Tajan Braithwaite
Wesleyan University
Major: Biology

Mentor: Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD
Professor of Public Health Practice

Associate Dean for Faculty Development
Department of Health Policy and Management

Project: "Comparison of Incarceration Rates between Roxbury, MA and Gadsden County, FL"

I chose to do this program because I had a definite interest in Public Health, but I really was unaware of the range of possibilities within the field. Although, my interests lie in International Health and Health Policy. I was curious to learn more about Biostatistics. This was something that I felt was overlooked in my Biology major as an undergrad. We read papers without having a real knowledge of how to crtique papers based on statistics.

The program has been an exciting and wonderful experience. The conference that we had on racial disparities in health care was most interesting as well as the special lecture from Dr. Byrd and Dr. Clayton. My eyes have been opened to the stark urgency of a human rights predicament that I knew existed, but now understand in more detail. It has been wonderful to hear about the research from top researchers in the country. Suprisingly they have been very welcoming and understanding of our "undergraduateness" and their enthusiasm and excitement about what they do and the field is inspiring and encouraging for me as a prospective student in the field.

We have researched in collaboration with Dr. Prothrow-Stith and Dr. Gibbs with Project CHOICE. We have researched the occurrence of diabetes, HIV in the communities of Roxbury, MA and Gadsden County, FL. We also looked at the the incarceration and arrest rates of these African-American communities. The information that we gathered could be the springboard for other grant proposals for community-based research to be done in these places, that are in urgent need.

I would like to pursue an MPH with a concentration in International Health or an MS. I am not sure at all of what exactly I would like to do. But, I would like to be involved with work in International Health Organizations in the sphere of International Health Policy, or community relief interventions strategies.

Felicia Browne
Davidson College
Major: Psychology

Project: "Comparison of HIV Prevalence between Roxbury, MA and Gadsden County, FL"

I chose this program to learn more about the field of biostatistics, in addition to exploring other fields of public health, such as epidemiology and international health. This program has be an intense, but rewarding experience. These four weeks have been essential for me, particularly as I begin applying to graduate school. Not only have I gained a better sense of my future career plans, but I have also had the opportunity to learn about the graduate school admissions process and take practice GREs.

I have enjoyed all the components of the program--the lectures, talking with graduate students and faculty, etc. However, the most interesting component of the program was being around other talented, intelligent undergraduate students. We come from such diverse backgrounds and have a wide variety of interests and future plans, but we all were able to bring our strengths and opinions to Biostatistics, class and lectures.

I worked with Dr. Deborah Prothrow Stith, Dr. Brian Gibbs and a doctoral candidate--Melody Goodman. I examined HIV prevalence in two predominately African-American communities--one a rural county in Florida and one a urban neighborhood in Massachusetts. I compared the overall rates of these two places per 100,000 residents, and looked at the rates by factors such as gender and race. The primary purpose of the research was to find out whether there are racial disparities among residents in these two locations, which I found to be the case. In both areas, Blacks had the highest prevalence rate, higher than their representation in the population.

I plan to pursue a career in infectious disease epidemiology. Ultimately, I would like obtain a Ph.D in Epidemiology, and use this to research HIV in East and Southern Africa.

Timothy Cunningham
Morehouse College
Major: Biology

Mentor: Gary Bennett

Project: "Rest-Ethic" Hypothesis

Last summer, I had the opportunity to examine racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and costs among Massachusetts families during an internship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. It was during that time that I narrowed my public health interest to social epidemiology.

This summer provided me with a jumpstart to my graduate studies. I just graduated from Morehouse College as with a major in biology and minor in the public health sciences. This fall, I will begin a masters’ degree in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. Also, the program was ideal in that it allowed me to establish relationships with the faculty within my department that will hopefully continue over my course of study. In addition, I was exposed to the work of the other departments within the school and enhance my quantitative skills through the biostatistics course.

Furthermore, I had to opportunity to assist Dr. Gary Bennett, Assistant Professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health and Center for Community-Based Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the development of the “rest-ethic” hypothesis, which we suspect is the contributing factor for disparities in reported patterns of physical activity.

After completion of the masters’ degree at Harvard School of Public Health, I would like to continue on to doctoral study. Ultimately, I plan to pursue a career in research in government or academia.

