In May, health policy certificate student Susan Farias joined Professor Sarah Halpern-Meekin in her work on the Baby’s First Years project, which studies the impact of poverty reduction on family life and infant and toddlers’ cognitive, emotional, and brain development. Over the past three years, Halpern-Meekin has hired several certificate students to work alongside her in the research, giving students a chance to learn about social policy issues and build skills in qualitative research.
Farias was inspired to get involved with the Baby’s First Years project after completing her first health policy course with La Follette’s director of experiential learning, Mary Michaud. “I became more interested in policy-related experience,” Farias says. “This opportunity showed up in my email and sounded like an amazing way to get involved in research. I have always had an interest in children’s development and socioeconomics, so being on this project seemed like a perfect fit.”
“Susan and the other undergraduate students who have been on the project are key members of the team—we all contribute in different ways toward the larger mission,” says Halpern-Meekin. “It’s exciting when students are making connections between what they’re learning in class, what they’ve experienced in their own lives growing up, and what we’re exploring in our research. Those kinds of connections can help make classroom learning come alive for students and bring their fresh insights to our work.”
As the first research project Farias has had the opportunity to work on, Baby’s First Years helped her hone important technical skills like editing transcriptions to make them clearer and dichotomous coding, a statistical analysis method of assigning numerical values to a categorical variable where only two possible categories exist. Her work has also complemented her La Follette coursework, which focuses on evidence-based policies and the research methods used to produce them. “My biggest takeaway from this experience is that every family has a different situation going on and different struggles,” Farias says. “It is important to understand that everyone has their own hardships, whether it is money, health, mental health, or relationships.” Farias says her favorite part of the role has been getting to hear the stories of mothers’ experiences with the project. “It is so heart-warming to hear their stories about being a mother and how the program has benefitted their family,” she says.
Farias says that working with Halpern-Meekin and the rest of the team has been a wonderful experience, and that they encourage and welcome Farias’ questions while striving to get the most accurate and consistent coding. “They have always been there if I have any questions about my part of the project or the project as a whole. I am so grateful that they are open to acting as mentors when it comes to questions about graduate programs and their experiences.” Reflecting on her time working on the Baby’s First Years project, Farias says she is passionate about her work, and she plans to dedicate her future career to helping those in need.
– Story by Clare Brogan