When Leah Jacobs, data coordinator for Texas AHEC East, is not at UTMB overseeing the collection and validation of AHEC activities by nine regional operations, she is actively investing in Port Arthur students.

As director of the Port Arthur Alumni Community Group — a group of young professionals, all alumni of the Port Arthur Independent School District — Jacobs is giving back to her hometown.   

In her day job at UTMB’s Galveston campus, Jacobs manages, analyzes and evaluates data for nine regional offices in the Texas Area Health Education Center (AHEC) East network. She also is co-chair of the Academic Enterprise Subcommittee of UTMB’s Diversity Council.

Texas AHEC East is an organization committed to making communities healthier by improving supply, distribution, retention, and training of varied health professionals in medically underserved area.  The organization links 111 East Texas counties and more than 18 million people to community health workforce development, health opportunities, and health resources.  Nine regional AHEC offices are located in the eastern section of Texas and are hosted by local community institutions or are non-profit organizations. 

Jacobs and fellow Port Arthur ISD alumni formed the Port Arthur Alumni Community Group in 2011 to help youth in the Port Arthur/Beaumont area by offering “lessons learned and information that we wish someone would have told us prior to high school graduation,” she said. 

''When my high school friends and I got together, we would always talk about different things we learned in our college and life experiences,’’ Jacobs said. “I just kept thinking, ‘What if we told them these things now, so they don’t have to just stumble upon them like we did?’ “ So she spent time researching and reached out to the group National Mentoring Partnership for advice.

At the Port Arthur Alumni Community Group's first monthly “Saturday Session” in January 2012, “We discussed Goal Setting and Self Determination, and the kids created vision boards,’’ Jacobs said.  By partnering with various organizations, the group has reached more than 400 youth in the Port Arthur and Beaumont area. The group began highlighting Port Arthur natives around the world in a ‘small town, BIG People’ blog project on their website, and generated four front-page news articles.

The community group has validated its mission of empowering and encouraging the youth of Port Arthur by exposing them to professions, arts, and philosophies. The monthly “Saturday Sessions” topics are designed to evoke conversation concerning issues that matter to youth. The sessions encourage mentor/mentee relationships that help young people develop personally and professionally. The Port Arthur Alumni Community Group provides a website, social media networks and newsletters emphasizing their programs.

Jacobs' unshakeable commitment to her hometown youth is true to the group’s motto, “OUR city. OUR kids. OUR mission.”  Learn more about the program initiatives by visiting http://www.portarthuracg.org/.