{"id":3123,"date":"2021-02-16T11:23:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T18:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/center-health-equity-research\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2024-07-02T07:36:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:36:23","slug":"alexandra-samarron-longorio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/blog\/alexandra-samarron-longorio\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Alexandra Samarron Longorio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Alexandra<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When Alexandra Samarron Longorio<\/strong> was in her early 20s, as a former undocumented student, she saw that attending college in the United States was an almost impossible task for undocumented students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A first generation college student of a single mother, Samarron was determined to thrive and, along with other undocumented students, to find higher education opportunities for everyone regardless of immigration status.\nThe task was not easy. Each year, 98,000 undocumented students in the United States graduate from high school, and more than 2,000 undocumented students graduate from Arizona schools, according a 2019 study published by the Migration Policy Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, Samarron worked together with five other undocumented students and educators at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona to create ScholarshipsA-Z<\/a>, an immigrant, youth-led organization in Tucson that assists undocumented youth and their families with scholarship opportunities and leadership trainings. The program is still a vital part of the Tucson community more than 10 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI valued so much working with other undocumented immigrants \u2014 that gives me a lot of energy, and so it has been empowering,\u201d Samarron said of the work required to found ScholarshipsA-Z. \u201cI am close friends with that first group of undocumented students (ScholarshipsA-Z founders). When you come together as a community that is suppressed, you learn the power in finding solutions together. It is beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While earning her bachelor\u2019s in nutritional sciences from UA, Samarron worked as a research assistant on a project with primary investigator Sofia Gomez called “DACAmented Voices in Healthcare<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat project was more focused on community based participatory research using Photovoice,\u201d Samarron said. \u201cIt examined how Arizona\u2019s restrictive immigration policies impact health status of undocumented youth who were DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After her experience with the project, Samarron said she was inspired and knew she wanted to work on addressing health equity issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt introduced me to what public health is,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt like as a Mexican immigrant I could also be part of public health. It was validating to learn from a Latinx researcher and participants. It was very empowering to see myself reflected in the discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, Samarron entered UA\u2019s Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway, a dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making a difference in Flagstaff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Samarron moved to Flagstaff in 2018, and she joined Northern Arizona University\u2019s Center for Community Health and Engaged Research<\/a> (CHER), where she now works as a senior research coordinator for the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative\u2019s Community Engagement Core<\/a>. She is one of the co-hosts of the center\u2019s seminal podcast, Fairness  First<\/a>, which explores health equity issues with guests from the community as well at NAU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While working full time for CHER, Samarron is also finishing a Master in Public Health<\/a> in NAU\u2019s Department of Health Sciences<\/a>. Samarron\u2019s Master in Public Health project focuses on how hotel practices, policies and procedures impact the eating habits and hydration of Latina immigrant hotel housekeepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy project shows how hotels implement exploitive practices preventing housekeepers from adequate dietary intake, which is detrimental to their health over time,\u201d Samarron said. \u201cIt is important to understand how institutions that employ immigrants and people of color, especially in time of COVID-19, are caring for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, my project attempts to pose the question of how can institutional policies and community care not depend on the exploitation of health and life, especially from low wage workers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also helped to establish Aqui Entre Nos \u2014 Just Between Us<\/a>, a CHER initiative focused on wellness and health project for hospitality workers, in collaboration with hotel housekeepers, CHER researchers, other NAU MPH students and Samantha Sabo<\/strong>, associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences and CHER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlexandra is a transformative public health leader,\u201d said Sabo. \u201cCultivating community knowledge to learn how best to challenge inequity and right the unjust and unfair practices and policies that cause health disparities is what she does best. She holds public health and research accountable to community and has made all of us in CHER better community engaged scholars and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sabo said that Samarron\u2019s choice to become a registered dietitian is just one example of how she \u201cbreaks barriers and challenges spaces lacking Latinx immigrant experience and perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlexandra has taught so many people in her life, and especially me, to recognize our various forms of power and privilege \u2013 and the responsibility we all have to use these super powers for the good of all humanity,\u201d Sabo added.\nSamarron said she hopes to one day bring together her dietetics\u2019 training with her public health work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m still ruminating about how I can use the formalized training in nutrition I have with my knowledge in public health,\u201d Samarron said. \u201cI would like to explore combining my work as a registered dietitian to engage in community grounded public health approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Alexandra Samarron Longorio was in her early 20s, as a former undocumented student, she saw that attending college in the United States was an almost impossible task for undocumented students. A first generation college student of a single mother, Samarron was determined to thrive and, along with other undocumented students, to find higher education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[198,352,104,351,197,122,350,155],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14232,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions\/14232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}