When the coronavirus pandemic struck New York Metropolis, LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty professor Lucia Fuentes assigned college students in her honors biology class to compile all the data they may discover about COVID-19.The end result? A web-based multilingual brochure primarily based on analysis from peer-reviewed journals, the World Well being Group and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention that has change into a worthwhile useful resource for immigrants in the US and their households overseas.“Science is sophisticated and we’ve to make it extra accessible,” Fuentes mentioned. “Because of this … I believed it will be an excellent factor for the scholars, and that it will be a contribution.”Nothing stopped the challenge — not even the dying of Fuentes’ husband on March 25, 2023 on account of issues from COVID-19, or her personal bout with the illness. In her grief, she stays dedicated to her college students and decided to stop others from getting sick.“I wasn’t going to drop my college students, and I knew they had been going by means of tons of actually horrible stuff,” she mentioned. “I talked to a few of them afterwards … they usually actually appreciated that.”She additionally valued their assist.“College students gave me power,” she mentioned. “Realizing that they anticipated me to be there, that’s what propels me. It all the time has. I like my college students.”The category brochures had been additionally printed and distributed in her native Guatemala in addition to in Colombia. Her most up-to-date work entails details about COVID vaccines.College students have already helped translate the most recent brochures into their native languages, together with Albanian, Korean and Portuguese.Fuentes’ challenge is rooted in her personal life experiences. She fled Guatemala after her father — Alberto Fuentes Mohr, a revered political chief, economist and diplomat — was kidnapped in 1970 and killed in 1979. When she went into exile to Switzerland, she didn’t know French, and she or he felt like she fell behind in school due to the language barrier.“It was an eye-opener in each approach by way of how I notice the battle and the questioning of the `equity’ of these of us who get the opportunity of having an schooling,” she mentioned.When she grew to become a university professor, she noticed how her college students confronted an analogous battle.“I noticed that it was the language. They had been sensible, they knew the stuff, it was simply the language.”Ruben Felipe Perez, a LaGuardia pupil from Colombia who hopes to attend medical faculty, referred to as Fuentes an “wonderful human being” who conjures up many by overcoming nice challenges in her quest to maintain others protected.“She simply turned all that grief into giving to the remainder of the neighborhood,” he mentioned.
When the coronavirus pandemic struck New York Metropolis, LaGuardia Neighborhood Faculty professor Lucia Fuentes assigned college students in her honors biology class to compile all the data they may discover about COVID-19.
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The end result? An online multilingual brochure primarily based on analysis from peer-reviewed journals, the World Well being Group and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention that has change into a worthwhile useful resource for immigrants in the US and their households overseas.
“Science is sophisticated and we’ve to make it extra accessible,” Fuentes mentioned. “Because of this … I believed it will be an excellent factor for the scholars, and that it will be a contribution.”
Nothing stopped the challenge — not even the dying of Fuentes’ husband on March 25, 2023 on account of issues from COVID-19, or her personal bout with the illness. In her grief, she stays dedicated to her college students and decided to stop others from getting sick.
“I wasn’t going to drop my college students, and I knew they had been going by means of tons of actually horrible stuff,” she mentioned. “I talked to a few of them afterwards … they usually actually appreciated that.”
She additionally valued their assist.
“College students gave me power,” she mentioned. “Realizing that they anticipated me to be there, that’s what propels me. It all the time has. I like my college students.”
The category brochures had been additionally printed and distributed in her native Guatemala in addition to in Colombia. Her most up-to-date work entails details about COVID vaccines.
College students have already helped translate the latest brochures into their native languages, together with Albanian, Korean and Portuguese.
Fuentes’ challenge is rooted in her personal life experiences. She fled Guatemala after her father — Alberto Fuentes Mohr, a revered political chief, economist and diplomat — was kidnapped in 1970 and killed in 1979. When she went into exile to Switzerland, she didn’t know French, and she or he felt like she fell behind in school due to the language barrier.
“It was an eye-opener in each approach by way of how I notice the battle and the questioning of the `equity’ of these of us who get the opportunity of having an schooling,” she mentioned.
When she grew to become a university professor, she noticed how her college students confronted an analogous battle.
“I noticed that it was the language. They had been sensible, they knew the stuff, it was simply the language.”
Ruben Felipe Perez, a LaGuardia pupil from Colombia who hopes to attend medical faculty, referred to as Fuentes an “wonderful human being” who conjures up many by overcoming nice challenges in her quest to maintain others protected.
“She simply turned all that grief into giving to the remainder of the neighborhood,” he mentioned.
