TAMIU Annual Report 2022

Mariana López, a TAMIU May 2022 Public Health honors graduate, feels she’s found her calling. TAMIU helped her explore new directions in Public Health, setting a new path for her…including moving on to a graduate program in Public Health at Cornell University. TAMIU ALUMNA STUDIES AT CORNELL FOR MPH An informative email from TAMIU’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences helped a student and now TAMIU alum chart a new academic and career path. Mariana López (’22) knew she wanted to study at TAMIU and envisioned a Kinesiology major, medical school and becoming a neurosurgeon. “I got this email about a new program in Public Health . I did some research and found out that Public Health is very broad. You could choose from infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, mental health, communicable diseases, and more. You would be helping millions of people…which could be very rewarding. The next day I called my advisor about changing my degree to Public Health,” she recalled. Now a Public Health honors graduate, this Fall she began a Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She credits her TAMIU preparation and praised the outstanding faculty support she received. “ Dr. Cindy Salazar-Collier was outstanding...responding to our sometimes very late emails or many emails in a single day. She always wanted to help her students -- even with those courses she didn’t teach,” she observed. Dr. Salazar-Collier, TAMIU assistant professor of Public Health, said she’s sure López will Go Beyond. “Mariana was a pleasure to have in my class. She is highly motivated and dedicated to her studies. She was extraordinarily committed to performing at a high standard in her coursework, and I am so excited to see the professional she will become in the field of public health,” 32