Medical Association Teaching Children Health (MATCH) is a new organization on campus whose purpose is to promote essential healthy lifestyles among middle school children through education and mentoring. This interest group was founded by Class of 2010 students Brian Vu, Rohan Ahluwalia and Mary Chang, who saw the need to fight the rapidly increasing rates of obesity in children today. Through the MATCH program, 6th grade students at Jane Long Middle School in Bryan will receive pedometers to wear during their physical education periods, and their coaches will track each student's progress throughout the year. The pedometer program will be combined with two educational lectures per semester about exercise and nutrition in order to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.

Students from the College of Medicine will serve as mentors and participate in the physical activity with the students during the PE class. In the coming years, the founders of the program see the potential for undergrads from Texas A&M University to be involved in the program as well. MATCH volunteers can impact their community providing middle school students in the Brazos Valley by serving as role models through continuous interaction. The goal of this program is to encourage children at an early age to make informed, healthy decisions that will impact the rest of their lives and provide an opportunity for medical students to serve as mentors in their community.
 
The officers are:

Founders-
Rohan Ahluwalia (rahluwalia@medicine.tamhsc.edu)
Mary Chang (mpchang@medicine.tamhsc.edu)
Brian Vu (bdvu@medicine.tamhsc.edu)
 
M1 representatives-
Kunal Thakrar (kdthakrar@medicine.tamhsc.edu)
Megan Caskey (mrcaskey@medicine.tamhsc.edu)