Originally published June 5, 2015
By Laura L. Acosta
UTEP News Service
There and Back Again: With a gentle nod to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, this is the 10th article in an occasional series covering the off-campus experiences of UTEP students with study abroad, internships and externships, because what students learn outside the classroom is as important as what they learn inside the classroom.
During the summer of 2013, University of Texas at El Paso student Daniela Marquez spent six weeks in Quito, Ecuador, educating patients with Type 2 diabetes about ways to manage the disease.
This summer, Marquez, a graduate student in the Department of Public Health Sciences, will travel to Costa Rica from June 2 to Aug. 1, where she will assess the health of teenage mothers and their children during their children’s first year of life.
Both of Marquez’s international research opportunities have been made possible through her participation in the Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program at The University of Texas at El Paso.
Since 2005, the MHIRT program has offered short-term international health disparities research opportunities for Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students. This summer, Marquez and seven undergraduate students – Diana Komiyama, Norma Daphne Cervantes, Matthew Chavez, Alexandra Arciniega, Jasmine Flores and Israel Fernandez – will travel to research settings in Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
For eight weeks the student trainees will engage in international research projects that look into eliminating disparities in Hispanic health. They also will participate in cultural immersion activities focused on economic development, tourism, history and the arts.
“(MHIRT) is an excellent program that gives you great training in research and also in what other countries are facing,” said Marquez, who was an undergraduate student the first time she participated in the program.
In Ecuador, Marquez worked alongside research mentors in an education intervention for people with Type 2 diabetes. In addition to teaching patients how to cook healthy recipes, they also developed an exercise program for them. After three weeks, researchers saw a decrease in insulin use in one patient.
The outcome inspired Marquez to implement a similar diabetes education program at her church.
“Many of the things that I learned I was able to apply here as well,” said Marquez, the health ministry director at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church she attends. “I’ve been able to take that approach with our community members and teach them and show them that it works.”
Opening a Research Pipeline
To date, 110 students have participated in the MHIRT program, which began with a grant from the National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). Last year, the NIMHD awarded the MHIRT program $1.34 million over the next five years to fund the project “Hispanic Health Disparities Across Cultures in Latin America: Collaborative Research for the 21st Century.”
According to Kathleen Curtis, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health Sciences, the program’s intended outcome is to build a pipeline of Hispanic researchers representative of the U.S.-Mexico border population who pursue careers in Hispanic health disparities research to address issues similar to those faced in our border region population.
“The program includes students from the breadth of health professions, behavioral sciences and biomedical sciences disciplines,” Curtis explained. “Although it is not specifically targeted at future health professionals, participation in this program ensures that participants will become familiar with Hispanic health disparities and have sufficient exposure to promote the inclusion of health disparities research in their future practice.”
MHIRT graduates have gone on to pursue opportunities in graduate professional education in the health sciences as well as doctoral level graduate education in the biomedical science fields. Program alumni are currently employed in governmental agencies, health and social services sectors, and as nurses, social workers, physicians, medical laboratory professionals, research scientists and science teachers.
Culture Immersion Training
Matthew Chavez, Daniela Marquez, Alexandra Arciniega and Jasmine Flores left for Costa Rica on June 2. Daphne Cervantes and Diana Komiyama will depart for Panama on June 6, and Israel Fernandez will travel to Ecuador the same day.
To prepare for their international research experience, trainees took a class in directed research and statistics during the spring semester.
They also were introduced to health inequalities in the community through the course, “Special Topics in Health Sciences: Hispanic Health Disparities,” which they took during the Maymester.
As part of the class, students developed a mini Photovoice project on the themes of the research projects they will be assigned to in their host countries.
Chavez’s Photovoice poster presentation focused on disparities that limit older adults in El Paso. Chavez will study the barriers that limit the physical activity of older adults in Costa Rica.
“There’s a high fall risk and a high risk for chronic diseases for older adults, so I wanted to see what is going on with the elderly, what can be done and if exercise can be one of the possibilities to help active aging,” said Chavez, a kinesiology student who plans to become a physical therapist.
Cervantes, a junior biological sciences major, will study mosquitos that transmit malaria at the Institute of Scientific Research and High Technology Services, or INDICASAT, in Panama City, Panama.
“I think the training will be useful for med school,” said Cervantes, who wants to become a neonatologist. “It will help me in the lab training. In the classes that we take (at UTEP), everything is prepared already for you to experiment with. Now we’re going to learn how to extract DNA manually.”
Prior to their departure, students also participated in a three-day “Predeparture Cultural Immersion Experience,” which introduced trainees to the culture and customs of their host countries and the context for their assigned research project.
Students lived in Miner Village and learned about the cultural differences of their host countries, culture shock, stress management and strategies to maintain health, safety and security during the international assignment.
They also participated in a challenge course at the UTEP Recreation Center, which promoted team building and bonding among trainees as well as introduced them to the concepts of risk-taking and mutual support.
Afterward, students reflected on their experience through journal writing and discussions.
Komiyama, a senior biological sciences student, hopes her experience studying cutaneous leishmaniasis – an infection that causes skin sores – in Panama will help make her a better health care professional.
“Since we’re dealing with health disparities in other countries, we’re going to see the humanistic part of medicine,” Komiyama said. “We will also learn how to give better health care service in the future.”
Editor’s note: If you have a story or an experience you think would fit this series, please emailnews@utep.edu with the subject line: There and Back Again.