Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared in March of 2020, there have been many lifestyle changes which have likely influenced tobacco smoking behavior. Such lifestyle changes include lockdowns, stay at home orders, reduction in social cues related to smoking, increased stress, and boredom among other things. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey which looked into these behaviors, primarily perceived risk to COVID-19, and determined if there is an association between perceived risk and education level/race. Education level is a proxy for income and material resources, therefore making it more likely that people with lower levels of education have fewer resources and higher perceived risk to negative effects of COVID-19. Additionally, people of color are often marginalized in the medical community along with being the target of heavy advertising by tobacco companies which have likely impacted risk to COVID-19 as well.

In this formative research project, we seek to better understand the general barriers to refugee access to higher education. Using mixed methods research--which included surveys, interviews, and course data--we evaluate the benefits and challenges experienced by refugee students in Israel who are enrolled in Arizona State University's Education for Humanity programs. In the end, this case study resulted in 24 recommend programmatic changes designed to eliminate the barriers that prevent refugee students from accessing and succeeding in higher education.

In this formative research project, we seek to better understand the general barriers to refugee access to higher education. Using mixed methods research--which included surveys, interviews, and course data--we evaluate the benefits and challenges experienced by refugee students in Israel who are enrolled in Arizona State University's Education for Humanity programs. In the end, this case study resulted in 24 recommend programmatic changes designed to eliminate the barriers that prevent refugee students from accessing and succeeding in higher education.

Salud Empoderada is a bilingual English-Spanish blog with the goals of providing pre-medical advice, exposure to careers in medicine through interviews with leaders in medicine and science, and resources to support and encourage Latino pre-medical college students at Arizona State University. This information is provided in the forms of blog posts and infographics. Salud Empoderada was created as a way to address the lack of representation of Latino medical students enrolled in U.S. medical schools and Latino physicians in the U.S. Therefore, Salud Empoderada targets Latino students in the first stage of their journeys to becoming a doctor, pre-medical students, to help inspire and guide them to pursue their dreams despite the challenges they may face, including struggles with mental health, socioeconomic status, access to Latino mentors in medicine and science, health disparities, gender, DACA status, attacks on affirmative action, and the MCAT exam. Furthermore, Salud Empoderada encompasses my trip with Barrett, The Honors College to Costa Rica to share insight on life in Costa Rica and the Indigenous tribes residing there. Sharing this experience with Latino pre-medical students may provide them further exposure to other cultures, the heterogeneity within Latin America, the importance of cultural competence in medicine and the possibilities that global health and Spanish studies offer to become well-rounded and holistic future physicians.

Our thesis revolved around the Maryvale community and was centered by a Photovoice project that was a Youth Participatory Action Research method. Being a project led by the youth we continued their stories and expanded off of the topics that we discussed in our Photovoice meetings. In our thesis podcast we discussed the expectation and reality of moving to a new country, the colorism our community as well as other communities face, and the health disparities that are present within underrepresented communities. We were able to expand on these topics and tie it back to the conversations we had with each other four years prior to doing our podcast and how little or how much these topics have changed and evolved.