Team HBV has hit it off from the club fair with a whopping 135 signatures. The club, sometimes known as Team Jade, was started by Junior Nupur Agarwal after her advent to Stanford for a week-long summer seminar. Funded by Stanford, Team HBV stands for Team Hepatitis B, and jade is the awareness color for the disease. The Club is present and ready to fight for the awareness of the Hepatitis B infection and disease, which is passed from person to person through blood, semen, and even birds.
“The Stanford program that I went to over the summer was the reason why I was inspired and motivated to start my own club at my school,” Agarwal said. “At the program, I already had envisioned what the club would be like at school because I was surrounded by 99 other motivated kids at the program, who were there to make a difference and care about those who suffered and are suffering through HBV.”
The Stanford Program by Team Jade is a week-long residential program in which 100 selected students interested in the medical research field live and study together around a common idea.
“At the program, I got to meet professors, doctors, and business owners that all contributed to the long, hard work that it takes to eradicate a virus. When you get the opportunity to be around such successful people it helped me realize that I can make a difference in this world,” Agarwal said. She is truly motivated for this club and its message, which she hopes to spread through as many people as possible on this roughly 4000 student campus.
A little bit about what the club’s main goal is, as stated by club president Nupur Aggarwal, “Team HBV has a goal to increase awareness of the dangers of hepatitis B and liver cancer and also to provide ethnic – sensitive health information to the API and American communities.
“We want to make sure that hepatitis B can be fully prevented, but we realize that it is not often diagnosed because most HBV cases are considered “silent killers,” Agarwal said. “So, as president of James Logan high school Team HBV, I intend to spread awareness about this virus and how important it is to get screened and vaccinated before it turns chronic and incurable.”
Agarwal recalled many amazing memories from the summer program, but one of her favorites was the wonderful discussions the students participated in as a team.
“Since there were only 100 students in this program, we were split into 10 groups of 10. At the program, we were supposed to launch a product or event that could potentially be implemented by Stanford,” Agarwal said. “Our team had so much determination and passion because that was our ticket to bringing a change.”
As founder of this club on campus, Nupur hopes to instill the same passion and integrity for this specific cause as a year-long project throughout the school.
Club meetings are held every Friday in room 225 immediately after school for thirty minutes to one hour. Through the school year, students discuss fundraisers and interesting ideas to raise awareness for the message of Team Jade. They are also specially prepared to apply to the Stanford Program for the summer of 2019. Follow them on Instagram @jlhsteamhbv or on Facebook at James Logan Team HBV!
