Graciella Rodriguez-Santos

Yale-Howard Scholar '03

Graciela is one of five exceptional young women who participated in the Yale-Howard Scholars program in the summer of 2003. During her time at Yale, Graciela worked with Dr. Margaret Grey and Dr. Diane Berry to compare the health behaviors of Hispanic youth at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Graciela's project was a sub-study of Dr. Grey's Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes in High Risk Youth pilot study. Graciella's family immigrated to the United States form El Salvador in Central America.

While enrolled at Prince George's Community College in Maryland, Graciela became an advocate for the underserved in the area where she lived. Working with her Prince George's mentors, Graciela conducted a community health assessment in her community. She found that a significant number of people, especially from minority and immigrant populations, did not have access to health care. "There were many children who did not have health insurance," said Graciela. "These families were in desperate need of support." She began networking with other advocates in the area to connect families in need of health insurance with community organizations who would assist them. "Because of the work we did, some of the children were eventually able to get health insurance," she said. "I was inspired by that success."

Being from the Latino community, Graciela brought a much-needed perspective to Dr. Grey's research. " The analysis that Graciela performed provides an important window into differences between the African American and Latino children that we have not anticipated," said Dr. Grey. Graciela's preliminary analysis of the data suggests that at lower Body Mass Index (BMI), Hispanic children had higher glucose levels and higher instances of insulin resistance. "This suggest that clinicians need to pay attention to the risk of Type 2 diabetes in Hispanic children at an earlier phase of overweight than we traditionally think of with kids," explained Dr. Grey. That knowledge is critical to our work." As further testament to Graciela's extraordinary commitment to nursing, the Hispanic Nurses Association chose her as The 2003 Student Nurse of the Year.

Yale-Howard Scholars 2006

• LeSabre Bowens
• Sharita Liser
• Foluke Oladeinde
• Oluseyi Sofoluwe

Yale-Howard Scholars 2005

• Katherine San Gabriel
• Nightingale Gacheru
• Richard Phillips
• Jessica Holmes

Yale-Howard Scholars 2004

• Stella Akintomide
• Gilberto Andino
• Eric Foster
• Dwignt Hampton
• Olivia Pessima

Yale-Howard Scholars 2003

• Tracy Brewington
• Krystal Perkins
• Jessica Campbell-Hamilton
• Graciella Rodriguez-Santos
• Chinenye Udemezue

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