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Home Class Act UH West Oʻahu senior participated in Harvard summer program

UH West Oʻahu senior participated in Harvard summer program

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Image courtesy of Alena Figueroa

Waking up at 2:30 a.m. on weekdays took some getting used to, but for Alena Figueroa, it was all part of her Harvard summer program experience — making the early mornings worth it.

Figueroa, a senior at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu, was among just 16 students from across the country accepted into a summer program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics. The Summer Program in Biostatistics & Computational Biology, an intensive virtual six-week program, began on June 7 and the students completed the program on July 16. Sessions started at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on weekdays, which meant Figueroa would wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get ready.

“It has been an adjustment!” the ʻEwa Beach resident, 23, quipped when she was about a month into the program.

The summer program offered the 16 program participants — a diverse group of undergraduate students — an introduction to biostatistics, epidemiology, and public health research. It provided students an opportunity to learn about the use of quantitative methods for biological, environmental, and medical research alongside Harvard faculty, researchers, and graduate students, according to its website.

“I did not expect to get into Harvard’s program,” Figueroa said. “Summer programs and REUs (research experiences for undergraduates) can be very difficult to get into, and I thought I stood no chance against my fellow applicants. ”

Figueroa recalled the flurry of excitement the morning she learned she was accepted into the program.

“I was completely shocked and overjoyed,” said Figueroa, who recalled quickly sharing the news with her parents and sister. “We were all ecstatic.”

‘An outstanding student’

Figueroa said she decided to apply to Harvard’s Summer Program in Biostatistics & Computational Biology to gain more exposure to biostatistics.

“I participated in Iowa’s Summer Institute in Biostatistics (ISIB) last summer and thoroughly enjoyed their program,” Figueroa said. “I knew I wanted to participate in a similar program this summer.”

Figueroa, who enrolled at UH West Oʻahu in the fall of 2017, is majoring in Natural Science with a concentration in applied mathematics.

“My interest in mathematics began in elementary and middle school,” Figueroa said. “My dad would teach me more advanced topics outside of what we were learning in class, and I grew to like math more and more. In high school, mathematics was my best and favorite subject.”

However, when she began college, she was still unsure about what she wanted to study, she said. At first, a variety of subjects — economics, biology, astronomy, and physics — appealed to Figueroa and she said she wanted to learn as much as she could about everything.

“As I progressed in my studies, I found applied mathematics to be the best fit for me,” she said. “I think a major turning point was in my second semester at UH West Oʻahu when I took Dr. Kamuela Yong’s Calculus I (Math 241) course. Ever since then, I was convinced to take more math courses.”

Yong, an associate professor of Mathematics at UH West Oʻahu, thinks highly of Figueroa.

“She’s an outstanding student and I’ve heard nothing but great things from other faculty,” he said.

Yong recalls trying to assist Figueroa with her academic plans when her family recently expected to move to the mainland.

“The past year has been a whirlwind,” said Figueroa, whose dad is in the military. “My family and I were planning to move to Washington last year.”

“I helped her look at colleges in the area and see how she could finish her degree there,” Yong said.

“But my dad’s orders changed, allowing us to stay in Hawaiʻi longer,” Figueroa said. “This change in plans alleviated the stress of having to transfer to a new university so far into my studies.”

“So Alena is able to stay with us and plans to graduate this coming fall semester,” Yong noted, “placing her in the first cohort for our applied math concentration.”

“I love UH West Oʻahu and the faculty, so I am grateful to be finishing my degree here,” Figueroa said.

‘Believe in yourself’

After graduating from UH West Oʻahu, Figueroa plans to attend graduate school to earn a master’s degree in biostatistics. Her long-term career goal is to work as a biostatistician and aid in understanding diseases and their progression.

The Harvard summer program helped Figueroa get closer to her goals.

Figueroa said she enjoyed the short courses on biostatistics, programming, health data science, and artificial intelligence, and also enjoyed the research component of the program. Her group worked on a project looking at concentrated swine feeding operations (CSFOs) and their impact on the health of people situated near them.

“Coming into the program, I felt intimidated and not good enough to be in a program hosted by a school as renowned as Harvard, but the program has done a great job of making its participants feel comfortable and safe,” she said.

Figueroa said everyone she met through the program has been “extremely kind,” and she values the program’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

“I have met and heard from people with diverse backgrounds that are Harvard faculty and students,” she said. “It is reassuring to know there is space for people like me and who look like me at places like Harvard. Ultimately, I think the program has reinforced my desire to go to graduate school for biostatistics and learn even more.”

Figueroa encourages other UH West Oʻahu students to apply for such academic programs that speak to them.

“I think it is important to mention that I applied to six programs and was rejected by three of them,” she said. “Receiving rejection letters feels terrible, but try not to get too down on yourself.”

She advises students to apply to as many programs as they can that they find interesting, even if they seem out of reach.

“It does not hurt to try,” Figueroa said. “Believe in yourself and try not to undervalue your abilities!”