In this life, I am an advocate that's eager to break down the barriers that keep us isolated from each other. I found this role when I interviewed my grandmother about her experience as survivor of forced sterilization in 1970s Los Angeles for a school project. In 2022, the State of California created the Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program which sought to rectify this historical harm, though nothing can replace taking away a sovereign right to create a family because of your nationality. Years after I was assaulted, I became a California licensed sexual assault counselor (2017) supporting crisis counseling on the the 24-hour hotline and supporting Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs), which provide support to survivors throughout the police interview, forensic medical exam, and provide linkages to supportive services after discharge. Over the course of years, I saw how systems consistently failed survivors - and I felt drawn to dig deeper. I applied and was admitted to New York University's School of Global Public Health for a Doctorate in Public Health program - this program will support my leadership development, research capacity, and ability to scale intervention and prevention programs at a city, state, or federal level. My future career aims to improve population health outcomes through effective and sustainable programs and services. I aim to create a world in which survivors are not alone, and create systems change that challenges the current one-size-fit-model of health services delivery. There is a growing need for mental health services across the nation - addressing the mental health workforce is greater than service providers, therapists, and counselors. They are also your doulas, your victim advocates, your interdisciplinary researchers, and public health students. Working at the intersections of mental and public health reinforces a collectivist framework to address our current mental health crises - we must find strength in community and each other.

Mental illness has touched many parts of my life, from my own struggles with anxiety, depression, obsessive nail biting and picking, and eating disorder throughout my teens and early 20s, to the ripple effects of my close friends and family members. I have had the misfortune of having two people in my life commit suicide within 2 years of each other - my best friend from college, and my uncle, which is why I wear my semi-colon tattoo proudly, to demonstrate to others and myself that I continue to choose my journey over ending it. So much of what I experienced as a teenager into adulthood was marked by isolation, a difficulty connecting with others, and a severe sense of not belonging - through this, I found my place in mental public health research. I have supported youth interventions that targeted suicide, depression, and anxiety for urban American Indian/Alaska Native youth in the Bay Area through culture, and found my calling through research and being an extension of support for youth struggling with the same struggles I had and continue to have. Being able to build community, support youth as a big sister/auntie, doubling as a researcher, enabled me to connect some of my hardest struggles with the outcome of the research, identifying ways to strengthen the intervention year after year. Study outcomes indicated that participating in the intervention was associated with increased connection to (or strengthening of) Native culture. Youth with one or more prior intervention experience had significant increases in Hope (23%) and Spirituality (40%) with higher scores on indicators of mental health and well-being. From there, I transitioned to researching and developing kinship support programs for postpartum mothers battling postpartum depression, interviewing doulas, midwives, and pregnancy care professionals across the nation to develop best practices in medical settings that support women into their transition as mothers. Most recently, I am part of another research project that aims to support migrant and Native American populations in accessing culturally-responsive mental health care, through the support of cultural groups, traditional medicine, and in care that is provided in multiple languages. In the back of my mind, when I'm working with communities that reflect those that I come from, I think back to my best friend Jaxon and my uncle Samuel. In their short time on earth-side, were able to give so much love to those around them, and have ignited my sense of purpose to make communities and families around me more connected to themselves and each other. My own battles with my mental health and illness is not linear; but I choose my journey every day with its imperfections knowing that my role in this life is to help others choose themselves and this hard, and maybe messy, journey called life that we have together. In furthering my studies, I aim to use my Doctorate degree to globalize my impact and reach communities near and far to help bridge our collective human experiences into collective action. If I am chosen to receive the Elizabeth Schalk Memorial Scholarship, I aim to utilize this award to support tuition costs associated with my Spring 2025 semester.

