Twelve Delta scholars and four faculty members from the Mississippi State University visited Boston from November 6-8, 2023 for the Boston Conference. The Delta Scholars program partner institutions, Harvard Law School and Brandeis University, hosted the scholars and faculty members on the first two days. The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health welcomed the group to our Longwood campus on November 8.
The program started with the welcome remarks from our Senior Associate Dean, Nancy Turnbull and the greeting from the Attorney General’s Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the Healthcare Analyst, Maeva Veillard. This was followed by four presentations from the Delta Scholars.
The scholars also had the opportunity to listen to Harvard Chan’s students about their journey to public health and what motivated them to do so. The panels consisted of Diana Dominguez Albiter (Master of Science Candidate and Winokur Fellow), Rosanna M. Batista (Doctor of Public Health candidate and Winokur Fellow), and Azariah “Azzie” Boyd (Donald Hopkins Predoctoral Scholars). The panel was moderated by Abrania Marrero, PhD (Postdoctoral Research Fellow). The lived experiences and the passion for social justice of the Harvard Chan students resonated with the scholars and inspired many to consider public health as a career.
After the morning sessions, the scholars visited the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine and were given a tour of the facility and the exhibits. Then, the scholars were joined by faculty members and staff from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health for lunch. Lilu Barbosa, Ra’Shaun Nalls, Kim Salas Harris, Erica Knight (Office of Diversity and Inclusion), and Deepali Ravel (Lecturer, Harvard Medical School) shared their experience and the work that they do at Harvard Chan.
Next, we were virtually joined by the Harvard HealthLab Accelerators (H2A) team who were in Brazil. Lumas Helaire, Meg Murphy, Sam Magee, and Leslie Coles explained the mission of the lab and how they could assist the scholars’ project and engage more community partners in future collaborations.
After an exciting and engaging day, the scholars met Kerri Noonan, Director of Admissions who gave valuable insights for application to the programs at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Many hands went up during the Q&A session as many scholars were considering Harvard Chan as one of their options for graduate school!