{"id":63310,"date":"2012-07-30T11:16:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T15:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=63310"},"modified":"2012-07-30T15:03:15","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T19:03:15","slug":"hcop-wrap-up-730","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/07\/hcop-wrap-up-730\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Enrichment Programs at the UConn Health Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kamisha<\/a>
UConn graduate Kamisha Byas participated in the Health Disparities Clinical Summer Research Fellowship Program. Her research poster focused on language and health care in the Latino Hartford community. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dozens of students taking part in summer enrichment programs wrapped up their work last week at the UConn Health Center. Poster presentations, a research symposium and final ceremonies marked the culmination of weeks of research and clinical internships for the aspiring physicians, dentists and scientists.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, 20 college students, who participated in the Summer Research Fellowship Program and the Health Disparities Clinical Summer Research Fellowship Program sponsored by the Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs (HCOP)<\/a>, presented their research posters in the Academic Lobby.<\/p>\n

The students, who are part of the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative, interned at various community organizations for six weeks this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important initiative because it helps make the students more aware of health disparities having had the experience of actually contributing to research in this area,\u201d explains Dr. Marja Hurley, director of HCOP.<\/p>\n

Kamisha Byas graduated from UConn last December and spent her internship at Family Life Education in Hartford which largely serves the Latino community. Her research focused on the importance of having interpreters available during clinical appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patients who had interpreters were more confident and comfortable about the entire process,\u201d says Byas. \u201cIt\u2019s a worthwhile investment because they can receive counseling on preventive screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms. Cervical and breast cancer can be prevented. In the long run, interpreter services are less expensive than long-term cancer or end-of-life care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
UConn sophomore John Garcia did an analysis of methadone treatment in Hartford County for his poster presentation. Garcia was one of 20 college students participating in a summer enrichment program sponsored by the Health Career Opportunities Program. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Garcia is a UConn sophomore majoring in allied health sciences. He did his internship at the Hartford Dispensary and his poster presentation focused on an analysis of methadone treatment in Hartford County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much during this summer fellowship program and it\u2019s reaffirmed my desire to pursue a career in medicine,\u201d says Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents have worked very, very hard on these projects,\u201d says Hurley. \u201cSome of the students are interested in the combined MD\/Ph.D. program which I think is very exciting because we want students to think about careers in academic medicine and as physician scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixteen high school students who participated in the High School Student Research Apprentice Program at the Health Center and Central Connecticut State University gave oral presentations and displayed research posters in Keller Auditorium on Friday.<\/p>\n

Also on Friday, HCOP hosted closing ceremonies for the Great Explorations, Jump Start Program, Junior Doctors Academy, Senior Doctors Academy, High School Student Research Apprentice Program, Pre-college Enrichment Program, Medical\/Dental Preparatory Program, Summer Research Fellowship Program, and the Health Disparities Clinical Summer Research Fellowship Program in Keller Auditorium.<\/p>\n

The welcome speakers were Sharon Dalton, vice president of the Aetna Foundation, and Dr. Damian Findlay, a Class of 2006 graduate of the UConn School of Dental Medicine.\u00a0 The keynote speaker was Dr. Mun Choi, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of students wrapped up weeks of hard work by presenting research posters and attending closing ceremonies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":63314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-63310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:58:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63310"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63356,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63310\/revisions\/63356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/63314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63310"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=63310"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=63310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}