SPHHS Students Work Towards Making Positive Impacts in the HHMI Summer Research Internship
Four SPHHS students used the HHMI along with their UMass education to aid efforts to improve lives in all communities.
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Four SPHHS undergraduates gained hands-on, scientific research experience this summer through the support of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Summer Research Internship program. The program, funded through a $2.5 million grant awarded to the university through HHMI’s Driving Change initiative, aims to effect cultural change on research university campuses by creating a more inclusive learning environment. The HHMI Summer Research program offers historically underrepresented and first-generation students paid research fellowships and housing to support these transformational research experiences. The grant initiative, led by Associate Dean Elizabeth Connor in the College of Natural Sciences (CNS), provides support to CNS students as well as students in the College of Engineering, the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences and the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS).
This year, kinesiology major Maggie Mirembe, nutrition major RobinAmara Heard, along with public health majors Ella Sklar and Joy Ouyang, participated in the program, working with SPHHS faculty in a variety of research settings.
Maggie Mirembe contributed to multiple kinesiology labs this summer. One in particular gave Maggie the opportunity to analyze trail runners and how light might affect their biomechanics. "As we acquired data, sometimes, I had to run as a participant on the trail," she says. "The main goal of this research is to help single out potential injury risks for trail runners and help with injury prevention."
Read more about Maggie Mirembe here.
RobinAmara Heard spent her summer supporting the Center for Research on Families (CRF) with a Food is Medicine (FIM) initiative funded by the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). Her project was the Springfield Prescription Produce Collaborative (SPxPC). The primary goal of a produce prescription program is to improve the dietary health, access to nutrition, and well-being of participants.
"I am drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of this work, where experts from various fields bring a range of perspectives in an effort to create comprehensive, evidence-based solutions to real-world needs," she says. "The lived experiences of communities inform solutions, fostering trust with doctors, educational providers, and produce vendors to build a sustainable model that can be used in other communities as well."
Read more about RobinAmara Heard here.
Ella Sklar worked through the Center of Program Evaluation within the Department of Health Promotion and Policy, where she had the opportunity to work with local government partners and learn strategies and techniques for mix-methods evaluation services. "The work that we are publishing is directly impacting people’s lives through advocating for better access to and delivery of quality health services," she says.