A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience (ASPIRE) is a free, bilingual, online curriculum, fully aligned with National Education Standards, as well as with 21st Century Skills, that helps middle and high school teens learn to be tobacco free while explaining the dangers of tobacco and nicotine use.
The program is evidence-based and tackles the full range of traditional and emerging products such as e-cigs, hookah, JUUL and synthetic marijuana. Assessments are imbedded and gauge users’ knowledge before and after exposure to the curriculum.
- Students can earn a certificate of completion upon finishing the program. Click on “Student Log In” to begin.
- Teachers/Administrators can see students’ progress by logging in to the Admin site.
- Healthcare providers can refer teen patients to this engaging tobacco/nicotine resource.
- Anyone can see what ASPIRE offers to fit their needs by clicking on “ASPIRE Select.”
- User support is provided.
Access the new ASPIRE 2.0 and begin your journey to a
healthy, tobacco-free future.
healthy, tobacco-free future.
Access the new ASPIRE 2.0
The new ASPIRE includes new and emerging products such as e-cigs, hookah and synthetic marijuana.
ASPIRE Resources
ASPIRE Texas Educators' Summit 2019
DeBakey High School students Julian Ruger, Farooq Siddiqui and Tabitha Pravinkumar.
DeBakey High School Health Science teacher Ms. Dunlap is sharing her students’ experience with ASPIRE.
The ASPIRE team hosted the Texas Educators' Summit to share ASPIRE achievements and to appreciate our devoted ASPIRE heroes.
Salma Marani, Ms. Pierre (the Village High School internship coordinator), Dr. Karen Calabro, and the Goli family.
Dr. Dunnington and Dr. Prokhorov. Special thanks to our wonderful keynote speaker, Dr. Joel Dunnington, a world famous tobacco-control activist.
Dr. Dunnington and Dr. Calabro in the Art Gallery discussing the best students' work inspired by ASPIRE.
Farooq Siddiqui and Julian Ruger by Farooq’s award winning poster.
The ASPIRE team hosted the Texas Educators’ Summit on May 30, 2019. ASPIRE achievements were shared among educators, students and parents as we showed our appreciation for our ASPIRE heroes. The Art Gallery, in observance of World No Tobacco Day, was also featured in the MD Anderson Park Donor Wall. This event highlighted students’ ‘tobacco-free generation’ art work inspired by the ASPIRE Program. We would like to thank everyone who attended the event.
MD Anderson and HISD Partnership
MD Anderson and HISD partner for youth tobacco prevention program
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) have reached a first-of-its-kind agreement to provide access to an evidence-based, youth-oriented tobacco prevention and cessation program for all 100,000 HISD middle and high school students.
ASPIRE News
The ASPIRE program helps fight vaping in Arizona schools
“The increasing number of teens vaping is one reason Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center partnered with several Arizona schools to teach kids about the affects of tobacco and vaping.”
Read the complete azfamily.com article and watch the video.
St. Louis schools adopt the ASPIRE program
“This year, the Hancock Place School District in south St. Louis County adopted the anti-smoking program Aspire, created by the MD Anderson Cancer Center at The University of Texas.”
Read the complete U.S. News article.
MD Anderson's Dr. Alex Prokhorov praises the SB21 bill
“Senate Bill 21 is a roaring victory for our state’s efforts to keep young people healthy and away from substances that harm them. We have joined almost half the states of the U.S. in fighting this cancer-causing habit.”
Read the complete Daily Texan article.
ASPIRE educates Arizona youth about the hazards of smoking
The ASPIRE program was recently launched in middle schools and high schools in Mohave County, Arizona. The Mohave Valley Daily News describes the program as a way to end generational smoking habits.
“Nearly a quarter of adults in Mohave County smoke cigarettes, and this habit in families tends to become generational,” said Susan Williams, coordinator of Tobacco Use and Chronic Disease Prevention Program in the Mohave County Department of Public Health. “The ASPIRE program is an important opportunity to educate youth on the hazards of tobacco use and help encourage Mohave County students to become a tobacco-free generation.”
Read the complete Mohave Valley Daily News article.
This website is based on the school curriculum called ASPIRE (A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience) developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center with assistance from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Funding has been provided by the National Cancer Institute, the George & Barbara Bush Endowment for Innovative Cancer Research and Tobacco Settlement Funds. ASPIRE has been thoroughly reviewed and included in the NCI's RTIPs database as an evidence-based program as well as being endorsed by SAMHSA and the Cochrane Review.