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Student Researcher Profiles - Yalonda Miller
An Interview with UNCG student Yalonda Miller
Conducted Spring 2008
Year in School: Senior
Major: Public Health Education
How did you find out about the research of the faculty member you worked with?
There was mass email sent out to Public Health Students letting us know about the opportunity. I began by volunteering and then applied for the assistantship
Did you receive academic credit and/or pay for doing your research?
I was paid $1,000 for the semester about $330 a month.
How long did your research project last?
It lasted the entire Fall 2007 semester.
How has your involvement in the research project helped you with respect to your college experience?
It has opened up doors for more networking and being able to apply the things I've learn in class about research to an actual project. It has helped me to be able to work as a team towards a common goal.
Has your research helped you with respect to understanding the content in the courses that you have taken? Can you give a specific example?
Yes, in Community Observations I learned about face to face interviews and focus groups. In doing this project I've been able to transcribe face to face interviews and moderate for focus groups. I was able to practice my skills of assessing the community and coming up with plans to implement programs.
What was the most positive aspect of your research project? The most negative?
The most positive aspect of my research project was being able to explore the ideas of mothers and daughters and see what they think about health. I also enjoyed being able to present the findings and discuss implications for the project. The most negative aspect was getting use to the transcribing, but now I can do it much faster and efficiently.
What is the title of your research? Briefly describe what your research is about.
The title is BRIGHT (Building Relationships Involves Growing Healthy Together). BRIGHT studies how mothers and daughters think about their personal health, their family health, and the positive and negative health habits and activities in their lives. The overall goal is to understand experiences and perception of urban mothers-daughter dyads regarding health issues in order to develop effective and meaningful family-based health promotion interventions.
What do you plan to do after graduation? Has this research experience influenced that decision at all? If so, how?
When I had the interview I told Brandi Sims (OUR Graduate Student) that I planned to get a job as a health educator either working with youth or mothers and infants. Since the interview I have been offered a Youth Tobacco Prevention Coordinator position with Forsyth County Health Department. This research has influenced my decision to work with youth because I enjoy working with youth and doing things that will help them and their families maintain better health habits.
