Eduardo Santiago-Rodriguez: An Èxito! Grad Gives His Time to Help Others

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Editor’s Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2014 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply now for the 2015 Èxito! program.

Eduardo Santiago-RodriguezEduardo Santiago-Rodriguez
Naranjito, Puerto Rico

Despite growing up in poverty-stricken neighborhoods in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, Eduardo Santiago-Rodriguez was able to see the sincerity and beauty of the environments, people and culture—and he learned and important lesson:

“Great things can be done to help others with only giving your time.”

Motivated by his childhood experiences and family support, Santiago-Rodriguez earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Campus, and a master’s degree public health in epidemiology from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.

He then interned for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and for an international program sponsored by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. There, he was appointed to Murcia, Spain, to study the local geographic distribution of pediatric cancer.

Santiago-Rodriguez is currently a biostatistician at the Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

With aims of becoming a future independent researcher in the area of cancer health disparities, studying determinants of health and the integration of spatial data to the analysis, Eduardo applied 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.

He said the program was not only inspirational, but helpful and informational.

“Before coming [to the Éxito! Summer Institute], I made a list of questions I wanted to get answered about the application process and how to prepare for that,” Santiago-Rodriguez said. “Now I can say all of them were answered.”

Éxito!, a program funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, will select 20 master’s-level students and health professionals from across the nation to attend a five-day summer institute in June 2015, in San Antonio, offering research information, tools, tips, role models and motivation to encourage participants to pursue a doctoral degree and a career studying how cancer affects Latinos differently. Participants also are eligible to apply for one of several internships. Apply here.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

25.1

percent

of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage

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