This year, we have a group of 9 students with various majors, including Biology, Psychology, Math, and Public Health Studies. The students have a variety of interests, but helping others is a common thread. Many of these outstanding students are student tutors and mentors themselves.
Our students are in the Summer Program from May 30, 2009 - June 28, 2009.
Dana M. Bryant is a resident of Fairfield, Alabama. She is a rising senior at Birmingham-Southern College whose major is Sociology-Psychology. She has been successful in making the Dean’s List of Distinguished Students every semester of her college attendance. During her college experience, Dana has also been successful in acquiring membership into Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, Alpha Lamda Delta Honor Society, and Mortar Board Honor Society. Accepted as a 2008 "Hess Center Fellow", Dana completed a summer internship at VOICES for Alabama’s Children in Montgomery, Alabama. During her internship, Dana’s accomplishments included writing an Op-Ed entitled "Speaking Up for Alabama’s Families". This Op-Ed was eventually published in an edition of “The Birmingham News”. Dana is a member of a Psychology Research Lab at Birmingham-Southern, where she is active in various psychological research projects. In fact, Dana is currently leading a research study of her own examining perceived risk of STD contraction.
Outside of school, Dana spends time visiting residents of a local nursing home, serving as a mentor in a Mentoring Children of Prisoners program, and reading children’s books to a local Kindergarten classroom. In her leisure time, Dana loves to watch movies, watch sports, spend time with family and friends, and collect "I Love Lucy" memorabilia.
David Byrd was born in Atlanta, Georgia where he currently also lives. He attends Morehouse College and is majoring in Psychology. He is a rising senior and is considering a future career in or related to public policy and public health or psychology. David has had substantial experience working in laboratories and currently has opportunities to conduct experiments in the course of pursuing his major. In addition to his psychology studies, David has also focused his studies on math and economics. He is looking forward to the study of bio-statistics and how it influences health policy and public perception. He stays active around Morehouse College and Atlanta through his involvement in organizations such as the Psychology Association, Psi Chi (Psychology Honor Society), and ABPsi (Association of Black Psychologists).
David believes in giving back to his community. About once every six weeks, he visits and delivers small gifts to residents of the Sadie G. Mays Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The Sadie G. Mays Rehabilitation Center is the same facility where David successfully completed his Eagle Scout Project several years ago.
In his free time, David plays the violin and likes meeting people, traveling, listening to music, and watching all the professional sports teams of Atlanta. He also enjoys running, eating out, and spending time with his family
From East St. Louis, IL to Oakland, CA, Kevelynn Hare is an upcoming senior at the University of California, Berkeley. Kevelynn is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in Public Health with a Health Policy and Management focus. Throughout her college career thus far, she has been employed as a tutor for underprivileged middle school and high school students at the Making Waves Education Program in Richmond, CA. She has also lended a hand in tutoring college-level pre-calculus to incoming freshman though the Summer Bridge Program, and upcoming high school juniors through the Pre-Collegiate Academy Incentive Awards Program at UC Berkeley. Ever since her sophomore year in high school, she has served as a mentor or tutor for children and young adults. With this position, she has witnessed prominent health issues and policies that affect the ability for minority youth to succeed in school. Her work in the community elucidated many hygiene, nutritional, and personal challenges urban minority youth face and are disadvantaged by. These inequalities and challenges that she has encountered on a first hand account, as an employee and as a product of one of the most impoverished cities within the U.S., East. St. Louis, IL, motivates her to research these issues and affect change in Health Policy and Health Promotion.
Roberto Hasfura was raised in San Antonio, Texas, and is now currently living in Cambridge, MA. He has just completed his first year of studies at MIT and plans on double majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics, with a concentration in applications to public health. He is particularly interested in channeling his studies toward narrowing the gap that exists in breast cancer mortality rates between anglo women and women of color.
Outside of academics, Roberto enjoys playing basketball, working out, teaching, and playing guitar. He is also active in the community, as he is currently in the process of starting a middle school SAT tutoring program to benefit minority students in the Cambridge area. Roberto is also a seasoned traveler, and has had the privilege to spend time in countries such as Egypt, China, Israel, and Mexico.
