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ABOUT
HEAL
Meet the team of students working to transform the societal view on environmental health and its impact on our communities, locally and globally!

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OUR MISSION

We hope to engage and educate young students on how the environment affects human life. In addition we aspire to undertake projects that promote healthier environments locally and globally.

OUR Vision

Our vision is to innovate environmental health education and improve public health by protecting and preserving our environment. Inform, Preserve, Prosper!

MEET TEAM
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Arman Lateef is junior at Charles J. Colgan High School in Manassas, VA. Arman’s keen awareness of the environment’s impact on human health inspired him to create this organization. An asthma sufferer himself, he realized that the ability to breathe clean air or drink clean water was a privilege that he did not share with many across the globe. So he forged a collaboration with like-minded young scientists and environmental activists to implement meaningful change. He hopes to educate students on the specific human health impacts of pollutants while also pioneering community and global projects that improve environmental health.
 
Arman is also an active student researcher and his work in environmental health has included designing Microbial Fuel Cells as well as examining the mutagenic impacts of prenatal exposure to particulate matter pollution. His most recent project studies the efficacy of different mask types in filtering air pollutants. For fun, Arman loves to play videogames, hangout with friends, and watch movies. He is also an active member of the Colgan Robotics and Crew teams.

Our Founder and President

Arman Lateef

Tony Bright is a junior at Charles J. Colgan High School in Manassas, Virginia. Tony is very excited in his role as Vice President, Science and Technology. In this position Tony’s goal is to bridge the gap between K-8th environmental education through technology and being able to inform and provide ways not only to help clean the Earth but with emphasis on what each student and adult can do to keep it that way.
 
Tony’s prior technology experience includes being the lead programmer for his school’s robotics team that earned the title of Virginia State Champions of 2020. He also actively participates in school science fairs including the Virginia Junior Academy of Science (VJAS). In 7th grade, Tony and Arman Lateef decided to develop a possible alternate power source using non-renewable resources which was also a sustainable source of energy/creek mud.  More recently, along with partners, Arman Lateef, and Gabriel Ralston, and he focused on human health and the use of flies as models, showing the adverse effects of pollution on human health in the first and second generations. In the future, Tony plans to pursue a career in engineering.

Our Vice President, Technology

Tony Bright

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Our Vice President, Public Health and Communications

Sophia Qamari

Sophia Qamari is a junior at Charles J. Colgan High School in Manassas, Virginia where she resides with her parents and siblings. She is an Afghan-American that is fluent in English and Farsi. Sophia is an active member of Colgan’s student council and Muslim’s student association (MSA). Sophia loves to explore nature and workout as well as spend time with her friends and family.
 
Sophia has had a strong passion for helping people and the environment as her advocacy for public health started in middle school after witnessing the devastating effect air and water pollution was having on her parents’ home country, Afghanistan. She is worried about the health
effects of environmental pollution in underprivileged areas of the world and plans to help them through this organization. She advocates for younger generations to be more aware of what they’re putting out into the environment because of what it may cause in the future as well as the health privileges they have from a cleaner environment. Sophia hopes to act upon her interests in
public health and medicine by pursuing a pre-med track in college.

Our Vice President, Finance

Gabriel Ralston

Gabriel Ralston is a 11th grade student at Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School. As an avid researcher, he has done multiple studies of pollution-based health effects with Drosophila melanogaster. Additionally, he participates in the Vex robotics program and has helped lead his team to 2 Virginia state championships.
 
Gabriel enjoys engineering, physics, and all aspects of STEM-related research and activities. His passion for learning and desire to help others is what led him to work with this organization to educate students about the environment and the potential dangers that pollution poses.
 
Outside of academics, Gabriel is a two sport athlete and is a member of the Colgan football and lacrosse teams.

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Our Vice President, Education and Outreach
Mia Hicks

Mia Hicks is an 11th grader at Colgan High School. Mia is very passionate about the environment. She has been vegan for 3 years, ran a campaign of living a sustainable life for Miss Teen Virginia, and has organized community wide fundraisers around sustainability. She hopes to educate not only young students caring of the environment, but those who aren’t as aware of the importance the environment has on not only humans but all species we share the planet with. She is an active executive officer in her school's student council and well connected to her community through volunteering at the streetlight ministry shelter, working with administrators as principles advisory student representative, and a Virginia student council member where she is organizing a state wide service project based around the environment.

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