Social Welfare Baccalauareate Student awarded Amgen Scholarship

This summer I was given the opportunity to work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as an Amgen scholar. I worked in the Biostatistics Branch in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). As an Amgen scholar, I was also able to attend round table discussions on health disparities with experts in a variety of fields and develop a mock policy brief on a health disparities topic of my choice. The highlights of my experience would be participating in Poster Day where I was able to present my summer research and participate in the round table discussions that detailed some of the many different health disparities that exist and some of the creative means that researchers have come up with to combat them.

Many of the skills I have developed by working at the NIH will help me in my future as a social worker. There are “hard” skills that I have learned, like how to present my research, how to write a policy brief, and how to analyze quantitative data. There are also “soft” skills that I first developed in the SSW and continued working on at the NIH, such as how important it is to bring a social justice perspective to every project and to consider the implications of your research, program, or treatment for those involved. Currently, it is my goal to work in the health care field as a social worker. The NIH has given me more experience in learning about health and health disparities and the School of Social Welfare will continue helping me to develop as a social worker.