Stipend Scholarship Recipients

We are happy to announce and grateful to the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) that this grant project is contributing a total of $30,191.31 to five outstanding graduates of our Nutrition and Dietetics Program!  Congratulations to all the deserving recipients! 

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[accordion title=”Andrea Victoria De Arce González” load=”hide”]

Andrea has been accepted to the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus’ Dietetic Internship Program and received a stipend scholarship in the amount of $ 3,000.00 to help cover the costs associated with completing her program.  She will be serving as a professional or research mentor to undergraduate students of our UPR-RP Nutrition and Dietetics Program.

Brief Bio

Andrea Victoria De Arce González is from a town called Vega Baja on the island of Puerto Rico. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics in May 2021. At present, she is an intern of the Dietetic Internship of the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, School of Health Professions. The estimated graduation date for this internship is June 2022. Her immediate professional goal is to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist centered on the prevention of chronic disease, as well as the diagnosis, support and management of nutritional challenges in patients of any life stage. In the future, she would like to acquire a PhD in Pharmacy to better understand the interactions between drugs/medication and the body’s nutrition. This will provide her with the knowledge and ability to properly guide patients regarding the use of their prescribed medications while maintaining healthy eating behaviors. As an inducted member of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), Andrea aspires to serve as a mentor in professional and academic areas, providing students an inside scoop on what it’s like to be a dietetic intern, clearing up their doubts regarding the rite of passage between undergraduate and graduate life, guiding them through their literature searches for nutritional research, and helping them set short and long-term goals while improving their task organization.

Recent Accomplishments 

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[accordion title=”Sachelly Julián Serrano” load=”hide”]

Sachelly has been accepted to the University of Massachusetts Lowell Sc. D. in Epidemiology, with emphasis in Nutrition, and received a stipend scholarship in the amount of $ 5,000.00 to help cover the costs associated with completing her program.  She will be serving as a professional or research mentor to undergraduate students of our UPR-RP Nutrition and Dietetics Program.

Brief Bio

Sachelly Julián Serrano, M.H.S.N., R.D., L.D.N. joined University of Massachusetts Lowell as an Epidemiology Sc.D. student in 2021 under the mentorship of  Dr. Katherine Tucker. Prior to her doctoral studies, Ms. Julián Serrano completed a three year post-masters research fellowship at the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute from the National Institutes of Health, where she studied diet, lifestyle factors, and genetic susceptibility to pancreatic cancer. She earned her master’s degree in health sciences with specialization in nutrition from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus in 2017. Her master’s research project focused on the modifying effect of genetic ancestry in the association of red and processed meats consumption and colorectal neoplasia risk in Puerto Rican Hispanics, under the mentorship of Dr. Marcia Cruz-Correa. In July 2018, she completed her dietetic internship at the same university. Ms. Julián Serrano graduated from the Nutrition and Dietetics Didactic Program at the UPR Río Piedras Campus in 2015. 

Her current research interests include health disparities, lifestyle factors, genetic susceptibility, and nutritional biomarkers in chronic disease risk. Ms. Julián Serrano’s goal is to continue to expand her knowledge in epidemiologic approaches to better understand health disparities in Hispanics. 

Recent Accomplishments 

Please see Sachelly’s most recent publication (July 13, 2021) on her work at NIH-NCI on iron and genetic susceptibility to pancreatic cancer in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN): https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqab217/6320813

Julián-Serrano, S., Yuan, F., Wheeler, W., Benyamin, B., Machiela, M. J., Arslan, A. A. … Stolzenberg-Solomon, R. Z. (2021). Hepcidin-regulating iron metabolism genes and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a pathway analysis of genome-wide association studies. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, nqab217 [Online ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab217

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[accordion title=”Carolina Isabel Morales Serrano” load=”hide”]

Carolina has been accepted to the Mississippi State University Master’s Degree in Health Promotion, with emphasis in Nutrition, and received a stipend scholarship in the amount of $ 6,824.31 to help cover the costs associated with completing her program.  She will be serving as a professional or research mentor to undergraduate students of our UPR-RP Nutrition and Dietetics Program.

Brief Bio

Carolina I. Morales Serrano was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and was admitted to the Didactic Program in Dietetics from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus at the age of 16. In May 2020, Carolina graduated with a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics and a certification in Women and Gender Studies. Shortly after, they were admitted to the Mississippi State University Dietetic Internship program and started working simultaneously on a master’s degree in Health Promotion from the same institution. Carolina graduated from the dietetic internship in May 2021, and has continued working on completing the master’s degree, with an expected graduation by December 2022. Upon completion, Carolina plans on becoming a certified health education specialist (CHES®) and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.

