilling their academic responsibilities as full time students.

Urday, a student at Tulane University School of Medicine, is continuing and expanding a soccer and mentoring program addressing childhood obesity for Latino youth living in Mid City New Orleans, which was developed by a 2013-2014 fellow.

“Pedro Urday is living Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s legacy of reverence for life,” said Executive Director Sylvia Stevens-Edouard. “His Fellowship year will leave him well-prepared to successfully face the challenges of serving vulnerable and underserved populations, whose health and medical needs are many and varied.”

Urday will join more than 200 other 2014-15 Schweitzer Fellows working at 12 program sites, 11 in the US and one in Lambaréné, Gabon at the site of The Albert Schweitzer Hospital, founded by Schweitzer in 1913.

Upon completion of his Fellowship year, Urday will become a Schweitzer Fellow for Life and join a network of nearly 3,000 Schweitzer alumni who are skilled in, and committed to, addressing the health needs of underserved people throughout their careers.

The program is funded entirely through charitable donations and grants.