BILINGUAL · HANDS-ON · HEALTH CAREERS
Growing the next generation of health leaders.
Sembrando Flores helps high school students in underserved communities see themselves in healthcare and come home to serve. We partner with schools to deliver a bilingual, hands-on health professions program, one connected patient story at a time.
Now piloting: the first 2 years of a 4-year program · 8 hands-on workshops · Bilingual: English and Spanish, more languages as we grow
Planted in California’s Imperial Valley. Growing for every community in the nation.
THE PROGRAM
From seed to gardener, a four-year journey.
Our full model walks a student from their first spark of curiosity as a freshman to a confident graduate ready to lead and mentor. Each year is a stage of growth, and it all starts with a single seed.
🌰
SEED · FRESHMAN
Discover
Students meet the health professions and begin to picture themselves in them.
🌱
SPROUT · SOPHOMORE
Explore
Students go deeper, build skills, and grow their portfolio.
🌿
BRANCH · JUNIOR
Apply
Students take on projects, research, and community health work.
🌸
FLOWER · SENIOR
Lead
Students lead workshops, mentor younger peers, and bloom as leaders.
🪴
GARDENER · GRADUATE
Return
Gardeners come back: they mentor, teach, and plant the next generation.
“You come to us as a seed, you leave a flower.”
AVAILABLE TO SCHOOLS NOW
The two-year pilot.
Schools can partner with us today to bring the first two years of the model to their students as a complete program. Each year includes an orientation, hands-on workshops, four family workshops, and a closing Capstone Patient Overview. By the end of the pilot, students will have completed eight hands-on workshops.
Online modules · Private student portfolios · Bilingual: English and Spanish
Pilot cohorts are forming now for early partner schools: the first two-year pilot begins Fall 2026, and full two-year cohorts open in Fall 2028. The Partnership Packet explains pilot terms and timelines.
ONE CONNECTED STORY
Every workshop follows one patient.
Instead of loose lessons, students follow one patient’s story and watch how one habit tips into the next like dominoes. Here is a taste from our featured dentistry workshop.
1 · The clue 🦷
Bleeding gums appear at our patient’s checkup.
2 · The chain 🔍
Students connect the habits: sugar, plaque, and an inflammation that travels beyond the mouth.
3 · The move 💪
They learn real prevention, and get ready to teach it to the adult at home.
The full storyline is part of the partner curriculum. These are just the first three dominoes.
ABOUT
Who we are.
Sembrando Flores was founded by health professions educators who kept meeting talented students in underserved communities. Many of them had never met a health professional who looked like them. We are changing that: one cohort, one school, one community at a time.
Our mission
To cultivate the next generation of health leaders from underserved communities by providing authentic representation, career exploration, and structured support, so students can see themselves in healthcare and commit to returning home to serve.
Our vision
Young people from rural, medically underserved areas pursue health careers with confidence, equipped with skills, mentorship, and a commitment to serve their home communities.
THE PEOPLE
Meet the board.
Christopher G. Martija-Flores
Co-Founder
Read Bio
PhD student at the MGH Institute of Health Professions · M.S. in Health Professions Education, Loma Linda University · B.S. in Dental Hygiene, Loma Linda University. Currently Assistant Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, serving the periodontics predoctoral department and the dental hygiene department.
Jessica Flores-Martija
Co-Founder
Read Bio
M.A.T. in Teaching · B.A. in History, La Sierra University. Social Studies teacher at Redlands Unified School District, specializing in project-based and collaborative learning.
Daniela Hernandez
Director of School Partnerships
Read Bio
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education · B.A. in Liberal Studies, Cal State San Bernardino. Co-developed a bilingual, LCAP-aligned family engagement curriculum delivered across California.
Nonprofit status: Sembrando Flores is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity (effective March 31, 2026). Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
STUDENTS & FAMILIES
Families learn alongside their students.
Every student workshop aligns with an adult-at-home workshop, so what students learn becomes something the whole family practices together. Four family workshops a year, bilingual and family-centered. (Disponible en español.)
1 · Learn online 💻
A short module opens each cycle.
2 · Workshop in class 🩺
Hands-on practice with our team.
3 · Teach the adult at home 🏠
Students demonstrate what they learned, together.
4 · Add it to the portfolio 📔
Growth becomes visible, entry by entry.
Want your student in a future cohort? Join the interest list and we will reach out as cohorts open near you. Family materials come in English and Spanish, with more languages as we grow, and our team speaks your language.
¿Prefieres español? Escríbenos con confianza: los talleres para familias son bilingües y nuestro equipo habla tu idioma.
FOR SCHOOLS
Bring Sembrando Flores to your school.
We handle the program. Your school provides the students and the space. Together, we open doors to health careers for the students who need them most.
🌸 What your school receives
- A sequenced, standards-aligned health professions program for a cohort of 30 to 35 students.
- Online pre-workshop learning modules and a private student portfolio framework.
- Trained, background-cleared facilitators and volunteers.
- Four bilingual family workshops a year that bring the learning home.
- All curriculum, materials, and consumables for the activities.
- Aggregate outcome data you can share with your community and funders.
🏫 What your school provides
- A cohort of students and help with recruitment and consent.
- A classroom with a projector and seating for up to 35 students, on the scheduled dates.
- A staff liaison and a school employee present during sessions.
- Your district’s safety, visitor, and data policies for us to follow.