Mental health has always been a barrier to my academic journey - from panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and grief/loss, the road towards stabilizing my mental health and pursuing my life's calling has been a tightrope. As the years have progressed, I have found my home in my spirituality. During my Masters degree, I got my first big-girl job at the Native American Health Center serving as a coordinator for a mental health research study that bridged culture as a method of prevention against suicidality, anxiety, and depression for urban American Indian youth. My summers consisted of participating as a research staff on multiple 4-day interventions in remote locations across the state of California, tracking the fidelity to the intervention, taking process notes, and at times, working with the youth directly in leading groups and other activities. We started every day with an opening prayer, thanking the land we are on, burning medicine, and sitting in gratitude for all the world and land provide for us. We held letting go ceremonies, where we maintained the sacred fire to release all that weighed on us. From there, I found mentors, elders, and aunties in community that that recognized my ambition and commitment to community, pushing me to pursue higher education. The American Indian community was so accustomed to having people come in and conduct research studies that replicated and reinforced harmful stereotypes, turning community members away from research being used as a important tool for advocacy and storytelling. As a descendent of Mexican Indigenous communities, I found my home in spirituality and felt my alignment in this work towards healing, health, and spirituality to be a "returning home" moment for me. My work as a mental health researcher turned towards advocacy, and I underwent training to become a California State Certified Sexual Assault Counselor through Bay Area Women Against Rape, a 66-hour training and yearly accompaniments of in-service units to maintain my certification. For years, I worked on the crisis hotline and served on the Sexual Assault Response Teams to meet survivors at hospitals and walk them through forensic testing and linkages to community support services. For someone like me, who has always experienced mental health challenges, I turned towards education and hands-on-training to understand how to navigate through crises. Through helping others, I was able to help myself. So many of my behaviors that affected my mental health over the years were reflected in my social and emotional disjointedness - with limited opportunities to bring healing to myself while balancing full-time schoolwork, I found solace through my work and community commitments. As I venture into my Doctor in Public Health (DrPH) program at New York University, the learnings I take are to namely, honor my trauma and the nonlinearity of healing, find strength in myself and community, ground myself in my spirituality, and practice self-compassion where ever possible. To help me regulate, I have turned into an avid runner and practice meditation at the local meditation center. For me to be successful in becoming a Doctor in Public Health, my mental health needs to remain a priority.

Growing up in a low-income household with a single parent shaped my resilience and commitment to addressing health disparities. My father’s struggles to access glaucoma medication highlighted the systemic barriers marginalized communities face. Witnessing his vision deteriorate due to these obstacles ignited my passion for public health. As I delved deeper into the field, I uncovered painful truths within my family history, including the forced sterilization of my grandmother in 1970s Los Angeles—an experience reflecting the historical injustices and systemic inequities that have long plagued low-income, disenfranchised migrant communities. These experiences instilled in me a determination to dismantle structural barriers that perpetuate health inequities. My pursuit of a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) represents both a professional and deeply personal mission to transform adversity into advocacy. My path to public health has been shaped by curiosity and a commitment to care—whether serving as a California State Certified Sexual Assault Counselor or training as an Indigenous Full-Spectrum Doula under Zaagi’idiwin. The drive to make a positive impact on my community, both locally and globally, stems from the sacrifices my family had to endure—and the ones they should never have had to face. I am actively working towards my goals, working part-time and going to school part-time. I plan to enroll full-time this upcoming Spring semester. Currently, I am a Senior Research Associate with Clarity Social Research Group supporting evaluation of California county-level data on essential departments and programs, like early childhood education, school readiness, and climate resilience. Through the DrPH program, I aim to build my technical expertise to maximize my public health impact on a wider scale. If chosen for the Lotus Scholarship award, I plan to utilize the funds to support course materials for my upcoming Epidemiology course starting in January 2025.

