TESTIMONIAL
What did you learn from this program?
"In school, I never got to explore outside of the set school curriculum, and through this program, I got to learn of a whole new world involving public health, policy, sociology, and epidemiology. Most importantly, I finally found what I wanted to study in college. For years, I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do, and through program IGNITE, I found that I enjoyed data science".
"I learned the importance of multidisciplinary research and combining skill sets and expertise from multiple fields of public health, the ethics aspect of public health, and that group work is so much better and more fun than researching by myself".
"I learned what a dormitory lifestyle is like. I got to experience what field research is like, and I learned how lucky and privileged I was to live where I do after experiencing the conditions of where we stayed in California".
"I learned how to collect, process, and analyze data. Before program IGNITE, I had never conducted research or dealt with data, but this program made them familiar to me, which is of immense help for me for future research. I was exposed to a completely new field of study.
"I learned how to cooperate with people from different backgrounds. It was my first time working with so many people coming from different regions of the country and it was surprising how we were able to work together so well within that short period of time".
What was your favorite activity?
"Writing the paper. To observe the culmination of all of our hard work, in the form of a research paper, was truly an enriching experience".
"Routine of walking around Richmond/Berkeley to collect data, it was the most active part of the day (other than data crunching) and also because we would be outside".
"Going to field trips once a week was my favorite activity. Not only that it was a relaxing experience, putting our hands off from a week of data collecting and crunching, but it was also an educational learning opportunity".
"I really enjoyed working on presentations because we were able to apply many things we learned into one project".
"I liked organizing the data at night because that’s when the day’s work became satisfactory".
What was your favorite class/subject/lecture and why?
"My favorite class was when different groups of students made their own story maps, and we shared our research and knowledge on our public health topic. Because it was our peers, not our superiors (the professors), I was able to learn about public health in a different light, and I feel that we got a chance to participate and interact more since we felt comfortable sharing our views with our peers".
"Ajay's lecture on indoor air quality sensors because i thought it was very different than what we have learned before and focused on types of studies and the technology of how studies similar to ours work".
"Liza Lutzker's Lecture. Learning of community based participatory research, a concept largely unknown to me before reading her Diesel PM CBPR research paper, was eye opening".
"My favorite lecture was the one I learned about environmental ethic and moral issues. This was a totally different perspective of viewing currently-occurring environmental issues and it was very intriguing".
"Sadie’s lectures were my favorite because her topic interested me the most and she made sure we were all awake".
What other fields would you like to explore other than environmental science and public health?
"Statistics, and computer science".
"Data Science".
"Business".
"Economics, Government, Biotechnology".
"Psychology".
Student's Intended Major (Area of Interest)
"Public Health, Psychology, Film Making".
"Business/Marketing, Psycology, Economics".
"Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering".
"Physician, Veterinarian Science/ Vet Tech".
"Public health, Philosophy,
Pre-med".
What was your best experience from the program?
"My best experience from the program was experiencing an atmosphere of extremely motivated people, students and professors alike".
"Being so far away from home and being able to learn from professors extremely well-established in their fields was a one-of-a-kind experience that I know I couldn't get anywhere else. I made friends I will never forget and made memories that will always make me smile. Spending time with the same people for 3 weeks definitely led to some clashes, but I think being able to work through differences with peers that came from all over the country and world is a really essential learning experience that helped me grow as a teammate and a team leader".
"I liked being able to visit Apple Headquarters and having fun at the the boardwalk".
"The best experience of the program was the collaborative nature of it all. Everyone got the chance to interact and work with one another and the combination of different minds significantly helped create the final product".
"Well, what I really liked (and I hope this stays the same in future programs) was that we were put into different mixes of teams when data-collecting. It’s easy to fall into our usual groups of friends and almost isolate ourselves socially from other people, but I think data-collecting with people who we usually don’t talk as much with gave us a chance to bond. This bonding is so important in a multidisciplinary program such as this because we are then able to communicate and cooperate better".
How did this program shape you or relate to your current academic interests? How will you apply what you have learned in the future?
"Personally, although I've always been told how lucky I am to be raised in the conditions that I live in, I've thought about it a little but always brushed it off a little while after. But, this program gave me an experience that made me realize how lucky I actually was and humbled me a lot. However, although this program was a great experience, it just confirmed my thoughts of how I'm not as interested in such topics (that we researched) as I though I was and that definitely impacted me in terms of future goals and academic interests".
"The biggest benefit I earned from this program is learning how to work with people from all different backgrounds. I believe knowing how to work with various types of people is a very important feature of a successful person. Especially in engineering majors, where a group of people work together to reach the same goal, adopting cooperation skills is a must".
"I think it generally taught me to work with different people, even if I may not agree with their work ethics or opinions. I’m not going to lie; I did come across people who were different than me, and at first, I found myself frustrated because they wouldn’t think the same way I did. However, because those people were different than me, they brought new, not-thought-of-before ideas to the table. I matured as a person because I was able to learn how to cope with and cooperate efficiently with different types of people".
"By crunching and analyzing through program IGNITE, I found that I wanted to pursue data science & statistics and/or public health and policy in college. Program IGNITE also helped me learn more about myself: my personality, my cooperativeness, and my learning style".
"It let me see that the world I lived in wasn't the same as where I lived in terms of people, environment, and culture".