UA Summer Health Internship Immerses Students in Border Research
Targeted News Service |
Meeting the heath-care needs of the people of
Understanding the bicultural fusion of life among people who share similar resources and are economically and socially interdependent is vital to the improvement of border health-care outcomes.
This summer, the
Participants are matched with faculty mentors engaged in biomedical and public health research that has an impact on border communities. They develop an in-depth understanding of the pathway to medical school, including study and test-taking skills, preparations for the MCAT and drafting a personal statement and travel to border communities, visits to health-care facilities and public health agencies, on both sides of the US-Mexico border, and service-learning activities.
On
Research experience is a vital part of the Frontera Summer Internship program. The following summaries highlight the varying degrees of experience in the lab, (from none, to all four years of undergraduate studies) and within border communities, (a lifetime of experience on both sides of the border, to none), of the following selected program participants.
Testing the efficacy of digital storytelling to improve health literacy and comprehension,
The federal Affordable Care Act was implemented to provide greater access to care and health care coverage for Americans. In
Questions on how to educate border communities on the changes to AHCCCs led to the idea of creating a video and combining the information conveyed in the video with the expertise of community health advocates.
Although learning digital technology presented a learning curve for both Benjamin and Escarcega, the team will present the video they created with the feedback of their mentors
Benjamin, a UA physiology senior with a minor in Spanish, is new to
The study provided the opportunity for Escarcega to learn research methodology. A UA biology junior from
In another AHCCCS research study,
Having grown up on the border, Larez was aware of the access to health-care issues in border communities, such as trying to find Spanish-speaking doctors to care for his ailing grandmother. But Larez was surprised at the many complexities in health-care access within these communities.
Therefore, he began a research project to assess how many border physicians were accepting AHCCCS patients to see if there were enough physicians to treat these patients. His mentor,
Larez's research has the same focus but is centered on border communities, where he found that a serious physician shortage exists in border communities, and the few physicians who practice there do not accept AHCCCS.
He also found that few people in border communities have signed up for AHCCCS, even though they are eligible. And even if they have signed up for AHCCCS, they only access emergency services.
Even before he began studying at the UA, Larez was introduced to health-care professions through the UA's Med-Start program in high school. Med-Start is a bridge program that introduces health-care careers to high school students and is a sister program to the
Larez said the
Her
The
The first person in his family to attend college, Villalobos' project, "Understanding the Role of HIV-1 diversity in HIV Disease Progression," is investigating the hypothesis that HIV diversity influences disease progression in infected patients.
Villalobos grew up liking science but thought becoming a doctor was a far-fetched dream. He focused on finding work and earning money - but still enrolled at
"If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here. They fill a much needed gap making the path a little easier in the difficult road to get accepted into medical school."
Quyymun Rabby moved to
Her
Although she has strong research experience, having worked in labs at the UA during all four years of college, she was interested in the
For more information on the Frontera Program, please visit: https://diversity.medicine.arizona.edu/frontera
TNS 30TagarumaMar-140807-4821673 30TagarumaMar
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