My name is Karina Bañuelos, and I am a proud Chicana who, for over the past eight years, have dedicated my career to working with cross-site, community-based participatory research projects across California and rural, tribal communities nationwide. My journey began with the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de Los Pueblos Indígenas (CDI) - the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples - where I engaged in policy work, sustainable development, and advocacy for the rights of Mexico's Indigenous peoples. As part of this work, I sought to understand the contexts that perpetuate systemic poverty, gentrification, and homelessness of the Indigenous Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, and how that impacted Indigenous financial self-determination. My origins in this work have continued to my present day, where I support strategic housing, climate justice, economic development, and continuum of care initiatives throughout San Francisco for urban American Indians and Alaska Natives. I serve as the Village SF Co-Lead for The Village SF Initiative, anchored within the Friendship House Association of American Indians, a longstanding Indigenous-run social services agency that aims to ensure community health equity from the grassroots to the city level. In our holistic worldview, the wellness of the people is connected to the wellness of the land - therefore, people cannot start to be well if they don't have access to safe and affordable housing. Therefore, the Village initiative is an important starting point to analyze how structural determinants of health affect and perpetuate systemic health disparities. As part of the SF Planning Community Equity Division’s inaugural Community Engagement Fellowship, I collaborate with the American Indian Community Liaison to develop policies and programs that invest in the City’s housing inventory, identify cultural preservation sites, and create economic development opportunities. My role aligns San Francisco's housing and climate goals with the needs of the American Indian community, ensuring that the Village SF implements environmentally conscious policies and programs. My passion for urban planning and economics is deeply rooted in my commitment to creating equitable and sustainable urban environments. The work I do is driven by the understanding that colonization has left a lasting soul wound on Indigenous peoples, one that requires a holistic response. Through the Village SF Initiative, we are addressing this wound by realizing healthier urban environments through sustainable design and intentional continuum of care funding. My experience in conducting culturally competent research, particularly with communities of color, has been honed through engagements with diverse communities and stakeholders. From focus groups and interviews to town halls, I have used data to develop actionable policy recommendations, particularly in the area of housing affordability in the Mission District. My commitment to fostering supportive, power-building relationships within team contexts, coupled with my ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines, has allowed me to advance social impact research campaigns effectively. Through my time at Friendship House, I have raised $5,000,000 to support the building of a behavioral health bridge program that will fund supportive housing units for graduates of our substance use program, providing additional time and space for recovery. Despite my continued efforts to ameliorate the systemic failures through my unrelenting work ethic, my journey to self-fund my higher education without debt has taken a back seat. I hope that through my achievements in the field and through academic, I can maximize my leverage to support holistic approaches to urban innovations that utilize public health and urban design as the modality to address homelessness, the increasing loneliness epidemic, and other structural determinants.

My name is Karina Bañuelos - I am a first generation, queer, Mexican American, public health practitioner-scientist. For the past 7 years of my professional life, I've held titles that cover the breadth of art and science; a disk jockey for my local community radio station, a nominated delegation member to organize speakers as part of a Latina/o arts literary festival, a project director for a cultural intervention program targeting suicidality and depression in urban Native American youth, and a research consultant with a medical university - all uniquely weaving together ways to maximize impact through health, culture, arts and science. What interests me most about STEAM is how art, in particular, is scientific and science is art. Throughout my work and education, I've been long told that the two cannot exist together - artists approach their work through interdisciplinary mediums, portrayed in ways that move people towards a common mission, goal, dream, or vision. Much like science, which is a traditional practice, under rigid schools of thought to ensure fidelity to the field, findings, and research. Where arts and science intersect is a home I've found through the avenue of Public Health. Public Health is defined as the science of protecting and improving the health of populations. Through working with Latine and Native American organizations, I've been able utilize art as the axis that makes science translatable and approachable, making Public Health an important bridge that connects the larger STEAM fields. A Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) is the highest professional degree for public health practitioners - providing me the ability to ground my learnings through an artistic and scientific medium that promotes health and wellness for all communities. I descend from a Mexican immigrant woman who was forcibly sterilized in 1970's Los Angeles as part of the now redacted Sterilization Recommendation of 1926. A 2021 study conducted by Exelencia in Education found that 1% of Latinas hold doctorate degrees -- my acceptance and completion of this doctorate degree will lead to increased representation of historically excluded individuals in the health sciences. In part of honoring the legacy of the struggles of those before me, righting the wrongs of oppressive reproductive health policy, and currently working as a researcher in the maternal and child health space, and writing publications on positive pregnancy care outcomes and social support programs, I aim to stand on the shoulders of those who came before me and trudge forward a path for equitable, public health intervention development and respected community-engaged work. I aim to work for the city department of public health at home and directly contribute to policy changes, research, and program expansion to promote the health and wellness of all - public health is my understanding of "it takes a village" come true.

