维多利亚·索利斯（Victoria Solis），MPH，在家庭社区服务遗产的指导下，追求公共卫生

For Victoria Solis her master’s degree in public health was a culmination of growing up with a legacy of family service, shaped by life in two different countries, and a desire to change the future of public health for vulnerable communities.

索利斯说：“我真的很喜欢为我的社区服务。”“这是我学会欣赏成长的东西，因为我知道我的许多社区一路以不同的方式为我提供了支持。我认为公共卫生是回馈并帮助我的社区成长并看到影响的机会，不仅是一个人，而且是整个社区的影响。”

Solis于2022年12月毕业于圣安东尼奥休斯顿公共卫生学院，并获得了公共卫生促进和行为科学的硕士学位。当大流行开始时，当有关教育的一切开始转移时，她开始了班级，因为机构专门用于在线学习。

尽管在大流行期间获得学位的挑战，但Solis在公共卫生学院蓬勃发展，结交朋友并在社交疏远时与学校保持联系。2021年，当课程开始返回面对面学习时，索利斯加入了学生协会，并最终发现自己在去年在学校期间接任总统。

Solis said public health is a field she was drawn to in part because she was brought up with a long legacy of community service in her family. Until she was 10 years old, Solis said she lived a fairly rural, small-town life in Zacatecas, Mexico. There she was surrounded by her large extended family and saw her grandmother and mother constantly finding ways to reach out and help the vulnerable in their community.

索利斯说：“我感到归属感，这种协作感，在Zacatecas中的支持感。”“我妈妈是她社区的拥护者，并与家人一起参加了许多社区活动。”

When her dad’s job took her family across the border to the small town of Del Rio, Texas, going to an American public school meant learning a new language, which would have been a much bigger challenge for Solis if not for the school teachers who went out of their way to help her. They made such an impression on her that Solis decided early on that she wanted to get an education degree and become a teacher.

索利斯说：“看到有多少人能够帮助我，看到他们的奉献精神，他们的总体援助非常有影响力。”“这对我来说有很大的不同，因为如果不是他们的话，我就不会在这里。”

But Solis said it was during her required health class in high school that she began to realize how powerful health education could be as she discovered information that could help her diabetic dad and her grandmother, who had a history of heart problems.

最初，索利斯说，由于她对健康饮食和过着积极生活的兴趣，她决定在UTSA攻读营养学位，但很快就意识到她的真爱是健康教育，并改变了她的专业。在2018年填补了社区卫生专业的卫生科学学位后，Solis寻求机会使用她的新学位并签约与AmeriCorps一起服务。

Solis served for two years with AmeriCorps, one year in Tacoma, Washington, and the second year back home in San Antonio, in low-income communities assisting with after-school programs. She said the experience was eye-opening for her.

索利斯说：“这些经历帮助我意识到，不仅在健康方面存在很多健康差异，而且在帮助个人确定健康的基本基础上。”“它帮助我了解了我要关注的内容，这是健康平等和缩小这些差距，并确保个人能够获得他们非常基本的需求，例如教育，营养，健康的环境，安全，有时甚至可以被忽视，例如一种归属感。”

在发现对公共卫生教育的热情之后，索利斯很快意识到她还没有为该职业做好准备。

“I feel like my undergrad gave me the necessary tools that I was able to apply in this master’s program and in the work I have done so far, but it was very basic, and I felt like I needed a program that was more inclusive and diverse,” Solis said. “I realized I needed to learn more about the integrative side and the intersectionality within public health, and felt like a master’s in health promotion and behavioral science would help me understand it better.”

With the pandemic raging, Solis signed up for classes starting in the fall of 2020 at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in San Antonio.

“One of the things that pushed me to grad school was the COVID-19 situation, because I knew it would be tough to find a job in this field during the pandemic, and I realized what better way to spend this time while we’re at home than adding to my education?”

索利斯说，未来攻读博士学位仍然存在，因为她有兴趣进行更多的研究，但她说她想拥有更多的工作经验来缩小她想研究的主题。beplay苹果手机能用吗

For now, she’s happy to have just landed a new position right where she’s already been working for the past year, at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in San Antonio, as a data collector for a research project with Jack Tsai, PhD, professor and regional dean in San Antonio.

Even though she will stay connected to the school with her new job, as Solis moves on to the professional world, she said she takes with her many good memories of her time as a student at the school of public health.

“很难选择只有一个,”她说,“但我的足总vorite thing about being part of this program is all the great friendships and all of the professional connections that I was able to make with students, faculty, staff and with various community partners. It’s something that I know I will take with me wherever I go.

“The school’s positive and supportive environment is also something I will always appreciate. It feels like every conversation I’ve had these past two years was a learning experience for me. It pushed me to learn something new every day about myself, my career goals and my vision as a health professional.”