Valerie S
- Research Program Mentor
MD candidate at University of Miami
Expertise
Internal Medicine, Public Health, Mental health, chemistry, geometry, Spanish (advanced proficiency), English, music
Bio
Hello! My name is Valerie Stark and I am a 4th year medical student at University of Miami Miller, School of Medicine. I completed my Bachelor of Science in Human Biology at University of California, San Diego and have a love for sciences, mental health, and medicine. I have done quite a few research projects, including a longitudinal program on anxiety and COVID immunity, medical case reports, H. Pylori epidemiology, and tracheostomy outcomes. I have been involved from recruiting all the way to writing and submitting manuscripts and posters to journals and conferences. Outside of my academic passion, I ran cross country and track in college and have been doing marathons and half marathons since graduating and I also love music, singing, and playing the piano.Project ideas
Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
Prevalence of anxiety in a high school population
My field of expertise involves mental health, mentorship, and internal medicine and I am proficient in SPSS. Students will gain knowledge of recruiting participants, utilizing accredited surveys, collecting survey data using qualtrics and excel, analyzing the data using excel and/or SPSS, and writing a manuscript. This will include reaching out to high schools to obtain consent to spread the survey, gathering answers from high school students anonymously, and exporting it from qualtrics to excel, replacing answers with numeric symbols to compute to SPSS. The potential student outcomes may include writing a scientific research paper, creating a survey, and/or creating an oral or poster presentation.
Languages I know
Spanish, intermediate to advancedTeaching experience
As a Peer Support Network (PSN) mentor at my medical school, I am certified in Mental Health First Aid to provide students with tailored support upon request. As current president of PSN, I update resources, communicate PSN requests to the team, organize social meetings and trainings for the PSNs, facilitate a supportive team dynamic between PSN groups, and also respond to requests to speak with students in need of a listening ear or help. In addition, I worked as a mentor at UCSD for selected students from underserved communities in the Greater San Diego area for a program called Chancellor's Associate Scholarship Program (CASP). As a CASP mentor, I planned one-on-one meetings with my assigned mentee group of ten four times per year, checked in on them twice each academic quarter, planned group social events, and directed them to the resources as needed for them to succeed. I was also the Office of Academic Support and Instruction Services (OASIS) Learning Community (OLC) Mentor in which I planned classes for my group of about 15 students from the CASP program to provide skills and guidance to help promote a smooth transition into UCSD and careers beyond. I also have experience with private tutoring and at Excelsius Academy, in which I facilitated a learning space where I guided my students through complex problems in a safe environment through collaboration, organization, and critical thinking. I taught various levels of English and literature, Spanish, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra, and Geometry to diverse academic levels during these sessions. Furthermore, I taught, organized, and managed classrooms of about 27 students from fifth to tenth grade English and Natural Science at a private primary to secondary school in Madrid, Spain. In undergrad, I was an OASIS General Chemistry Tutor and I personalized tutoring to UCSD General Chemistry students’ learning styles to maximize understanding and facilitated safe study group environments of about 5 students.Credentials
Work experience
University of Miami Miller, School of Medicine (2021 - Current)
Peer Support Network Director and MentorExcelsius Academy (2020 - 2020)
TutorMeddeas at Colegio Valdefuentes (2018 - 2019)
English Language AssistantChancellor's Associate Scholarship Program and Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (2015 - 2018)
CASP lead mentor, learning community mentor, and OASIS chemistry group tutorEducation
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
BS Bachelor of Science (2018)
Human BiologyUniversity of Miami
MD/MPH Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health candidate
Public health in medicineUniversity of Miami
MD Doctor of Medicine candidate
Medicine