EXITO trains undergrads to tackle health disparities

When Carlos Crespo was appointed dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences in August 2022, he planted the seeds for a new research training program catered to the college’s undergraduates, especially those from historically underserved communities. Launched in the summer of 2024, the Enhancing Cross-disciplinary Innovation and Training Opportunities (EXITO) program offers early-career students three years of specialized study, mentorship and hands-on research experience.

Exito means “success” in Spanish. The program aims to cultivate leaders who can improve health and social systems in the communities that need it most. Nine students from various departments and programs — disability and human development, kinesiology, nutrition and rehabilitation sciences — made up the first cohort.

“We need to recruit students from the places where health disparities are, give them the same opportunity as students from other places and then encourage them to address their community’s problems better than anyone else can,” Crespo said.

The three-year track includes peer and faculty mentoring, courses on research practices, placement in a research learning community, scientific conferences and opportunities to present original research. Along the way, students get financial assistance so they can devote work hours to faculty research projects. Second- and third-year fellows are eligible for up to $5,000 in tuition support per academic year.  

The first iteration of EXITO was born at Portland State University in Oregon, where Crespo was a public health professor and vice provost. More than 600 students were trained through the program in Portland, and many went on to attend prestigious graduate schools.

Several initiatives at UIC, including the Urban Health Program and Medicina Scholars, help students from underserved communities succeed in health care fields. But EXITO works with Applied Health Sciences students through multitiered mentorship — peer mentors, EXITO sponsors, research mentors and a Urban Health Program advisor — to give support beyond graduate school or medical school admissions assistance.  

Viviana Kabbabe-Thompson, Applied Health Sciences assistant dean of student affairs, is partnering with these programs, especially with the Urban Health Program’s assistant director Jennifer Hernández, to develop EXITO’s mission in the coming years.

The goal is to increase students’ skills and marketability through research, Kabbabe-Thompson said. “UIC is known for its silos, and the more we can aid in supporting one another in programming, the more successful we will be in achieving our overall mission.”  

Rather than simply facilitating short stints for students as summer research assistants, EXITO helps them navigate the culture of the academic and professional world.  

“These students have faced obstacle after obstacle, whether that is a hurricane or a lack of money or books that were not in their native language,” Crespo said. “They have managed to show up here at UIC on their own, and it’s up to us to get them to the next level.”  

The mentorship and seminars of EXITO help fellows build skills steadily over years: how to network, talk with researchers, work in a lab or submit an abstract for a conference. Most importantly, the extended engagement allows the fellows to build their identity as scholars.

“One summer in a laboratory doesn’t eradicate imposter syndrome,” Crespo said. “It takes a couple of years for students to think of themselves as fellows or scientists.”

The EXITO program officially began in the summer of 2024 with a three-day research academy, where fellows met working researchers and built excitement for the road ahead.

For Ciara Balkcon, a kinesiology undergraduate student and EXITO fellow, the summer academy set the tone for her journey and gave her role models to follow.  

“I got the opportunity to meet with staff in the college and hear their stories of hardship, mistakes and eventually finding the path that got them to where they are now,” she said.  

As the fall 2024 semester began, fellows started weekly enrichment workshops taught by Grenita Hall, clinical associate professor in the department of physical therapy. The curriculum covers communication skills in academic settings, fundamental research concepts and CliftonStrength assessments to identify fellows’ top qualities.   

“The enrichment workshops have been primarily focused on how to search for and present yourself for opportunity, as well as learning about what it means to be a researcher,” Balkcon said. “Research is a vast landscape, and it’s important to find the right fit for you.”

During UIC Research Week, an annual series of events in April to celebrate the university’s successes in research, fellows interviewed to join a research learning community, a designation for faculty research projects with established investigators and two years’ worth of external funding. In early June, fellows began contributing 18 hours a week in their research learning communities. That working relationship will run through two academic years, up to the fellows’ graduation.

Developing faculty for the program is just as important as training the undergraduates of EXITO. Sangeetha Madhavan, professor in the department of physical therapy, has been working on faculty recruitment, engaging those interested in becoming mentors to EXITO fellows and leading research learning communities with their funded research projects. EXITO has awarded pilot grants to help promising projects become eligible for 2025-2026 and beyond, increasing opportunities for both researchers and incoming fellows.

“As a dean, I want (Applied Health Sciences) faculty to advance and conduct research, but as the (principal investigator) of EXITO, I want them to include our fellows in those projects,” Crespo said. “It’s important for any faculty member submitting a grant to think about how their research affects their students and the community.”

Balkcon, for one, hopes to conduct research that resonates with her personal life.

“As someone who is disabled and a lower-limb amputee, I’ve taken an interest in the never-ending growth potential in the field of prosthesis and orthotics,” Balkcon said. “My hope is to tap into the untapped areas for improvement as I’ve experienced them. I want to build a name for myself in research and contribute meaningfully to the areas that I see affecting the community I’m a part of.”

— Emily Parenti-Lopez, UIC College of Applied Health Sciences