Project: "Smoking Interventions in Blue Collar Workers"

Aliya Laws
University of Houston
Major: Biology

Project: "Smoking Interventions in Blue Collar Workers"

Although I was a biology major on a pre-med track with almost no prior knowledge of statistics, I had a strong interest in public health. This program offered a complete package: I could gain some of the statistical knowledge I was lacking by taking the introductory biostatistics course, get some research experience doing group projects with a faculty member and graduate student, all while learning about health disparities and other public health issues through the series of lectures and seminars from members of the Harvard faculty.

Of all the things I knew I would gain from the summer program, one thing that took me by surprise was the quality of the friendships I would form during my time here. Being surrounded by students of diverse educational and ethnic backgrounds with whom I could discuss new and exciting ideas was definitely one of the highlights of this program. Still, it is difficult to choose a favorite aspect of this program, as all of it was outstanding. I will say that I benefited most from the lectures that introduced me to biostatistics, epidemiology, and numerous other careers and research topics in public health, and the hands on experience I gained from participating in my research project.

My research project, entitled “Smoking Interventions in Blue Collar Workers,” stems from a pilot study that looked at smoking cessation interventions in trade unions in Boston. The purpose of our study was to evaluate and assess how “blue collar” workers’ participation in a smoking intervention program was associated with smoking tendencies and cessation. As a result of our analyses, we determined that the workers who had an intention to quit smoking in thirty days and those who believed that their smoking bothered other people were more likely to participate in the intervention. These findings are relevant to the original pilot study because they may advise the intervention teams on what groups of people to target for their programs. Since this project was my first experience working with statistical software, it was a little tricky initially, but it proved to be a great learning experience. By the end of our project, I was comfortable with running logistic regressions, navigating STATA, and interpreting statistical output.

Though I do still plan to go to medical school, I now have an even stronger desire to pursue my Masters in Public Health, as this program has shown me that not only is there a great need for more minorities in public health, but also that there are vast opportunities and research possibilities to be explored. The summer program in quantitative sciences has shown me how exciting and dynamic the field of Public health, more specifically biostatistics, truly is.

Project: "Is Racism Bad for Your Health?"

I chose this program because I wanted the opportunity to work with the leading researchers in the world. I was also interested in the program because I would like to pursue my graduate studies at the school of public health in biostatistics so I felt it would be a great way for me to learn the ins and outs of the program. Lastly because the program is so short this allows me to be able to spend part of my summer working on other projects and preparation for graduate school.

There have been many wonderful aspects of the program but a few that really stick out are; first the dedication, hard work, and care that the program coordinator has put into each and everyone of the participants, second the amount of access that we have had to world-renowned professors, third the willingness of the graduate students to assist us in any way possible, and fourth the opportunity to see how in real world practice the research that is done here is making much needed progress in society as a whole, and finally the diverse and well thought out topics that are addressed in our daily lives here.

The title of my project is:"Is racism bad for your health?". I along with Dr. Gary Bennett and graduate student Binta Beard have been taking an in-depth look at how one's response when faced with racism affects cardiovascular activity. We have found that there is a positive relationship with how actively one responds to a perceived racist scenario and cardiovascular disease. The part of the data that we are addressing has not been studied before thus it is very exciting to not only have significant results but to also find something that may be ground-breaking is one of the most exciting feelings a young researcher could have.

I definitely plan to pursue a PhD in biostatistics and hopefully at this institution.

Pavla Senkyrikova
University of Arizona
Major: Mathematics/ Biochemistry

I have spent my summers working in labs, but that has not helped me explore my diverse interests. When I looked into the description of this program I was immediately attracted to the possibility of learning more about how one could combine mathematics and science. There is no public health program at my University that I know of, and I knew little of what biostatistics was, but it held promise and I knew I could not pass it up.

The program has given me an excellent fast-paced course in biostatistics and the lectures introduced me to latest and groudbreaking research being performed by the top leaders in the field--from getting the epidemiology rundown of the SARS breakout to learning about the research in the Woburn Case that the movie "A Civil Action" was based on from the very biostatistician who was responsible for the study. Although I learned much from all the various lectures, these two will definitely stay with me. This program gave a nice balance between intense work with relatively free weekends to explore the beautiful city of Boston.

The research project required all new learning and fine tuning of already learned knowledge. We looked at lnPC20, which is a measurement of lung capacity in asthmatic children and over 900 genetic markers to see whether any had a significant association with low lung capacity measurements typical in children with asthma. At the same time, we looked to see whether an imputed calculation of our test statistic had any greater power than just the test statistic by itself. This took into account missing data (perhaps because the child was too sick to take the measurement) We found several candidate genes that had a p-value of less than .001, something we learned in biostatistics as being VERY good.

