FRONTERA provides pre-health students an opportunity to explore border health disparities and the type of healthcare that
is available to those who live along the U.S. Mexico border. For me, it was an eye-opening experience, in seeing where I envision myself to be in the healthcare field, and the disparities that many communities encounter who are not within the distance of a city. More so, to learn about the similarities and differences between the U.S. and Mexico health disparities is what I found to be the most fascinating, especially with the comparison in how the U.S. and Mexico attend to their patients who have been diagnosed with diabetes or are pre-diabetic. Seeing such disparities in healthcare, where many minority groups are affected by the lack of quality care they receive has impacted me to become an advocate for them and have a desire to increase the quality of care they receive. In addition to that, my research project I conducted with my physician scientist mentor I found to be helpful in understanding how one conducts research and the different types of research one can do. Also, the students you meet in the program are all so inspiring, who all come from different backgrounds and have a desire to become a variety of healthcare professionals wanting to make an impact on healthcare. This is a summer internship that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning about health disparities and wants to have a hands-on experience in research.