News, Profiles
and Moments

Over the summer, I interned with the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program under the Cornell
Cooperative Extension. The main mission of the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program is to enhance the health of at-risk New Yorkers such as low-income communities and senior citizens, and to also promote nutrition education and food skills for everyone overall. Growing up in New York City, there are a lot of neighborhoods which I have never explored before, and this internship gave me the opportunity to engage with communities which I have never engaged with before. One of the main takeaways from this internship was how to be culturally competent in public health settings, because it's crucial to have an open mind and be ready to unlearn any biases to share meaningful stories and to truly engage with the communities you serve. This was a very valuable experience because it was amazing to see how how many community members were grateful to learn new ways to build healthy habits, and to build a balanced diet.

The Chosen Family art exhibit came out of months of collaboration with our two community partners, the Ali Forney Center and the Q Center. Both of these centers serve LGBTQ+ young people, who face family rejection, housing instability and a lack of social support.
We invited youth from the centers to create art reflecting the meaning of chosen family in their lives. And in September, we invited them to the centers for a night of recognition, where they told stories about how they’ve built care networks in their lives and celebrated chosen family. Every piece you see in this gallery is from a young adult or a youth from one of these centers. This exhibit is part of our PRISM study, which is a three-year longitudinal study looking at LGBTQ+ adolescent identity development and what factors help
or hinder that process. Importantly, the decision to study chosen family came directly from our community partners. For me, this process showed what translational research looks like when it's done in genuine partnership. These young people are more
than just research participants. They're artists, storytellers and knowledge holders, and their experiences guide our research just as much as we study it.

Two years ago, I arrived in Zomba, Malawi, and my goal was simple: to understand challenges communities were facing and to see how art could help improve lives. The first summer I spent in Malawi, I launched Art4NthakaYathu, which means art for our land in the local language chichewa. It is a climate justice project where art and public health intersect. I spent my days talking with youth climate champions, village chiefs and community leaders, learning how climate change was affecting food, water, health and culture. Together with my mentor, Rodger, and the ArtGlo team, we guided 15 youth to design projects that address these challenges. After I departed that summer, youth continued to lead. They planted over 1,250 native trees, improving soil, water and community spaces. The next summer, I returned with a bigger goal: to expand Art4NthakaYathu. We brought in students from three
local schools across the district and paired them with our original youth climate champions as mentors. Despite shifts in funding, support from Cornell Human Ecology and a GoFundMe campaign I created helped us keep the program running. Students designed creative, actionable climate projects, presented them to village leaders and even received seed funding to make their ideas real. Through role plays, murals and creative exercises, students explored climate change, health and local solutions in ways that felt hands-on and meaningful. It reminded me that even across continents,
creativity, connection and care can spark real change.