Coming into college, everyone always told me to get as much experience with research as possible. In fact, the plethora of research opportunities was one of the reasons I chose to come to IUPUI. Therefore, I applied for the Life-Health Sciences Internship Program (LHSI) as a freshman to be an intern as a sophomore. After passing the application and interview stages of LHSI, I was placed at the Fairbanks School of Public Health to work with Dr. Silvia Bigatti in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. I felt at home as part of this team from the moment I interviewed, which I think it critical to any success I achieved in my internship. I understood the goal of the research team with which I worked, and they took all my opinions into account. 

Dr. Bigatti works within the Latino community to boost public health. The research she has done in Indiana has shown a great disparity in the resources available to the Latino community, so her social programs reflect that need. One example of such a program is Mama Sana, Familia Sana (Health Mom, Healthy Family). This program provides mothers and Latino women with information about how to take pride in their own empowerment while also supporting their families.

Another program through Fairbanks is called Your Life. Your Story. (YLYS). This is a resilience-building program for Indianapolis Latino youth, comprised of a week-long summer camp followed by a yearlong relationship with college-aged mentors. Indiana Latino students are 60% more likely to be depressed than White students. YLYS is showing preliminary data that the teens who complete the program experience an increase in depression-fighting resilience skills. As the program continues, the goal is to decrease that daunting statistic. Therein lies my focus as an undergraduate research assistant. I quickly became passionate about this work. The two videos below highlight the first year of the YLYS program.