Carolina has had research experience in the areas of HIV/AIDS, community nutrition, health disparities, and trans-centered nutrition care, and has worked with mixed methods and qualitative studies. They are passionate about serving underrepresented and underserved communities, particularly low-income individuals, members of the LGBTQI+ community, people living with HIV, and women. Carolina is an empathetic, resourceful, and persevering person who is motivated to work towards improving access to health and nutritious food for all. Carolina plans to continue studies at the doctoral level in translational nutrition or similar area and expand their research capabilities.

Recent Accomplishments 

 

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[accordion title=”Raika A. Rivera Rentas” load=”hide”]

Raika has been accepted to the Garden to Table Internship Nutrition and Dietetics Program (GTTN) based in Washington State, and received a stipend scholarship in the amount of $ 5,367.00 to help cover the costs associated with completing her program.  She will be serving as a professional or research mentor to undergraduate students of our UPR-RP Nutrition and Dietetics Program.

Brief Bio

Motivated by the desire to be the positive change she wants to see, Ms. Raika A. Rivera Rentas seeks ways to help steer Puerto Rico toward food sovereignty. Her goal is to educate about the benefits of growing food and consuming locally grown produce.  

Ms. Rivera has a BA in Communications and a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Puerto Rico. Currently, she is doing an internship at the Garden to Table Internship Nutrition and Dietetics Program (GTTN) based in Washington State. The program’s purpose is to develop future Registered Dietitians who, in addition to promoting healthy nutrition, understand the food cycle from farm to table. She is the first Puerto Rican to ever participate in the program and a pioneer in the concept of virtual internships and independent development of internship rotations in nutrition and dietetics in Puerto Rico. Raika has also volunteered in different farms, including El Josco Bravo in Toa Alta. She believes the skills learned from these experiences will help find solutions to food insecurity in Puerto Rico.

Recent Accomplishments 

During her internship, she was the winner of the Growing Food Security Program grant, which awards grants to non-profit organizations. The grant will support Plenitud’s Amo mis Abus.  Plenitud PR is a non-profit organization that, in addition to supporting and teaching sustainable agriculture and techniques, is also committed to helping the community. Plenitud’s “Amo mis Abus” (Love an Elder) program distributes hot and nutritious food to the community’s elders who live alone and do not have the necessary resources to feed themselves. The project is still ongoing and 4,338 plates of hot and healthy foods have already been distributed.

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[accordion title=”María Gabriela Sanabria Véaz” load=”hide”]

Maria has been accepted to the Veteran’s Administration Hospital Dietetic Internship and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s Food Science and Nutrition Graduate Program, and received a stipend scholarship in the amount of $ 10,000.00 to help cover the costs associated with completing her programs.  She will be serving as a professional or research mentor to undergraduate students of our UPR-RP Nutrition and Dietetics Program.

Brief Bio

Maria G. Sanabria-Véaz graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Didactic Program in Dietetics at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (UPR-RP) in May 2021. Her education at UPR-RP enabled her to appreciate nutrition as an integral aspect of interdisciplinary research. During her bachelor’s degree, she participated in a “Research Intensive Summer Experience (RISE)” at Rutgers University, from which she was honored to receive a Student Travel Award to present her work at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in 2019. This experience challenged María to engage in other research projects and contribute her nutrition knowledge in areas of cancer, chronic disease prevention, and microbiology. From August 2020-June 2021, María worked with doctors Filipa Godoy, Ph.D., and Josefina Romaguera, M.D., in a project focused on innovative therapeutic approaches to treat cervical cancer in Puerto Rican women by studying the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and dysplasia in the cervical microbiome. She also led the DNA extraction of 53 fecal samples in a pilot study analyzing the influence of a culturally adapted Mediterranean diet on the gut microbiome of Puerto Rican adults. After completing the Dietetic Internship (DI) at the VA Caribbean Healthcare System in July 2022, María will pursue a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Upon completion of her Ph.D. in 2027, María envisions working in academia and collaborating with local agricultors to examine the impact of locally sourced foods, especially fruits and vegetables, on the microbiome of Puerto Ricans with chronic diseases.

Recent Accomplishments 

 

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