Hopkinton High School juniors Rudra Pachori (left) and Arshia Tharakabhushanam (right), along with freshman Nihal Cherkady (not pictured), created HealthReach Inc., a youth-led nonprofit organization.

Arshia Tharakabhushanam had a severe allergic reaction to nuts while eating a sweet during a trip to India. While shadowing at Massachusetts General Hospital, Rudra Pachori witnessed the confusion and panic patients displayed in that environment.

Those incidents and others convinced the Hopkinton High School juniors that it is important to help people in local communities understand and take charge of their health.

Along with freshman Nihal Cherkady, they created HealthReach Inc., a youth-led nonprofit organization with a mission to increase health equity, access and understanding.

After that scary episode, Tharakabhushanam committed to learning more about health risks and solutions and finding ways to disseminate that information to others.

Pachori’s experience brought to light the need for individuals to ask questions of their medical providers in order to get the treatment they need and understand their conditions.

Pachori explained that HealthReach is something he and his peers do outside of school.

“It’s not a club. We were seeing things in the community involving friends and family and wanting to help,” he explained.

“Life is always changing,” added Tharakabhushanam. “People constantly don’t know all the risks out there.”

Whether it is running a summer camp for kids to teach about healthy diets and hygiene or visiting a rest home to talk about cardiac health, Pachori said the key is zeroing in on each group’s circumstances.

“Health [information] has to be personalized and relevant for them,” he said. “It also must be explained in a clear manner.”

Tharakabhushanam said she does a lot of work on Instagram, TikTok and other social media, trying to gauge the interest of youth and get more teens involved.

And Cherkady has hopes of creating a number of events to make a greater impact.

A health fair in Woburn generated a very positive reaction.

“People are very open to see health information being spread. Hopkinton is open to advocacy, and we have resources here,” Pachori said referring to online guides and presentations.

He said it is not difficult to start a nonprofit, even as a high school student.

“If you have a driving mission and find like-minded people with passion for it, registration in Massachusetts is straightforward. It took a few weeks,” he explained.

The group will be working toward gaining tax-exempt status this summer when school is out.

Tharakabhushanam agreed that working toward the same ideal is key.

“We have big goals,” Pachori said, noting not only plans for different events but also a focus on specific problems related to Hopkinton.

With that in mind, he spoke about conducting a needs assessment to gain better insight from community members on issues including language barriers that may impact the health information people receive.

Tharakabhushanam explained that what the group is doing with HealthReach Inc. is unrelated to the school’s successful HOSA program, which is more competitive and also involves students interested in health-related fields.

For HOSA, she volunteers in hospice care and had logged more than 200 hours there. While HOSA was a motivating factor and sparked interest, Tharakabhushanam clarified that the nonprofit is meant to involve a “wide variety of people” and is not limited to students.

Both Tharakabhushanam and Pachori said they looked forward to careers in health care, while Cherkady is interested in engineering as well as health care accessibility.

With this nonprofit, they emphasize that getting information should not depend on where someone lives, how much money they have, their ethnicity or other factors.

Cherkady said the group — which has an Instagram page @healthreach111 — is actively recruiting new members and has been joined by a new group in New York that shares an interest in health equity.

He added, “We’re an educational nonprofit looking for others who want to make a difference in the lives of real people.”