When Kayla Stanek first came to the University of Michigan as a freshman, she believed she would be pre-med. She had always loved science classes, and, though she knew medical school was not the perfect fit, it was the only direction that seemed to align with her interests.
In 2017, the University School of Public Health launched its first undergraduate major program. Public health seemed to be the major Stanek was searching for, and a research position in the Public Health School through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program helped solidify her passion. Now, the Public Health senior is a Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program peer facilitator, just completed the summer UROP Detroit Community Based Research Program and is learning to help the medical community in a different way.
“(Public health) is still trying to improve health, but more on a population level and more looking at prevention and the root causes of diseases, whereas in the medical field, you’re really treating individual patients for problems they already have,” Stanek said.
Stanek always wanted to help others, but she soon realized she was more interested in researching prevention for the medical community. She applied to the then-new Public Health major program and became one of the 95 students in the first cohort of the Public Health School’s undergraduates. Stanek wanted first-hand experience conducting research to see if she really could conduct meaningful investigations on disease. Stanek joined UROP and completed her research project during her sophomore year, working with researchers to determine the relationship between oral HPV and head and neck cancers.
Over the past summer, Stanek got to work with the Detroit Community Based Research Program through UROP. DCBRP is a summer fellowship program that connects students with full-time research positions in projects involving social and environmental justice.
Stanek was matched with the nonprofit Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision for her DCBRP experience. The organization works in southwest Detroit, an area with a high level of air pollution due to the many manufacturing plants in the area, to improve to improve air quality for surrounding residents.
“There’s a lot of industry in southwest Detroit — there’s a lot of pollution, especially air pollution, but there are also a lot of people living there,” Stanek said.
Stanek explained that, in her role as a research assistant, she helped SDEV connect with local companies to discuss ways to reduce air pollution in the area. Much of her work focused on finding grants for companies to upgrade their machinery and creating material for anti-idling campaigns.
Idling, Stanek explained, can be an issue in southwest Detroit because of its proximity to Ambassador Bridge. Truck drivers frequently use the bridge to transport goods to and from Canada. However, Stanek says these trucks emit large amounts of air pollution if their engines are left on while drivers are sitting at rest stops or stuck in traffic on the bridge.
“There are these logistic centers where trucks stop to either unload their product or get loaded up with new product, and they can get really backed up during the day, so many trucks can be lined down the street waiting to get into the center and they leave their truck on,” Stanek said.
To solve this issue, SDEV distributes material and posts signage to encourage truck drivers to turn off their engines when their vehicle is stopped.
“During the winter or during really hot summer time, it might be fine because they might need it on to heat up their cabin,” Stanek said. “But in the fall or spring, we like to encourage them to turn their engines off while they’re waiting.”
While DCBRP projects give students the chance to be a part of research and explore various different social issues, the program also has the goal of familiarizing students with the complexities of Detroit. Participating students were housed at Wayne State University in Detroit and taken on various trips around the area throughout the duration of the program. Despite being from Grosse Pointe, a suburb that shares a border with Detroit, Stanek was surprised at how much she did not know about a city that was only a couple of miles away from her home.
“What surprised me was how much housing discrimination and things like that persisted to even today,” Stanek said. “I think some of those things we like to think we’re past now, but even though people may not be as actively discriminated against as much, the effects of past discrimination still affect people today.”
Stanek loved her experience with UROP, both in her summer and school year research projects, so she decided to help other UROP students by becoming a peer facilitator.
As a peer facilitator, Stanek mentors a group of 30 first- and second-year UROP students.
Stanek and other peer facilitators help to connect UROP students with a research project on campus. She helps students craft and perfect résumés and cover letters to apply for positions in research labs.
“For UROP, everyone is guaranteed to get a project pretty much, but you still have to apply to the different projects on campus and find one that’s going to be a good fit for you,” Stanek said.
UROP Assistant Director Jenna Steiner, who has been Stanek’s supervisor for over two years, described Stanek as an extremely caring mentor who devotes a copious amount of time to getting to know each individual student.
“Kayla really takes the time to get to know each of her students, and is very thoughtful in her approach to working with each of them as individuals,” Steiner wrote.
In addition to meeting with students one-on-one, Stanek and other peer facilitators also lead seminars for UROP students to prepare them professionally for roles in the lab.
“In seminars, we talk about professionalism, how to do an interview, how to go about building the mentor and mentee relationship in their lab and then, in the future, we will talk more about research ethics and research methods,” Stanek said. “It’s kind of a professional development and research development type program.”
LSA senior Kia Schwert is a sociology and women’s studies major who became a peer facilitator earlier this year. Schwert understands why a student would really enjoy having a peer facilitator like Stanek. During her peer facilitator training, Schwert explained, Stanek, who at the time was returning for a second year of being a peer facilitator, guided her through the process and gave her helpful advice.
“Every year peer facilitating starts off with a mandatory 40-hour-week training,” Schwert said. “It was during this training that Kayla really took the time to talk to me and help quell some of my anxieties about being a new peer facilitator since she was returning.”
Stanek is currently applying to graduate schools for epidemiology, the topic of her UROP research. She hopes to continue research and explore the various disciplines under public health.