Maligayang pagdating! That means "Welcome" in Filipino. I have been in Manila for almost two months now, conducting addiction research at the National Institutes of Health in UP Manila. This week, I've pivoted to my LIA. Working with Cartwheel Foundation Inc. (CFI), I will be supporting their educational programming for the Sama-Bajau community in Paranaque, specifically their storytelling initiative called Cultural LINKS---Leveraging Indigenous Niches through Knowledge and Storytelling.
4 years ago, CFI published a children's anthology for the Sama-Bajau. This children's anthology was meant to help protect the intangible heritage of the Sama-Bajau people living in Paranaque. Now, 4 years later, my responsibilities entail evaluating whether the children's anthology purpose has been sustained by conducting in-person interviews with the teachers, cultural-bearers, leaders, and children of the Sama-Bajau community.
My work this summer is entirely different from my work last summer and yet there are still some parallels. To recap, last summer I studied Early Life Stress (ELS) in mice and its effect on cognition and short-term memory. While I am not directly studying ELS in my LIA, the Sama-Bajau children and families that CFI supports are acutely impacted by ELS, an ELS driven by poverty, historical discrimination, and limited access to health and educational opportunities. I decided to pursue this project because I want to get involved in work that addresses somewhat abstract scientific questions in real-life contexts. And personally, as a creative writer myself, I am passionate about the ways storytelling can uplift underserved communities.
For this entry, my photo is of a sunrise from my apartment! Because it is the rainy season in the Philippines, it's hard to catch the sunset so I woke up at 5 am one day to see the sunrise. Magandang umaga talaga! or Good morning truly!
Kitakits,
Tara
My name is Tara Lago, and I am a Rabi Scholar and Laidlaw Scholar at Columbia University pursuing a major in neuroscience and behavior with a concentration in chemistry. With more than 3 years of research related to social science, depression, animal behavior, and computational neuroscience, I aim to study and apply the basic neural mechanisms that underlie human health.
I am passionate about helping my community, inside and outside of the lab. Whether that be creating inclusive programs for my first-year residents as a Resident Advisor or advocating for the freedom to read with the New York and Brooklyn Public Library, I seek to create supportive spaces that encourage intellectual, emotional, and social growth. After my undergraduate education, I plan to work in academic medicine, with the ambition of obtaining an MD-PhD in the future.
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Can't believe I missed this! This is a perfect combination of so many of your interests; I'm so excited to see this project unfold!
Thanks, Priyanka!!