FLEXIBLE BY DESIGN
Three ways to fit your school’s schedule.
Your school picks the format that works, and our team runs every session.
🗓️
Within the school day
Our workshops are designed to sit alongside your curriculum.
🌇
After school
A workshop block at the end of the day, run by our team.
🌞
Weekends on campus
Hosted at your school on scheduled weekends.
Let’s make it work for your school.
Sembrando Flores is delivered as a two-year partnership. Many schools use existing college and career readiness funding, and we will help you find what applies. The Partnership Packet includes the detailed program budget and funding guidance. Request it below and we will walk you through everything.
No obligation. We will walk you through it.
OUTCOMES & STANDARDS
Built with care, aligned to standards.
Every session applies documented frameworks in a way that enhances learning without overwhelming students, so counselors, administrators, and funders can see exactly what students gain. Click any row to expand it.
8
hands-on workshops across the two-year pilot
4
family workshops each year
7
program outcomes
2
languages, and growing
Safety & trust: Live Scan / DOJ background clearance · Liability insurance · FERPA-respecting data practices
🎯 The seven Program Outcomes
Like a college’s program learning outcomes: seven goals every session advances.
- Professional identity: students begin to see themselves as capable of entering and belonging in the health professions.
- Networking and mentorship: students build relationships with clinicians and mentors who reflect their community.
- Communication and health literacy: students learn to explain complex health information in plain, respectful language their community understands.
- Critical thinking and clinical reasoning: students analyze information, weigh evidence, and reason their way to sound decisions.
- Hands-on clinical skills: students practice foundational skills in safe, simulated settings, never procedures on real people.
- Community health (begins in Year 2): students identify and investigate a real health need in their own community.
- Leadership: students lead, teach, and present, growing into near-peer leaders.
🪜 Bloom’s Taxonomy
Every session climbs all six thinking levels, from remembering to creating, and levels up or down by grade.
💛 RULER, social-emotional learning
Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions: one skill woven through every session.
🩺 California CTE, Health Science & Medical Technology
Our workshop learning outcomes were created aligned to the CTE Health Science and Medical Technology pathway, and we review the mapping with your district.
🎓 UC/CSU A-G alignment
We have mapped and designed our workshops so they can align with your in-class A-G outcomes. The program does not provide or grant credit.
📊 Evidence & assessment
Short pre and post checks and portfolio documentation make growth visible. We review current statistics and evidence, and we measure before we claim.
🔬 Grounded in research
Activities are anchored to current, peer-reviewed evidence, verified before use.
A LOOK INSIDE
One workshop, start to finish: “Mouth-Body Detectives.”
Dentistry & Dental Hygiene · our featured sample
🦷 Clinically validated by a Registered Dental Hygienist, Co-Founder Christopher G. Martija-Flores
BEFORE CLASS
The pre-module
A short online module: videos, podcasts, a self-evaluation, a reflection, and a portfolio entry. Students arrive already curious.
IN CLASS
The workshop
The hook: your mouth is a window into your whole-body health. Teams read our patient’s clues, trace the path from sugar and plaque to gum disease and whole-body inflammation, and practice real brushing and flossing technique.
AFTER CLASS, AT HOME
The post-module
A short reflection and self-evaluation, the adult-at-home activity completed together as a family, and their work published to a private portfolio. And yes, everyone leaves with a toothbrush and floss.
The theme: risk, not destiny. · Standards it touches: California CTE Patient Care pathway, plus Technical Skills, Health & Safety, and Critical Thinking anchors; A-G Laboratory Science (D) and College-Prep Elective (G). · Students leave with: a prevention plan, a technique for life, and a hands-on take-home experiment. · The human skill (RULER): understanding why shame or lack of access keeps people from dental care.
🔒 The full playbook is for our partner schools.
The complete facilitator run-of-show, materials and budget, the at-home family activities, the pre and post assessments, and the peer-reviewed evidence base are included in the Sembrando Flores Partnership Packet, not published here.
COMING SOON
Step into the Sembrando Flores VR campus.
We are building an immersive virtual campus on the ENGAGE platform (new to ENGAGE? That link explains it), where students will step in to experience select workshops together. Imagine hands-on health career activities, an auditorium and rooms where students meet and engage, and a place to explore scholarships and health careers with AI guides we created. It is how we will reach students far beyond any single classroom.
🕶️ Built on ENGAGE · 🚧 Currently in development · 🌼 Flower-field grounds, inspired by our name
WAYS IN
Wherever you stand, there’s a way in.
🏫 Schools
Bring the two-year pilot to your students. Partner with us →
💐 Donors
Your gift is tax-deductible and plants a whole cohort. Fund a cohort →
🙋 Volunteers
Clinicians, students, mentors: we will train you. Raise your hand →
👨👩👧 Families
Get your student on the list for a future cohort. Join the interest list →
“You come to us as a seed, you leave a flower.”
Help us plant the next cohort.
CONTACT
Let’s talk.
Schools & partners
Tell us a little about your school and we will send the Partnership Packet.
501(c)(3) public charity · Live Scan / DOJ background clearance · Liability insurance · FERPA-respecting data practices
We reply within two business days and can set up a short intro call.
Prefer email or DMs?
Donors, volunteers, and families: email is the fastest way to reach us.
Sembrando Flores · Cultivating Health Leaders · Redlands, CA · Serving every community in the nation.
Sembrando Flores is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity (effective March 31, 2026). Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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