Public service is working for the public good. What drives and inspires my passion for public good is inspired by a simple ideology: Leave the world better than you found it. For me, I've found my home in public service across many sectors, including public health research, statewide advocacy for investment into critical mental health services initiatives, leading community engagement activities with the city planning department, and becoming a full-spectrum doula on my spare time. My public service roles have evolved over time, but remain consistent in the goal to amplify community voices, restore trust in systems and spaces, and collectively work to make systems, amenities, or health and safety measures accessible to everyone. I am proud of the accomplishments that I have achieved as a public service professional - and with my interdisciplinary background, I struggled with feeling accepted due to my unconventional schooling. Having a Masters set me apart from others, but because I did not have a traditional background in Public Health or Psychology, I was overlooked. Despite many years in the field, serving in multiple capacities, I became determined to demonstrate to all that interdisciplinary researchers are additive to traditional Public Health programs and I was accepted into New York University's Doctorate in Public Health program with a Global Health focus. As a first generation college student, the first in my family to ever have gotten as far as a Doctorate degree, I've become more steadfast than ever to finish with determination and commit to a career of public good. I am working full-time while being part-time enrolled at NYU completing pre-requisites so that I can graduate debt free. I work full-time at a substance use residential treatment facility as a co-director of programs, I contract with the cultural district to synthesize community data for a report that will be legislated, and lead community listening sessions for topics such as housing, tenant protections, climate resilience, wellness, and workforce development. With an investment from the Endeavor Public Service Scholarship, I will be able to pay for my next semester debt free and continue my completion of pre-requisite coursework. My DrPH program will provide me the ability to understand how to measure or properly scale health promotion and disease prevention legislation, interventions, research or programs. Skillsets like biostatistics will allow me to understand health disparities at the neighborhood, city and county levels so I can affirmatively advance life-saving initiatives.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General's report, the U.S. is experiencing increasing loneliness and isolation at rates that are detrimental to the health and well-being of the people. Increased risk for premature death, 29% increased risk of heart disease, 32% increased risk of stroke, and 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults are just some of the statistics highlighted in this 2023 report. Reading this brought me back to the day I learned my friend ended his life, and the day my uncle ended his five years later. As someone who has volunteered as a sexual assault counselor working on the crisis hotline, led mental health research for cultural interventions to support youth battling suicide ideation, anxiety, and depression, and currently lead expanded care initiatives at a residential treatment facility in San Francisco, the largest contribution I can make to increase access and affordability of mental health services is through advocacy and policy. As a current Doctorate in Public Health student at New York University, I plan to drive for larger systems change so people like my friend and my uncle don't fall through the cracks; locating gaps in services to increase methods of social connection and togetherness is the only way we can collectively destigmatize the mental health crisis that is increasing by the day in our country. Evident in the work I've done as a volunteer, employee, student, and a Co-Director, I aim to utilize my DrPH for transformative change in mental health care.

The experiences that have shaped my interest in public health have been profoundly influenced by my own family’s socioeconomic disposition and public health challenges. Growing up, I watched my father ration his glaucoma medication and face barriers in accessing preventative medicine, which has contributed to him losing 40% of his overall vision. Observing his challenges in accessing consistent care, including the financial barriers to obtaining essential medication for his treatment spurred my exploration into the systemic factors underpinning significant health disparities. During my undergraduate studies, I sought to connect how health disparities have affected Latina/o populations in particular, later realizing that my own family’s history of migration included the forced sterilization of my grandmother in the ‘70s. This dark chapter of Los Angeles’ history affected thousands of Mexican migrants, Native American, and incarcerated women. Recognizing these interconnected disparities, I realized that public health serves as a vital intersection for understanding historical injustices and healthcare systems' complexities. My effort to pursue a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) from New York University has been shaped by the resilience and sacrifices of those who preceded me and the desire to ground myself in foundational public health methodology and technical skills into my current practice. In her living memory, I have aligned my research practice with and for birthing people everywhere - and is exemplified by working part-time as a researcher to develop kinship support interventions for mothers facing postpartum depression, understanding what Indigenous mothers want in their care, and how Indigenous birthworkers support and maintain health for their clients -- while working a full-time job for the past three years. I am motivated by a vision to create spaces of dignified and patient-centered care, and have long aligned my practice to reflect that. For the last 7 years, I've worked with and for urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities to make community-based health interventions evidence-based with associated data outcomes in published open-access journals (BMC Public Health 2023; AIANMHR Journal 2020). For me, Public health is the ideology behind collectivism rather than individualism, and is part of my holistic praxis that teach, challenge, and push for new approaches and solutions to collective living and our health. Battling high interest rates, Parent PLUS Loans, and looming future debt through this degree has made me steadfast in my commitment to my education and advancing my mission to develop equitable public health solutions for people everywhere. Through the Charles Cheesmans Student Debt Reduction Scholarship, I aim to reduce the amount of principal balance associated with my Masters degree and offset upcoming payments to NYU to advance my current degree, which is the highest degree within the field of Public Health.

