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Kristen Alleyne, a first-generation student and George Mason University Scholar, participated in the coveted Centers for Disease Control (CDC) John R. Lewis Undergraduate Public Health Scholars Program in the summer of 2023. Now a new graduate of the College of Public Health (CPH), Alleyne is excited to use the knowledge she gained from the Lewis Scholars Program and her time at George Mason University to further promote public health, particularly in marginalized communities.
The CDC Lewis Scholars Program gives grants to several universities across the United States to host a program that trains the future of public health professionals. Alleyne was part of the University of California, Los Angeles cohort, where for three months last summer she worked on a research project on trichomonas vaginalis – an uncommon sexually transmitted infection that is particularly prevalent in the black community and especially black women in the southern United States.
Aside from her research, Alleyne presented her findings at the CDC in Atlanta, GA, about halfway through the program. She also interned for the Spirit Awakening Foundation, a non-profit in Los Angeles, CA, where she analyzed the public health benefits of their program that targets justice-involved youth in LA County. Beyond connecting participants with a summer internship and providing public health training, the Lewis Scholars Program also provides mentorship throughout the school year for graduate school applications.
Acceptance into the Lewis Scholars Program had been Alleyne’s goal since she was accepted into the University Scholars program, which is part of the Honors College at George Mason. She recently re-read an essay she wrote for University 160. “In the essay I wrote, ‘I want to be part of the CDC public health scholars program’,” she recalls. “And I created a mock cover letter that talked about doing research with sexually transmitted infections and lo and behold, that’s exactly what I ended up doing!”
Alleyne credits her classes at CPH for helping her get into, and then excel at, the Lewis Scholars Program. For many students the CDC program was their first interaction with public health. “But I was there with a knowledge base of material and information that I could pull from really quickly,” Alleyne says. “I felt that I was up to date, I was knowledgeable, I was able to ask really intriguing questions. I think if I wasn’t at a school with such a strong public health program then maybe I would have felt like I was lagging behind, but I was very much going with the flow and maybe even a little bit ahead of the crowd. I thank my professors for that.”
“The professors in the College of Public Health are some of the kindest people that I’ve met,” Alleyne continues. “When I first got into the University Scholars program, Brian Gillette [CPH Director of Student Success] sent me a personal email saying congratulations, welcome to the school. Then when I got the CDC fellowship, one of my old professors, Lila Fleming [Global and Community Health professor] sent me an email saying congratulations Kristen, it was nice having you as a student. I felt like I wasn’t just a number or another student in the College of Public Health.”
Alleyne graduated in May 2024 with her BS in Community Health and minor in Health Informatics. She is now a USAID/PHI Generation Next Humanitarian Assistance Fellow, placed with the American Red Cross’ International Deployment Roster team. The fellowship is a two-year program that aims to increase the diversity of professionals in the humanitarian sector by building a pathway for recent graduates and placing them at various humanitarian organizations.
Long term, Alleyne hopes to help improve healthcare delivery through technology, work with communities to develop emergency preparedness plans, and leverage biostatistics for humanitarian work. Eventually, she wants to return to her native Guyana. “I would love to go back and work in Guyana to improve the quality of life for the people in the place that I call home,” she said.