Grace Zhou: Transforming Organ Donation Education in New York

Meet Grace Zhou, a Junior at the Brearley School in Manhattan, who is driving the “Teaching Organ and Tissue Donation and Saving Lives” Initiative in the state of New York. The goal of this initiative is to integrate organ donation education into high school curriculums, from health courses to science classes. Well, how did she get inspired to do this? A friend of Grace’s, Sierra Pape, had successfully passed the “Teaching Organ and Tissue Donation Education and Saving Lives Initiative” in her state of Georgia. Initially knowing very little about organ donation, Grace began to research the field and upon seeing New York’s low donation rates, she “couldn’t imagine not acting on it.”

So, what does a standardized plan for organ donation look like? Grace is working with the Director of Science at the NY Department of Education, Greg Borman, to create more definitive lesson plans for teachers. New York has implemented lesson plans in the past, however low donation and sign-up rates in the state continue to persist and these necessitate revisions to the status quo. Grace’s role is not so much creating the lesson plans themselves, instead, it is more centered around fitting the different pieces together that are necessary for the initiative to be successful. This involves communicating and reaching out to different influential individuals with the goal of creating an urgency around the topic and ultimately incorporating everyone’s contributions. The individuals that Grace communicates with include officials in the Department of Education, the State Legislature, and importantly, organ donation advocacy organizations. She especially highlights Elaine Perlman, who is the Executive Director of Waitlist Zero.

Although organ donation is such a pressing issue, Grace’s efforts are not without their challenges. One of the main obstacles that she confronts is the legislative system in New York that grants much more power to individual school boards. This makes it hard for state-wide education bills to be passed. However, this may ultimately work in her benefit, as the organ donation movements within the state must become connected and mobilized for the legislation to pass in a state-wide reform. This requires a lot of multilateral communication, but Grace has demonstrated the drive and ability to tackle any obstacles that she confronts. As for next steps, she also hopes to integrate the Organ Donation education into independent schools as well. The reform is focused on public schools; however, she attends an independent school and believes that by integrating this education into her school, other schools in her consortium will follow suit. She tells us that to be efficient, it is important to target the localities that really need the information. This must be done to maintain an equitable system of education and altruism. After all, the burden of “saving lives” must be shared collectively by society.

Another pressing concern is the misconceptions surrounding organ donation. Grace identifies that the misconception she most frequently confronts is this fear that people will receive reduced care from health care professionals if they were ever in a life-threatening situation. She argues that the best way to combat these beliefs is through education and scientific facts. She tells us that from her research and conversations, healthcare administrators do not consider an individual’s status as an organ donor when determining the care that the individual receives. Misconceptions such as these are what necessitate proper education initiatives and Grace’s goal is to ensure that students are aware of this invaluable subject.

Grace has learned a lot about organ donation from meeting with different organ donation advocacy organizations, including Waitlist Zero, but also from Glenda Daggert and her husband Ira Copperman, who serves as the vice president of the nonprofit Transplant Recipients International Organization. Grace tells us how it is inspiring to meet these passionate advocates and how altruistic behavior can become contagious, and we couldn’t agree more. Grace is serving as an inspiration for future generations who wish to make a difference in the world, and we thank her for her commitment to this mission.