My experience with mental health has deeply impacted and have shaped my goals, changed my relationships, and overall understanding of the world. In 2017, I lost a close friend to suicide, and just recently, lost my uncle to suicide last Spring 2021. As a budding program coordinator in my first big-girl job at a health center, I facilitated research activities to measure a cultural-based intervention that would reduce suicidality, anxiety, and depression amongst urban Native American youth. Seeing how underneath the backbone of culture lies connectivity, belonging, and trust made me view the losses in my life to a larger, societal problem. One that privileges individualism, isolation, and lack of connection. My journey into public health bloomed my ever-expanding curiosity to understand the root to current health equities - topics including the epidemic of loneliness and increased health risk factors due to increased isolation, cultivating spaces of belonging rather than exclusionary spaces, and working towards destigmatizing mental health challenges through intentional education made me want to make a more powerful impact in how people relate to and understand the root of contemporary mental health challenges. I've been profoundly impacted through my losses, and carry a semi-colon tattoo on my left wrist that I received alongside his family members. This impact has helped me to understand the personal and structural challenges that persist that make it difficult for our loved ones to receive non-judgmental care. I hope that through my graduate studies in Public Health, I can build out effective interventions that cultivate belonging in a often disconnected world.

I lost a good friend and an uncle to suicide - with many more in my life either talking about taking their life, discussing why life wasn't worth living, and overall sitting in incomprehensible grief of struggling to maintain. Having lost my friend in 2017 and my uncle in 2022, the endemic of loneliness has become more pervasive and an increasing public health emergency. Through my loss and my work with the Native American Health Center, I sought to understand the protective factors for teens in battling suicidality, depression, and anxiety in urban Native American youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) intervention, we sought to connect urban Native American youth to land through a land and cultural-based healing program that disentangled intergenerational trauma with the support of traditional healers, elders, and other leaders throughout Indian Country. This research study, supported through California's Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) as the California Reducing Disparities Project, sought to make the GONA a evidence-based program, further proving that culture is a social determinant of health for urban Native American youth. As the Project Manager to this research study, we compiled data throughout the state of California to validate this intervention as a potentially reimbursable benefit under drug Medi-Cal. Through this effort, I sought to incorporate mental and public health research praxes to better understand structural determinants of health, or how people relate to their environment -- urban areas, despite being so densely populated, suffer an increasingly large loneliness epidemic - how is it that people relate to their environments, and what structural changes can be made to improve the overall mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health for people throughout all stages of life? As the current Co-Project Director of the Village SF Initiaitve, one of the main fund development projects I've undertaken has been the development of a Wellness Village - a continuum of care model that supports American Indians recovering from substance use disorder with comprehensive behavioral, medical, dental and cultural services. The Village SF Wellness Center has a rooftop garden, transitional housing units, a Women's Lodge for American Indian mothers in treatment with their small children, healthcare services, and an elder's and youth lodge for intergenerational programming. This wellness village, through my Doctorate in Public Health, once built (groundbreaking in 2025 in San Francisco, CA), can be a pilot site for duplication throughout the nation to support Village Centers for collective well-being, a social determinant of health that fosters belonging and potential places of refuge and connection ahead of a dire endemic of social and physical isolation. A receipient of Justice40 dollars allocated through Biden's presidency, the Village SF initiative has garnered traction through our several overlaying initiatives that directly tackle structural determinants of health for urban American Indians -- including a community garden for land-based healing for residents recovering from substance use disorder (through the host organization, Friendship House Association of American Indians), a comprehensive housing initiative that addresses interim, transitional, and permanent supportive housing, and the development of a Green Cultural Zone for urban greening and reforestation. As someone who has been personally impacted by suicide and mental health challenges, working in public and mental health feels like the best way to honor their lives - that through creating safe spaces to foster connection, love, and communal power, we can develop systems that allow all folks to feel cared for in a Village. Through these models, we aim to directly measure our successes (and areas of improvement) to make lasting change for generations to come, as changes to our environment loom ahead of us.