College Student: Matthew Aubourg

Matthew Aubourg, a rising second-year graduate student studying social & behavioral health interventions at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

It was a pleasure and privilege to work with the NYSCHECK and PEHSU teams over the summer. This experience demonstrated how clinical practice, research, and community engagement can synergize to address environmental health, pediatrics, and social justice concerns. Virtually, I co-facilitated a community science training as a part of an ongoing community-driven environmental justice project in SE Queens. I also was able to go out into the community to get hands-on experience working alongside community members and set foot into the environmental injustices that we can often be removed from as researchers. This project harnessed an “INpowerment” approach (https://www.ceejh.center/inpowerment-science-1) which seeks to uplift and center the power already residing within communities, collectively and individually. I’m excited to use the lessons I’ve learned from this experience in my future work, and I’m equally grateful to have had this opportunity. If you are interested in these areas and looking to fellowship with an amazing, thoughtful, and caring group of people, I highly recommend getting involved!