Be honest, do you apply sunscreen every morning before school? Maybe. But do you reapply a new layer every two hours? Probably not.

That’s exactly what Saving Skin, a Social Innovation project led by juniors Serena Abraham, Eseosa Bello, Kate Bennett, Emelyn Huynh, and Jasmine Ren, set out to change. Mounted on the walls near the lunch line is a white dispenser labeled with a Sun Bum sticker. From afar, it looks like hand sanitizer. But this one offers something different: sunscreen.

After earning second place in the 2025 competition, Saving Skin spent the past year developing its sunscreen dispensers. But their project didn’t start with the product — it began with recognizing a problem they wanted to address.

Driven by a desire to create meaningful impact at Bishop’s, they decided to enter the 5th Annual Social Innovation project. The Social Innovation Competition asks students to “identify a problem in the world and develop a new, creative solution or invention to solve it,” according to the 24-25 Competition Timeline. Over the course of six months, students work in teams to find a social problem, brainstorm solutions, and create a pitch to a live panel in April.

The group knew immediately what issue they wanted to focus on: skin health. Kate’s uncle is a dermatologist who treats skin cancer in patients. Another uncle of Kate’s had undergone surgery to get cancerous skin removed. Ms. Jackie Gomez, Social Innovation Director and mentor to the project, had gone through the same surgical procedure herself. “I want these girls to make sure that our communities are educated about it…what you do now is what helps you in the future,” she said.

By their second meeting, the name “Saving Skin” had been set. Living in San Diego, where UV levels are high and sun exposure is inevitable, the issue felt even more urgent. “We’re in San Diego. We know so many people who have faced sun damage, and it’s such a problem here,” Emelyn explained.

In the summer months, the San Diego UV index reaches an average high of 10, signifying a “very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

As they continued collecting information, one finding kept surfacing. “Early prevention was by far the biggest issue causing skin cancer,” Kate said.

Patients only sought medical help when it was too late. They needed consistent sun protection to fully fight the lethal harms caused by sun damage.

Now that they had clearly identified the problem, addressing it was the harder part.  “We definitely weren’t set on doing sunscreen [dispensers], especially from the beginning,” Kate said. “We really had no idea what we were gonna do.”

Their initial idea was to develop UV mirrors that could identify areas that were missing sun protection, but the high costs made it impractical. “We had a lot of other things we tried, too. It was really trial and error — ‘what would be the most effective and easiest to create?’” Kate said.

As part of their research, Saving Skin conducted a survey in January 2025 to better understand the needs of the student body. Out of 241 students, 32.9% reported applying sunscreen daily, while 17.4% said they rarely or never used it.

And while almost one third of the respondents did use sunscreen every morning, one application wasn’t enough. “[The dispensers are] a little bit about convenience as well, because sunscreen needs to be applied regularly throughout the day,” Jasmine explained.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, sunscreen reapplication should happen every two hours. Having the dispensers at school meant that the requirement could actually be met.

“When we were researching, [we saw] a lot of sunscreen dispensers in places where you have to pay money to get in, like hotels or pools,” Serena said. Their exclusivity meant not everyone could receive sun protection. Plus, the dispensers on the market weren’t cheap — Kate added that the only one they found was upwards of $400. So, they set out to install cost-friendly dispensers.

They then reached out to companies that would supply them with sunscreen. Sun Bum was first brought up because a family friend of Kate’s worked there. The brand had its own non-profit organization — Protect the Groms — whose mission, similar to Saving Skin’s, was to lower skin cancer rates and distribute sun protection to schools. The similar values made its partnership with Saving Skin easy. Furthermore, while they had also met with Kopari and Colorescience, Emelyn — who was the main person in coordination with the companies — said, “Sun Bum was probably the best option because it’s both affordable and for sensitive skin.”

Sun Bum donates sunscreen to Saving Skin at no cost, because the project’s goals align closely with Protect the Groms. Saving Skin used some of their $1,500 in prize money to purchase empty dispensers, which they filled with Sun Bum’s products. For now, the sunscreen is free, though Kate noted as Saving Skin expands in the long run, Sun Bum may eventually require payment.

Ms. Gomez, for her part, saw the value of their project immediately. As a parent, she knew how hard it was to make sunscreen a daily habit, even when the risks seemed so clear. “I see it as such a need as a parent of two elementary school students who come home sunburned every day,” she said. “I tell them to put it on every day, and they still don’t do it.”

Last April, Saving Skin placed second among seven teams in the annual Social Innovation competition, walking away with $1,500 to fund their project. After the competition, they dove into the partnership with Sun Bum, which supplied them with sunscreen. Part of the prize money was used to purchase empty dispensers. “We were all so excited. We were just around each other and holding hands,” Serena remembered.

With funding secured, the sunscreen dispensers became real. There are currently two dispensers on campus — one next to the lunch line and the other outside the Michael & Marlene Teitelman Science Center. “Everyone goes through the lunch line. Everyone goes to dish drop,” Serena said, explaining the reasoning behind the first dispenser’s location.  “[The one outside the science center is] right next to the field, where all the athletes are playing sports out in the sun all pretty much all day.”

Saving Skin isn’t stopping at Bishop’s. They plan on donating their product to other schools and recreational centers. The difficulty, however, with expansion, Emelyn explained, was the difficulty of constant maintenance from the Saving Skin members. Sunscreen expires, and the dispensers must be changed at least every six months. “At Bishop’s, we’re able to refill all of it,” she said. “But it’s hard to expand because there’s not going to be other people besides us to refill.”

They also plan for younger students to continue their efforts once they graduate.

Nevertheless, like the members, Ms. Gomez also hopes for a greater scope for Saving Skin. “I hope that they can expand their project and get into some local schools,” she said. “And maybe we can make this a nationwide movement.”

As they work to grow beyond Bishop’s, Saving Skin traces their entire project back to their experience in the Social Innovation competition. “Do Social Innovation,” Kate said.

The others nodded their heads and agreed. “You don’t have to have a solution. As long as you’re passionate about an issue, the solution will come eventually,” Eseosa added.

This story was originally published on The Tower on May 6, 2026.