Upon finishing my undergraduate studies, I plan on pursuing either a graduate degree or a medical one, depending on exactly how I wish to balance my mathematics and science interests. I am very grateful for this program for showing me that it can be done.

Courtney Simmons
North Carolina State
Major: Biology

Mentor: Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD
Professor of Public Health Practice

Associate Dean for Faculty Development
Department of Health Policy and Management

Project: "Comparison of Diabetes Prevalence between Roxbury, MA and Gadsden County, FL"

The title of my research project was an Examination of Health Related Issues in Florida and Massachusetts. The objective of our project was to take a look at three tough public health issues that negatively affect the African American communities of Roxbury, Massachusets and Gadsden County, Florida. The three issues that we examined were HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and incarceration rates. These issues are of great importance because of the increasing incidence of diabetes and HIV/AIDS within the African American community. Also along the same accord the disparity within the incarceration system in these same communities is on the rise. In order to address these issues, we used data from the Massachusets and Florida department of health and BRFSS surveys(2002). Unfortunately in the process of my research, it became very clear that there is a huge gap in the data available in the neighborhood of Roxbury and on miniority groups; specifically Asian and Hispanic populations.

Therefore we had to use percentages for the city of Boston instead of the neighborhood of Roxbury. With the incomplete data sets in place, there were no regressions put into place. We simply utilized graphical measures to look at the data and overall trends. From this project, I learned a lot about community based research. I also learned how to use Stata. In conclusion, we found that more research in minority areas needs to be done and that Gadsden County has a high prevalence rate of diabetes in comparison to the state of Florida. It was a great experience overall and I am defintely interested in pursuing health disparities research issues in the future.

Minh-thien Vu
University of California - Berkeley
Major: Applied Math

Project: "Smoking Interventions in Blue Collar Workers"

As an applied math major, I always want to see how math is applied in other field. I was very excited about public health after taking an introductory biostatistics course. Public health, then, became one of my considerations for graduate school. I chose this program to get to know more about public health and to learn more about my interest.

This was a four-week intensive program which incorporated short introductory course in biostatistics, a research project and several epidemiology lectures. Our daily schedule was mostly tied, but I have not been bored. We had many chances to listen to "hot" topics in public health such as Health Disparities and Population Health, Immigrants and Health etc. I didn't know that professors at Harvard school of Public Health do research in it. I also didn't know about the existence of disparity. This was great experience. In addition to epidemiology lectures, we also attended introductory biostatistics class every morning. It was practical. Dr Andres Houseman summarized all basics and useful biostatistical concepts without going too much into theoretical concepts. By using his concise lecture, I was able to go start my research project. The next exciting thing was able to meet famous statistician in the country as Dr. Wei. I feel very honored to be able to see and hear him live.

Along with exciting lectures in epidemiology and biostatistics, we also participated in a research project with Dr. Yi Li, our mentor and Patricia Calderon, a graduate student. Our project was about smoking intervention in "Blue Collar" Workers. In this pilot study, we would like to evaluate and assess how "blue collar" workers' participation in an intervention program was associated with smoking tendencies and cessation. This was very important because it might provide strong information for how to advertise the intervention in labor unions in future studies. To analyze the data, we used logistics regression. We also used log likelihood ratio test, goodness of fit test, and roc curve to see how well our model fitted the data and explained the data. According to our stata results, we found that smoking intervention program should target those with intention to quit smoking in the near future and smokers who feel their habit bothers others.

Before coming to this program, I always want to do some research about Vietnam in order to improve Vietnamese living condition. One of my ways had been researching in financial investment. After this program, I thought that improving people health is one of the way. I felt that this program was an open door for me to the future. It incorporated well my math skills and my passion in doing research in Vietnam. Before going out there and start my own research, I would prepare myself by going to graduate school in public health. I have been appreciating Harvard school of Public Health for creating this program, for accepting me. It would be very sad to say goodbye to our friends and the school. I however, wish my wonderful friends in the program the best and hope that we can work in the same field in the near future.

Jennifer Williams
Florida A & M University
Major: Sociology

Mentor: Christoph Lange, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biostatistics

Project: "Gene-Mapping in the Childhood Asthma Management Program"

I chose this program because it would give me a chance to be exposed to biostatistics and other areas in public health. I always knew that public health is what I wanted to do, I just didn't know what area.

