In the Winter quarter of my senior year, I enrolled in GCH 190: Global and Community Health Task Force, where I was given the opportunity to investigate how California farmworker housing and lifestyle impacts overall health. The end of the course culminated a white report titled Harvesting Injustice: The Housing Crisis & Health Risks Facing California's Farmworkers. 

I was particularly interested in expanding the literature surrounding female farmworker health, and as such wrote the subsection "Implications of Farmworker Housing on Female Health", which can be found in Chapter 3 (Health Risks Linked to Farmworker Housing). The California farmworker population is a marginalized, highly at-risk community that necessitates improved education of and access to healthcare, as their housing situation historically has exposed them to a variety of health risks as well as prevented them from receiving proper care. I found literature surrounding Californian female farmworkers was especially limited, and urge researchers to allocate more time to understanding the struggles these women face daily.

In the Summer 2024 quarter, I had the opportunity to work as a Teaching Assistant for BIOL 100, a biochemistry course within the MCD Biology Department. Having excelled in this class in the previous Winter, I was able to work with Professor Jeremy Lee in assisting students' understanding of biochemical concepts during this five-week course. During this time, I held regularly scheduled office hours/discussion meetings and graded exams. This opportunity allowed me not only to refresh my own biochemistry knowledge, but also allowed me to hone my ability to explain complex concepts  

In the Spring quarter of the 2023-2024 academic year, UC Santa Cruz's Journal of Social Medicine was founded. I played, and continue to play, an active role in the Journal as a writer, peer reviewer, and member of the design team. I was fortunate enough to have interviewed the Principal Investigator of one of the research labs I am a part of here at UCSC, Professor Raquel Chamorro-García. From our interview, I wrote an article entailing her career as a scientist and what she studies in her research lab, titling the paper, "Exploring the Biochemical Mechanisms of Epigenetics: An Interview with Raquel Chamorro-García, Ph.D." The article goes into detail about the research done in the Chamorro-García Lab, which investigates how epigenetic markers can play a role in transgenerational metabolic disease propogation in mice. 

I completed a research project analyzing the implications of structural racism in the medical field. I analyzed and gave historical context to implicit bias in the healthcare field and revealed how many people can experience unconscious biases towards groups that have historically experienced high levels of discrimination.  To the right, I present the research paper I wrote as well as the presentation I created on this subject.

Here, my research on the effects systemic racism on healthcare is summarized, giving historical context and relevant statistics.

I have accumulated over 200 hours of volunteering in the clinic environment, through which I gained a firsthand account of the innerworkings of a hospital and the complex relationships between medical professionals and their patients.