Vinerys Rodriguez, driven by her father’s encouragement and her mother’s brave recuperation from a pedestrian-car accident, is persistent in her efforts to work directly with Latino families to improve their health and prevent disease.
In fact, Rodriguez already is an experienced wellness coach.
She has worked with pregnant women to try to prevent gestational diabetes and with Latino families to spur healthier lifestyles in her roles as a wellness coach for the Y Living program (YMCA) and as a student associate for the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Now, as a master’s degree student in health and kinesiology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, her desire for a greater understanding of health disparities led her to apply for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program, which offers a five-day summer institute and internships to encourage master’s-level students and health professionals to pursue a doctoral degree and a cancer research career.
After attending the Éxito! Summer Institute, Rodriguez was more confident in her decision to pursue an advanced degree in nutrition with a more comprehensive look at how nutrition can prevent cancer and cancer reoccurrence.