The Program has been fun and rewarding. Being a older student I didn't know if I would fit in with the other students, but I have just found a wealth of new friends and knowledge in this program. I really loved the lectures given by all of the professors on different topics in public health.

For our project, my fellow student and I analyzed the Childhood Asthmatic Management Program (CAMP) set data for lnPC20 genes in asthmatic children. The most exciting thing about working on this project is that we learned about Genetic Epidemiology and how the science is being used to help children that suffer with asthma. Working with Christoph (our faculty mentor) and Amy (our graduate Mentor)has just been wonderful.

After attending this program I have figured out what area I want to continue my career in. In the fall I will be attending graduate school at FAMU in the school of public health. The area of the MPH program that I am most interested in is International Health.

Melony Williams
Rutgers
Major: Economics/Public Health

Mentor: Stephanie Smith-Warner
Assistant Professor
Department of Epidemiology

Project: "Is Alcohol Consumption correlated with Renal Cell Cancer?"

I chose this program because I wanted to define what area of public health I was interested in: Biostatistics, Epidemiology, or community based research. I found the lectures given by the Harvard professors were multifaceted and informative. The discussion groups with faculty and students were very interesting and helpful when deciding what program I wanted to pursue. This program offered a variety of topics and backgrounds that gave me a clearer perspective of what it would be like to do research in academia. I found it helpful that this program allowed us to personally interact with some of the top leaders in public health research of our time. I particularly enjoyed working with my mentor and graduate student one on one. This program has given me advance skills that set me apart for graduate school. I plan on attending graduate school in pursuit of a doctoral degree. More specifically, I would like my research to focus on health disparities and disease epidemiology. In the future, I would like my research to be used for health interventions and policy implications.

While working with Dr. Stephanie Smith-Warner (Dept. of Nutrition and Epidemiology) and doctoral student Jung Eun Lee on a Health Professional Follow-up Study, I examined the association between alcohol intake and renal cell cancer. Our hypothesis was that an increase in alcohol intake will lead to an increase in the risk for renal cell cancer. The Health Professional Follow-Up Study is a prospective cohort study that follows the dietary intake and medical conditions of male health professionals (N=51529) longitudinally from 1986 to 2000. Using a variety of statistical methods in SAS and STATA, we performed ANOVA and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Our main exposure variables included alcohol intake, hypertension, age, BMI, and smoking. Our results showed that an increase in alcohol consumption does not substantially increase the risk for renal cell cancer.

Gary Yu
University of California-Berkeley
Major: Bioengineering

Mentor: Stephanie Smith-Warner
Assistant Professor
Department of Epidemiology

Project: "Is Alcohol Consumption correlated with Renal Cell Cancer?"

I chose the summer program because I felt like it would give me a good introduction to the fields of public health. Having previously worked in a research laboratory, I realized that some of the questions that I was interested in were not being specifically addressed in biomedical research. I became interested in the greater social and political factors that go into why ethnic and racial inequities exist in research and in health.

Through this program I was exposed to fields of epidemiology, biostatistics, and community based participatory research. We also mingled with faculty members who supported our ambitions and encouraged us to further develop our skill sets to tackle racial and ethnic health disparities. I now realize the power of a public health degree and I plan on pusing a doctorate in epidemiology/biostatistics.

Currently, Vietnamese American women have the highest rates of developing cervical cancer in the US. Vietnamese American women are five times more likely than white woman to develop cervial cancer. I hope to explore the possible risk factors that contribute to this alarming trend. Possible risk factors might be the level of PAP smear testing and insurance rates in the community. With my degree, I will promote culturally sensitive research on minority populations in this country.

While working with Dr. Stephanie Smith-Warner (Dept. of Nutrition and Epidemiology) and doctoral student Jung Eun Lee on a Health Professional Follow-up Study, I examined the association between alcohol intake and renal cell cancer. Our hypothesis was that an increase in alcohol intake will lead to an increase in the risk for renal cell cancer. The Health Professional Follow-Up Study is a prospective cohort study that follows the dietary intake and medical conditions of male health professionals (N=51529) longitudinally from 1986 to 2000. Using a variety of statistical methods in SAS and STATA, we performed ANOVA and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Our main exposure variables included alcohol intake, hypertension, age, BMI, and smoking. Our results showed that an increase in alcohol consumption does not substantially increase the risk for renal cell cancer.