Yolanda Lauren Kennedy was born in Scottsdale, AZ, lived a short time in Clearwater, Fl and spent most of her life in Raleigh, NC. Graduating as Valedictorian of her high school, Yolanda is now a rising senior at University of North Carolina Charlotte where she majors in Accounting. She is exploring her options for graduate studies in the Biostatistics field to utilize her love for math while making a difference on a global level. Yolanda has a diverse background and personality in that she was North Carolina’s first Regional First Place winner in the NASA Student Involvement Participation competition, has received the Gates Millennium Scholarship, has been coordinator for major social events and travel excursions, gives community service through providing programs for youth, and enjoys participating in sports.
Yolanda exemplifies a love for children by her dedication to the campus organization, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), teaching at risk children, ages 7 to 13, about ethics in business. She was the project leader of this program during her junior year at the UNC Charlotte. Yolanda has also spent summers teaching three and four year olds Spanish and has developed a curriculum/program for tutoring a group of gifted home schooled children in math concepts during the school year. God has blessed Yolanda to be able to make a difference in the lives of others with the knowledge and opportunities that have been afforded her and she enjoys giving back to the community by sharing these gifts.
Gerald Sylvester Morgan hails from the Southeast of San Diego. He spent most of his years earning his education, while also residing in Chicago, Illinois for a year. He is a current freshman at the University of California, Berkeley and intends to major in Pure Mathematics and Philosophy.
Gerald found his passion in mathematics through programs like COSMOS, (California State Summer School of Mathematics and Science), which enabled him to take UC level classes while still being a senior in high school and apply mathematics to projects that were assigned to him by the program. He also found his love for research and applying mathematics to other fields by participating in science fairs in San Diego. He is really passionate about making a difference in the world and feels he can by using mathematics in the medical field.
When he is not working hard at academia, he likes to relax, socialize and play sports. He plays intramural basketball at UC Berkeley and tutors many peers in the subject of mathematics.
Willythssa Pierre-Louis is a junior at the University of Connecticut working toward a major in biophysics and a minor in mathematics. She grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She is a mentor of a fifth grader, a tutor of Quantitative sciences but specifically mathematics and chemistry, and a Husky Ambassador, a campus representative to incoming students and the community. Willythssa has been a lab technician for two years, working with microorganisms mostly for environmental purposes. Next year, she will be studying macromolecular interactions regulating the replication of HIV and Hepatitis C virus under the supervision of a Biophysics faculty and graduate students. Upon graduating, she plans to pursue an MD/PHD with a focus on infectious diseases. Her ultimate goal is to become a leading biomedical researcher.
In her free time, she enjoys dancing to compas and zouk music, blogging, and playing soccer.
Brittney Stewart is from Keller, Texas. She recently graduated from a dual enrollment program at the University of North Texas called the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. She plans on transferring to the University of Southern California in the fall. There, she plans to major in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and minor in Chinese and Cinema-Television. She hopes to combine all of her interest into her future career goals. She plans on getting an MPH and Dr.PH with an emphasis in international health. She wants to work at organizations such as the CDC and Doctor's Without Borders but specifically the World Health Organization as the first American Director-General.
Brittney enjoys dancing and singing in her spare time. She loves to watch movies and television as well. At TAMS she served as secretary for a cultural club called FACES. She also was apart of the community service group (HOPE), Dull Roar Choir, the TAMS student ambassador group, and a hip hop group called 2Fine09.
Rebbecca Wilson is a Boston native and 2007 graduate of Bowdoin College. While at Bowdoin Rebbecca was a Spanish major and Chemistry minor. She also followed the pre-medical route at Bowdoin but later decided that a career in public health research was what suited her interests. More specifically; health disparities among underrepresented populations in the US and abroad are what interest Rebbecca the most.
Rebbecca has participated in a number of research projects and has also gained authorship on a few papers. During Rebbecca's six month language exchange program in the Dominican Republic, she had the opportunity to develop a research idea of her own. This study involved interviewing doctors and patients about their experiences with access to health care services with regard to the reproductive health of females in the Dominican Republic. Rebbecca's most recent research experience was as a clinical data manager in the Department of Biostatistics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Rebbecca has recently returned from a year abroad in Spain. She taught English in a rural high school as part of a Spanish government teaching grant. In addition to traveling, Rebbecca is a deep-sea fishing fanatic who loves Latin dancing. During the next year Rebbecca will apply for PhD programs in biostatistics while participating in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Math at Smith College.