Global Learning Experiences Take Miners Beyond the Classroom
Last Updated on August 28, 2019 at 12:00 AM
Originally published August 28, 2019
By Laura L. Acosta
UTEP Communications
After trips to help people in Kenya, Panama, Guatemala and Kyrgyzstan, Natassia Lozano was no stranger to world travel.
However, a research trip to San José, Costa Rica, in 2018 introduced the El Paso native to a world of new opportunities.
Lozano, a junior nursing major at The University of Texas at El Paso, spent the summer with researchers at the University of Costa Rica to investigate the impact of labor conditions on the health of San José’s working class.
Lozano, who traveled to the Central American country with UTEP’s Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program, interviewed police officers, street maintenance workers and other municipal employees about health and occupational safety conditions in their work environments.
“MHIRT specifically showed me that in Latino communities we must always watch the impact on health through the social determinants of health,” said Lozano, who expects to graduate in 2020. “Often they differ not only from country to country, but person to person. Therefore, if we are to shape health in the community, we do it through research, dispersion of information and creating change one day at a time.”
Each year, Miners engage in unique global learning experiences in 43 countries that extend their education beyond the classroom.
Read more in the Fall 2019 issue of UTEP Magazine.
