The holiday season is a time to give love, give appreciation, and give back to those in need. With that in mind, we invite you to read the USC Price School’s top stories of 2024, which showcase how our students, faculty and alumni give back to their communities – and give us hope for a brighter future.
From all of us at the USC Price School, we wish you Happy Holidays.
1. Price grad clowns around to help hospital patients
Phong Doozy shows up to work in an unusual uniform: a sleeveless Hawaiian blazer full of flamingos, pink pig ears, shorts covered in flowers, and a red clown’s nose.
- For five hours on Fridays, the recent graduate transforms into a medical clown. Doozy, who earned a Master of Health Administration, is tasked with using laughter as medicine, putting smiles on the faces of those facing serious injuries or terminal illnesses.
During one trip to the Los Angeles General Medical Center, Doozy visited an 8-year-old boy with severe burns covering more than half of his body. Moving was painful, but doctors needed the child to lift his arms so they could rub ointment on him.
- “Oh my gosh, we’re on a roller coaster!” Doozy exclaimed, raising his arms skyward as if he was about to plunge down a steep drop. The boy mimicked the clown, allowing doctors to apply ointment.
In his words: “We have to initiate ideas to allow kids to enter the world of play and willingly help themselves and help the doctors provide the best care to their ability,” Doozy said.
2. Valedictorian helps pass gun safety bill
Keaton Dickinson, 2024’s USC Price School valedictorian, is motivated by personal experience to create change in the world.
- After an armed robber ran through her high school, she started a Students Demand Action chapter and testified before Washington state lawmakers, who ultimately passed a gun safety bill she supported.
- In her words: “It was very meaningful to be able to take a negative experience and turn it into something positive that will hopefully help people for generations in Washington state,” Dickinson said.
3. Student helps Peru community, wins Obama-backed scholarship
Before arriving at the USC Price School, Khris Gonzalez Pebe was already improving communities around the world.
- Pebe and her friends convinced a school board in Peru to launch bi-weekly volunteer trips during which students built more than 50 homes, conducted 20 food drives and supported the elderly in senior-living homes.
- In her words: “It was a good experience because it wasn’t about sympathy or self-gratification,” Pebe said. “It was really changing the lives of people who are facing housing and food insecurity – and not just by myself, but with an entire class.”
Pebe, a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy, won an Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service, recognizing her passion for helping others.
4. 🎧 PricePod: A professor’s quest to save her son
Four years ago, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett received some of the worst news imaginable: her son, Eliot, was diagnosed with a fatal neuromuscular disease.
- In her quest to save her son, she learned of a gene therapy that ultimately helped Eliot, but she ran into roadblocks that made it difficult to access this life changing treatment. You can read about her story in The New York Times.
- In her words: “I almost had a nervous breakdown. It was so unbelievably stressful,” Currid-Halkett said of convincing insurers to cover the treatment
On the PricePod, Currid-Halkett discussed the obstacles that prevent some patients from obtaining rare disease treatments. She was joined by Alice Chen, an associate professor of public policy, who testified before Congress about making rare disease treatments accessible.
5. Price student discovers family heirloom
Ernesto Corona has long felt that his father – labor organizer Humberto “Bert” Corona – didn’t get the recognition he deserved.
- From the 1940s to 1960s, the Mexican-American activist and USC alum was an early organizer of undocumented workers and founded one of California’s oldest Latino political organizations, the Mexican American Political Association.
- “I don’t think he’s spoken about enough despite the impact he’s had on so many labor leaders, Chicano leaders, and Latino leaders,” said Ernesto Corona, who just earned his Master of Nonprofit Leadership & Management (MNLM).
Imagine Corona’s surprise, then, when he stumbled upon a museum exhibit honoring his father while working on his capstone project, in which students tackle real-life policy challenges to complete their degrees.
In his words: “When they were giving the tour, I was like, ‘Oh, this is my father! This is incredible – or fate,’” Corona said.
