Students featured in this section are graduating seniors in our first cohort of Advanced LEAP Scholars. Read below to learn more about Bryana, Gurashish and Julia's experiences!
Images created by Grace Rajan, MCAH LEAP Peer Ambassador 2022-23
Bryana Sanchez Castillo
Major: Public Health
For her summer internship, Bryana worked at The Wallace Center for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health under the guidance of Executive Director Lindsay Parham to assist with a new research initiative on innovation in postpartum healthcare. In order to fully assist Dr. Parham, Bryana did a lot of background research related to the unmet needs of birthing parents in the postpartum period. This was her first experience with research in the MCAH field, and while daunting at first, she is confident she gained a lot of insight. She believes this learning process was so much more exciting due to how welcoming Dr. Parham was and how that kindness helped her grow and feel more confident in her role as a research assistant. In fact, Bryana believes that the opportunity to create and maintain a professional relationship with Dr. Parham was the most valuable aspect of her summer internship.
It is this relationship that has granted her the opportunity to extend this role even past the summer and turn it into her research fellowship as well. According to Bryana, the difference between then and now is how she and Dr. Parham have grown into a team unit. While they are still working on the details and components of their research, they have come a long way since the summer. The process of learning and growing with her team has been a highlight for Bryana, and she is grateful for the space and opportunity to grow and learn from professionals in a field that she wants to pursue. It is a memorable experience she never thought she could receive in her undergraduate career, and it has helped her build confidence in her skills.
“Before joining LEAP, I was so unsure about what path I wanted to pursue in Public Health. I switched to Public Health from a biology and pre-med track, so I didn’t know what opportunities existed, and I didn’t feel confident in my skills. LEAP provided me with a welcoming space to grow and learn. Being in LEAP was the first time since I started at Cal that I felt part of a community. It was also the first time I felt like I was capable of pursuing a career in women’s and/or reproductive health. LEAP will have a lasting impact on my professional journey."
Bryana is grateful for LEAP and how it provided her with a welcoming space to grow and learn. She explains that, before joining LEAP, she was unsure about what path she wanted to pursue in Public Health as she had recently switched to the public health field from her originally intended biology and pre-med track. She did not know what opportunities existed and did not feel confident in her skillset, but LEAP has helped her overcome that. She fondly states that being in LEAP was the first time she felt part of a community since she first started attending UC Berkeley. It was also the first time Bryana felt capable of pursuing a career in women’s and reproductive health. She is sure LEAP will have a lasting impact on her professional journey.
Gurashish Khangura
Major: Public Health
Gurashish is the proud daughter of Punjabi Sikh immigrants, which inspired her to be involved with the Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative (BPSHI) since her freshman year. BPSHI is a service-based organization that holds monthly health clinics at local Sikh temples in the Bay Area that provides physician consultations, health education, and screening for blood-related diseases. Through her work at BPSHI, Gurashish has witnessed firsthand the barriers to health within her own Punjabi Sikh community, such as language barriers and difficulty navigating insurance, and this encouraged her to pursue public health and learn more about the social determinants of health and what we can do to address them.
Additionally, she is also completing the Asian American Community Health Certificate through the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies department by doing field-study research about SF Chinese Hospital, which is a non-profit hospital that delivers affordable and culturally competent care to its patients. This experience has also educated her on practical examples of ways culturally responsive care can be delivered and public health practices can be successfully implemented into medicine.
“Through my involvement in the program and the many opportunities it has provided for me, I have become so much more passionate about the field and confident about my decision to pursue a career within MCAH. I also have grown much more knowledgeable about MCAH, which encourages me to further grow and expand in the field.”
Through her involvement in LEAP, Gurashish interned with Birth By Us, where she read through scientific literature and synthesized findings to create culturally competent resources. She also completed her research fellowship through URAP under Dr. Susana Matias, where they looked at the effects COVID-19-related policy changes had on the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Both of these experiences have led her to strengthen her research skills and reaffirm her passion for MCAH.
Before becoming a LEAP Scholar, Gurashish was not fully confident that MCAH was the field she wanted to pursue since she did not have a strong formal background in MCAH. However, LEAP provided her the opportunities and resources to learn and grow her passion for the field. She has become so much more passionate about the field and confident about her decision to pursue a career within MCAH. She has also grown much more knowledgeable about MCAH, encouraging her to further grow and expand in the field. The introductory course, her research fellowship, and her summer internship also helped show her ways that the scholars could use and implement the knowledge they gained from LEAP. Gurashish states that she is incredibly grateful to LEAP for all the opportunities it has provided her and how she has developed her passion for the MCAH field.
Julia Piccirillo-Stosser
Majors: Public Health and Molecular Environmental Biology
Before becoming a LEAP Scholar, Julia was not certain about her interests in MCAH or even Public Health. She was raised in a blended Brazilian-American household where she heard many stories from her father and grandmother about the medical care in Brazil and how lucky she was to have the healthcare she did in the United States. As she grew up, Julia realized her friends and peers were not always as lucky as she was, and everyone did not have equal access to quality and affordable healthcare. She knew she wanted to be a doctor and that women's health interested her, but it was LEAP that allowed her to learn about so many different parts of MCAH and find where she saw herself fitting in.
Julia has found her LEAP experience amazing and is so grateful for the support of the rest of the LEAP cohort, the graduate mentors, the faculty, and the program managers. The foundational Introduction to MCAH course was her favorite class she took during her four years as an undergraduate, and the content confirmed that she could spend the rest of her life learning and working in MCAH. She also appreciates the other scholars she has gotten to know and cannot wait to see everything they accomplish in the future.
“LEAP has been such an amazing experience, particularly the support of the rest of the LEAP cohort, the graduate mentors, Tina, and Julie. The introduction course taught by Julie and Cassie was the favorite class I took during my four years in Berkeley and the content confirmed that I could spend the rest of my life learning and working in MCAH. Our LEAP cohort has been so great to get to know and I can't wait to see everything they accomplish in the future.”
In fact, Julia is even writing a research thesis through the Rausser College of Natural Resources that combines aspects of both environmental and maternal, child, and adolescent health. Her thesis is titled “Utilizing CalEnviroScreen to Evaluate Risk for Long Term Poor Health Outcomes in California Children from Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure” and focuses on the connections between prenatal air pollution exposure and racial and ethnicity disparities in low birth weight prevalence in California women. She has been working on it for the past two years, and the idea for it stemmed from her passion for alleviating maternal health disparities facing Black and Brown women in the United States. Julia has enjoyed working with so many different researchers, professors, and scholars because she was able to learn from so many individuals and gained a ton of support for her work.
Julia also works as the Peer Coordinator Lead for the PATH to Care Center, where she oversees a part of the student staff team, and is a Health Worker Coordinator, where she is a TA. These positions have allowed her to expand her outreach in Berkeley, communicate, educate on important topics, and work and learn with other undergraduates.