About Me

My name is Natalia Benitez, and I'm a recent grad from the University of California, Santa Cruz. I have received a bachelor of arts in Global and Community Health. Initially entering UC Santa Cruz as a proposed Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology major, I was confronted with the reality that although I loved science, my high school education did not prepare me with the knowledge or skills that were required to succeed and pass my prerequisite classes at a UC level. Despite this academic setback, I was able to reflect on my goals and aspirations, which has motivated me to get ahead of my coursework, allowing me to graduate a year early. Discovering the world of Global and Community Health solidified my decision to switch my major, as it combined my love of outreach with health, which are my key responsibilities as a sexual health peer educator: providing engaging and accessible information to the student population. 

Through various on-campus positions, I've been able to use the Community Cultural Wealth model, a framework I learned in my first GCH class. This model focuses on community well-being and encompasses a multitude of experiences and knowledge that empowers care within communities. This framework is essential in Global and Community, as our main focus is health within communities, however, the goal is to then expand the positive outcomes to a macro- or global level. Through my position as SafeRide lead, I’ve been able to connect with many students, many of whom feel our service is vital in supporting themselves as students. This position has allowed me the opportunity to hear many personal stories from the folks we provide with safe transport, as our vans can serve as an outlet for many who regularly use the service. My position at SafeRide has also allowed me to provide resources for folks who have questions but don’t know who to ask or how to ask their questions. Providing folks with a safe means of transportation results in better academic and health outcomes. My work experiences have been shaped by what I have learned in the array of classes I’ve taken. I love GCH for its well-roundedness through its multidisciplinary approach. When I took anthropology courses for lower-division prerequisites, I became especially infatuated with everything related to culture after taking a medical anthropology course, which opened my eyes to different traditional practices used around the world. I was then motivated to take Human Adaptation and Variation, along with Human Evolution, which requires a creative and open mind to answer questions about humanity that remain unsolved. This exposure to different disciplines has allowed me to expand my knowledge and understand how folks absorb information, or how they might react and the reasoning behind those reactions. I’ve grasped a better understanding of the wide variety of folks that I have encountered throughout my experience both learning and working on campus. This has allowed me to improve my communication skills and be cognizant of the fact that everyone has had their own unique upbringing and experiences. 

In my time at UC Santa Cruz, I’ve been able to explore a wide variety of interests, being allowed to work with UCSC’s Student Health Outreach and Promotion Program, as a part of the Slug Love team, which focuses on sexual and reproductive health. SHOP is a safe and non-judgmental learning environment and resource for students, by students. Our outreach efforts at SHOP have, and continue to reach our diverse range of students on campus, some who may be comfortable talking about themselves, some who may have a stigma around talking about sex and pleasure, and some who have never received sex education. Through workshops and tabling, we have been able to educate students, provide them with free resources, and give them a safe space to ask questions. The experiences I had growing up have influenced the way I am as a peer educator, as it’s vital to understand that some folks are having their first thoughts and conversations about sex and sexuality when they move away from home and attend college.

My upbringing greatly influences my passion for public health and outreach. I was raised by a single teen mother who was the first in our family to go to college. I witnessed my grandparents, who spent their whole lives as farm and labor workers, face discrimination at the hands of health care providers for speaking Spanish, and as a child, trying to translate medical jargon is a heavy burden to bear. I’ve had my fair share of experiences with the healthcare system, as I am a part of the 1 in 6 to develop asthma and allergies as a result of being born in the San Joaquin Valley. Moving with my mom from the “asthma capital” to the Bay Area, health inequities followed. Accessing government assistance in a big city is much more difficult, especially when living in East Oakland, where the community is struggling to fight against rising costs, crime, and protect their health from the direct impacts of pollution.

With my upbringing playing a part in how passionate I am about helping others and having various connections in different communities for which I feel grateful, the inequalities they face are rarely acknowledged. My mom not having access to comprehensive sex education and becoming a teen mom could’ve been prevented if there had been more outreach efforts within schools. Teen parents should be supported by their schools and social workers, as the parent more often than not is motivated by their baby to finish high school and get a job. Seeing the barriers my mom had to jump through was my biggest motivator and why I love working and educating my communities.

Doing outreach within the communities I lived in is my top priority post-graduation, especially after taking a Medical Spanish class, which equipped me with the knowledge needed to respect different cultural values and engage with folks in a different language. Being able to reach communities that have historically had a difficult time accessing healthcare, exacerbated by fear or cost inaccessibility, will not only help break the cultural stigma associated with “asking for help,” but will empower them. My life experiences have taught me how to educate myself and others in a way that is easy to understand. It brings me much joy to be able to educate others through outreach since knowledge is power, and everyone deserves to feel comfortable talking about themselves and their bodies and advocating for themselves as needed.

After I graduate, I plan to take a gap year, at least for a year, to expand my volunteer experience and give back to the communities that have provided me with so much. During my gap year, I hope to decide between pursuing a master’s in Public Health, or a PhD in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology. My time with the Slug Love team, combined with my experience of growing up with a young mom, many relatives, and most of the community being young parents, influenced my passion for sexual & reproductive health advocacy. I would also like to, at some point, study the spread of sexually transmitted infections within vulnerable communities, especially in communities of color and queer communities, and how it connects to the need for harm reduction and support.