Planting the Public Health Seed Early

Annual Student Research Diversity Day introduces high schoolers to the field

April 26, 2016

Surrounding a poster showcasing research on how men on Grindr and other apps describe themselves in their dating profiles, a group of high school juniors and seniors had many of the reactions you might expect—giggles, a few jokes. But one student had questions for her peers, “What inspired them to look at this? What are they trying to find out?” The giggles quieted, and her classmates offered a few theories.

This kind of exchange is exactly what the organizers of the annual Student Research Diversity Day at the Mailman School of Public Health aim for. Now in its tenth year, the event showcases research from the many facets of public health, with the goal of sparking an early interest in the field.

“The idea is to really show what public health is all about to these outstanding high school students,” says Ana Abraido-Lanza, associate professor of Sociomedical Sciences and a co-director of the School’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development along with Shakira Suglia, associate professor of Epidemiology. “They come from New Visions High School, where their focus is on math and science, and often when they think of career options, they imagine medicine or engineering. Our goal is to introduce them to public health, and to do it early.”

After enjoying lunch and receiving a warm welcome from Mailman School Dean Linda P. Fried—who expressed the hope that the students would consider public health as an option for the future—the visiting group mingled with graduate student researchers and faculty members, learning about their projects.

Stephanie Grilo, a PhD student in Sociomedical Sciences, shared results from her study on the health effects of food insecurity on pregnant mothers in New York City. “Pregnancy is such a unique period in a woman’s life—and it’s unique for researchers, too, because you actually have patients actively seeking care regularly.”

Grilo’s study participants averaged about 18 years of age and were based locally—not unlike many of the students from the Bronx-based New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science. Asked about the ability of the federal government’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to help soon-to-be moms facing food insecurity, Grilo and a few graduating seniors found themselves engaged in a lively discussion about how food stamps can run out toward the end of the month, how the most affordable food is not necessarily the healthiest, and what can be done to help fix these issues.

Following the poster session, Ijeoma Eboh, a doctorate student in Sociomedical Sciences, was one of four Mailman students to give Student Research Diversity Day attendees an oral presentation on her research, which explores the history of scientific thinking about asthma and its causes. Asthma is particularly prevalent in African-Americans, and in the years since the Civil Rights Movement, scientists have cycled through several explanations as to why: from environmental factors to emotional distress to socioeconomic reasons, and back again. In response to one student’s question, Eboh outlined a basic foundation of public health: the social determinants of health.

Toward the end of the day, a much-echoed phrase among New Visions students was: “I never thought of it that way.” Hopefully, some of these bright minds will keep seeing the world through a public health lens, and—with any luck—we’ll see them on campus again in a few years.