Congratulations to our two
2020 Beauties in Public Health $1,000 scholarship award recipients
for current undergraduate and graduate students exemplifying leadership, education, and distinction while pursuing a degree in a public health or health-related field
Fehintola Elizabeth Bright-Awonuga, The University of Maryland - Baltimore County
Fehintola Elizabeth Bright-Awonuga is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Health Administration and Public Policy with a concentration in Health Policy and a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies. Fehintola aspires to integrate her double major to impact and aid the community health development of local, national, and global underserved communities. She is a current Fellow for the France Merrick Foundation which has a commitment to service, leadership, and civic engagement on the UMBC campus and in Baltimore City. During the Spring Break of her freshman year, she volunteered for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Medical Global Brigade service opportunity in Panama and visited some local indigenous communities such as Latino, Guno, and Wacaco. During this seven-day medical itinerary, Fehintola led a Children’s Charla (“Talking”) session, created hundreds of care, medicine, and hygiene pouches for the community members, and prepped for the following day by having reflection sessions with her cohort members.
From August 2018 to May 2020, Fehintola served as a Student Ambassador Volunteer for UMBC’s Retriever Essentials Food Access Initiative to tackle food insecurity in the university community. Additionally, she served as a UMBC Democracy, Governance, and Human Rights delegate for the 2020 International Model African Union (IMAU) Conference representing the Republic of Liberia. For the 2021 IMAU Conference, Fehintola will be representing the Republic of Namibia on the Executive Council committee. In both IMAU conferences delegates engaged in rigorous debate, resolution drafting, and action planning. As a 2020 Liberian delegate, on behalf of UMBC and the Embassy of Liberia, Fehintola was awarded the Michelle Tooley Outstanding Delegation Award, the Committee Leadership Award, and a Certificate of Achievement.
This past fall semester, she served as an undergraduate presenter for the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland, College Park and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “African/Black Diaspora Academic and Public Discourse” seminar. She engaged in dialogue and interaction to examine the impact and interplay of nationality, ethnicity, and gender among first-and second-generation African immigrants as well as U.S. native-born African Americans. Currently, Fehintola is a Bilingual Spanish and English Research and Evaluation Intern for the Grameen PrimaCare Promotoras Program. As an intern, Fehintola interacts with Mexican, South American, Senegalese, Togolese, Congolese, Ivorians from Côte d’Ivoire, Djiboutian, and Gambian women and Promotoras in the communities of the Bronx and district three of Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, and North Corona, Queens. Furthermore, she assists with the impact and evaluation of the community health worker program, including conducting literature reviews, developing, adapting, and piloting data collection instruments, and programming data collection instruments.
For at least a year directly after undergrad, Fehintola plans on gaining first-hand international experience through the US-sponsored Fulbright Scholars exchange program to acquire exposure to different communities. After obtaining an undergraduate education and multiple first-hand cultural immersion experiences, Fehintola then plans on obtaining a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Global Health Policy at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. As an MPH student in the Global Health Policy program, Fehintola will be learning how to further her commitment to improving global and national policy outcomes through public health, civic leadership, cross-cultural awareness, counter-terrorism intelligence, and global development.
After this Fehintola will obtain a position with a research and policy government agency that focuses on implementing policy measures related to health development and reformation in Africa and the United States, focusing on the African diaspora, Black identifying communities, and minority populations.
Elizabeth Tapia, The University of Southern California
Elizabeth Rosalia Tapia is a 4th year Health Promotion and Disease Prevention student, as well as an incoming Master of Public Health Candidate at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Throughout her time at USC, she has gained knowledge in public health and epidemiology through taking courses in Environmental Epidemiology, Adolescent Health, Cell Biology and Physiology, the Biological and Behavioral Basis of Disease, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and more. She has gained public health experience through assisting in triage and general medicine at a travel clinic in the Francisco Morazán region of Honduras, understanding the role of uranium mining on cancer and impacts of unsafe water consumption in the Navajo (Diné) Nation in New Mexico, and leading undergraduate students in taking blood pressure and blood sugar of Los Angeles residents and explaining their results and ways to modify behavior for better health outcomes.
On campus, she is involved with various organizations. She is the former President of Kappa Delta Chi Sorority, Inc., a Latina-founded academic and service sorority; is a current Keck Student Ambassador, whose role aims to act as a representative for the health promotion and global health programs at USC, and is the co-executive director of Community Health Involvement Project, an organization aimed at providing basic health screening services for underserved residents of Los Angeles. She also currently works as a research assistant on a study focused on comprehensive evaluation of existing residential treatment, transitional housing, sober living, and detox centers that serve Native Americans in California for the Institute of Prevention Research at USC, and has previously worked as a research assistant for a study focused on, "Reducing the Duration of Untreated Psychosis among Spanish-Speaking Latinos in the San Fernando Valley," for the USC Culture and Mental Health Lab.
Her achievements include aiding in the opening of a community fridge in Chinatown in Downtown Los Angeles to address food insecurity of unhoused individuals under the Community Health Involvement Project, and writing health policy to encourage and explain the health benefits of physical activity in office meetings for the Santa Clara County Employee Wellness Division. She has also received Dean's List honors for the past 6 semesters, and is a current USC Latino Alumni Association Scholar and Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar.
She is very passionate about many aspects of public health, especially the health effects of environmental pollutants and hazards on BIPOC in urban communities, and improving life expectancy and health outcomes for BIPOC mothers and infants through understanding the role of epigenetics and social determinants of health, and using epidemiological and community health interventions. After graduating with her MPH, she hopes to work in the field of public health for a few years before going back for a Doctorate in Public Health. She hopes to work for the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control or similar organization, and ultimately wants to contribute to positive health outcomes in the United States and abroad.