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.

American Sign Language (ASL) is a manual language that communicates through gestures, facial expressions, and body language. In the United States, there are over six million sign language users (Mitchell & Young, 2022). At Arizona State University, there is a limited offering of classes for undergraduate students to take sign language; they can take up to four levels, which is satisfactory for degrees’ foreign language requirements. If students wish to proceed with their ASL education, they must transfer to a different university. The purpose of this study and subsequent research is to propose an ASL minor that can be established at ASU so that students can receive an in-depth education. Survey data was collected with the intention of determining how students felt about ASL and the addition of a potential minor. The survey findings, coupled with the secondary literature review, lead to the conclusion that establishing an American Sign Language minor is in the best interests of both the students and the University.

Service corps and service-focused leadership programs are popular approaches for higher education institutions to prepare their students to become civically engaged future leaders. It is established that integrating diverse students into higher education produces better educational outcomes through active thinking and decision-making as well as introducing students to new perspectives. This study aims to evaluate how effective recruitment practices in Arizona State University’s Next Generation Service Corps (NGSC) are at attracting diverse students. By reviewing the current literature on recruiting diverse candidates, best practices can be established. Data was collected through interviews with NGSC staff on their current recruitment strategies and personal concepts of diversity. Data was also collected from the current students in the program to determine the common channels of recruitment and reasons for their application. There was a misalignment in staff reported recruitment strategy and how students reported finding out about the program. A misalignment in the recruitment strategy and application questions with NGSC staff’s desired traits for applicants was also found. With this in mind, this research provides staff with a full picture of the current state of their recruiting practices and identifies areas for improvement.

Advancing the understanding and treatment of many neurological disorders can be achieved by improving methods of neuronal detection at increased depth in the mammalian brain. Different cell subtypes cannot be detected using non-invasive techniques beyond 1 mm from cortical surface, in the context of targeting particular cell types in vivo (Wang, 2012). These limitations in the depth of imaging and targeting are due to optical scattering (Ntziachristos, 2010). In order to overcome these restrictions, longer wavelength fluorescent proteins have been utilized by researchers to see tagged cells at depth. Optical techniques such as two-photon and confocal microscopy have been used in combination with fluorescent proteins to expand depth, but are still limited by the penetration depth of light due to optical scattering (Lee, 2015). This research aims to build on other detection methods, such as the photoacoustic effect and automated fluorescence-guided electrophysiology, to overcome this limitation.

“Bridging Success: Reviewing Effectiveness and Implementing Additional Programming” focuses on partnering with Arizona State University’s Bridging Success program to evaluate effective program components and propose additional programming for the upcoming Bridging Success Early Start (BSES) program. To effectively evaluate Bridging Success, this thesis is broken down into several sections: methods, literary analysis, landscaping, presentation of results, discussion of results, recommendations, and conclusions to ultimately address our central research questions: How is Bridging Success Early Start valued by previous program members, and does the program contribute to a successful transition to college for students who were formerly in foster care?

While attending UCLA Brain Research Institute, I completed research, studied, and found an interest in Duplication 15q 11.2-13.1 syndrome. I noticed the lack of awareness on both UCLA and ASU campuses and decided to complete my thesis on raising awareness of this syndrome specifically on the downtown Phoenix campus. Multiple surveys including in-person interviews were conducted that totaled around 50 participants. Participants in the surveys included pre-medical students at ASU downtown and an ASU mission team for disabilities and empowerment. Data collected from surveys led to the creation of an online research hub that can give a person access to all things Dup15q with one click. This type of awareness is important as misdiagnosis of rare genetic disorders is a leading cause of infant mortality.

Descendants of Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees have been impacted by intergenerational trauma as a result of their parent’s trauma from being refugees from the Vietnam War, Secret War, and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and 1980s. There are limited studies evaluating the impacts of intergenerational trauma on adult descendants in Southeast Asian (SEA) refugee families. To address this research gap, a quantitative survey was conducted with adult descendants who are 18 years old or older to examine if intergenerational trauma is associated with depressive symptoms among adult Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian Americans whose parents came to the United States as refugees. To recruit participants, both purposive and snowball sampling was used. A total of 66 participants responded to the online survey. The survey consisted of multiple measures that analyzed the relationship between intergenerational trauma and depressive symptoms, including perceived parental trauma, intergenerational/intercultural conflict, acculturation, social support, and demographic characteristics. Statistical analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation analysis. Results indicated that intergenerational trauma was not associated with depressive symptoms. However, depressive symptoms were associated with intergenerational/intercultural conflict (r = 0.421, p < .01) and social support (r = -0.383, p < .01). It is possible that acculturation differences between descendants and parents are connected to intergenerational/intercultural conflict and depressive symptoms while social support allows the descendants to feel connected with others, which can reduce depressive symptoms. Culturally adapted family interventions, education, culturally sensitive therapy, and community spaces are possible solutions to addressing depressive symptoms among SEA adult descendants.