Springbok Cares

After producing a fundraising campaign for the University of Southern California's Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program, I spent real time with young cancer patients. I saw what immersive technology could do for people stuck in long, difficult treatments — and that nobody was systematically bringing it to them.

A 501(c)(3) non-profit with a double mission: give patients a form of healthy escapism during challenging treatments, and work with doctors and researchers to study and quantify what these technologies actually do for medical outcomes.

I co-founded Springbok Cares and personally brokered the corporate sponsorships that made the programs possible, including partnerships with Google, Panasonic, and MSI.

Programs launched at USC, serving both inpatient and outpatient populations, then expanded to Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Nebraska. Patients ranged from young adults to geriatric populations, with content curated to entertain, inspire, and alleviate stress. The research side of the mission ran alongside the patient programs, in collaboration with doctors and researchers at the partner institutions.

Springbok Cares ran from 2017 to 2020 and hit milestone after milestone in bridging technology and patient care, including published clinical research. The complexities of COVID-19 ultimately brought the in-hospital programs to a close. But the goodwill and the evidence they produced continue to resonate.