Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2012 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply by April 1, 2013, for the 2013 Èxito! program. Paul Afnan
Houston, Texas With encouragement toward higher education from his El Salvadorian mother, Paul Afnan earned a bachelor’s degree in conservation and resources studies and made the dean’s list with a 4.0 GPA at the University of California, Berkeley. He knew he wanted to make a difference in people’s health. So he interned with a scientific agency in Managua, Nicaragua, where he enrolled children into a dengue/influenza cohort study and created a predictive model for patients with febrile illnesses. Afnan then moved from San Francisco to Houston, where he interned in infection control at Memorial ...
You now have until April 1, 2013, to apply for the 2013 Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program! Éxito! will select 20 master’s-level students and master’s trained health professionals from across the nation to attend a five-day summer institute June 3-7, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas, offering tools, tips, role models and motivation to encourage participants to pursue a doctoral degree and a career studying how cancer affects Latinos differently. Éxito! participants also are eligible to receive a $5,000 internship. Why should you apply? Check out this video to see how Éxito! has changed Latinos' lives. Éxito! is funded by the National Cancer Institute and led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the ...
Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2012 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply by April 1, 2013, for the 2013 Èxito! program. Melawhy Garcia
Anaheim, Calif. Melawhy Garcia was just 17 when her mother was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure and colon cancer—unfortunately giving her firsthand knowledge of the income, insurance and other barriers faced by Latino cancer patients. Since then, Garcia has put cancer in her crosshairs. Garcia already has helped conduct research and awareness on cervical cancers and other health conditions prevalent among Latinos. She emphasizes research on cancer prevention, obesity and more in her current position as the assistant director of the California State University, Long Beach, National Council ...
You're invited to join a free webinar March 12, 2013, to learn more about how systems and neighborhoods influence Latino cancer. The webinar, hosted by researchers of Redes En Acción, a National Cancer Institute project led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is at 11 a.m. CST (9 a.m. PST) on March 12, 2013, will explore two global factors that can help understand mechanisms behind health disparities: 1) systems of care defining access in a broad way and how these may affect disadvantaged patients; and 2) research on neighborhood influences on health disparities, with a focus on different approaches to measure "neighborhood." The webinar will last one ...
Latinas who have an abnormal mammogram result take 33 days longer to reach definitive diagnosis of breast cancer than non-Hispanic white women, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Such a time delay can have a critical impact on tumor size, stage at diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and survival of subsequent breast cancer. For this study, published online in SpringerPlus in March 2013, IHPR researchers worked with partners in the federally funded Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Network to evaluate the differences in time to diagnosis of breast cancer among 186 Latinas and 74 non-Hispanic whites who received an abnormal mammogram result in six U.S. cities. Analysis ...
Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2012 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply by April 1, 2013, for the 2013 Èxito! program. Elie Benavidez
San Antonio, Texas A few years ago, Elie Benavidez was in the middle of her studies in San Antonio when she got a heartbreaking phone call: “Your mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.” Benavidez, with her mother’s encouragement, maintained her studies. Five years later, her mother—and other family members—are survivors, giving Benavidez all the motivation and support she needs to positively impacting the lives of students as a teacher and the community as an aspiring public health worker. “They taught me that, even though something bad has happened, they can still persevere,” ...
Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2012 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply by April 1, 2013, for the 2013 Èxito! program. Alyssa De Santiago
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. As a first-generation college student, Alyssa De Santiago experienced many challenges because she had little help navigating her way through her undergraduate education. But with a father who said she could do anything and a grandmother who would help her talk through any problems as she rolled and made tortillas, she capitalized on a strong support system to become her family’s first college graduate when she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Whittier College in California. With experience as a pharmacy tech, children’s tutor, and public health intern, ...
Guided grocery store trips, menu labeling at restaurants, community gardens, and video-game-based exercise programs are among several promising, culturally appropriate ways to prevent obesity among Latino children, according to a new collection of studies from Salud America! The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children published in a supplement to the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Salud America! is a national network of researchers, advocates, and policymakers established in 2007 that seeks environmental and policy solutions to Latino childhood obesity, an American epidemic. The supplement focuses on Salud America! achievements in the past five years and features 19 papers of groundbreaking research on ...
Editor's Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2012 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply by April 1, 2013, for the 2013 Èxito! program. Roger Figueroa
San Antonio, Texas Puerto Rico native Roger Figueroa could be called a modern-day pioneer. With limited resources and limited knowledge of English, he ventured to the U.S. seeking better career opportunities and a better life. He’s already having great success, completing his master’s degree in health and kinesiology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and he working as a research assistant on several studies, including one testing faith-based methods of preventing obesity and another to reduce barriers to physical activity among Latino children. Through his career networks he ...
