Dec. 4, 2019 — UTSA is working with a San Antonio middle school on the city’s West Side to provide an alcohol and substance abuse prevention intervention program designed to educate at-risk adolescents on the effects that alcohol and other illicit drugs have on the body and mind.
The UTSA Institute for Health Disparities Research has been awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund Project Preventing Adolescent Alcohol and Substance Abuse.
The 2018 Texas School Survey of Drugs and Alcohol Use indicated that 34% of seventh graders had used alcohol in their lifetime and almost 15% indicated having used alcohol in the past month. The rate of use is even higher among eighth graders, with 42% having ever used alcohol and 20% having used in the past month.
—THANKAM SUNIL, Director of UTSA’s Institute for Health Disparities Research
The UTSA project will address these issues in partnership with the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District.
“We will implement a nationally used, evidence-based intervention curriculum on a middle school campus focused on building emotional capacity for drug-free living through an interactive process of setting realistic goals, making responsible decisions, managing emotions, refusing negative peer pressure and building healthy relationships,” explained Thankam Sunil, the principal investigator and director of the UTSA institute.
⇒ Learn more about UTSA’s Institute for Health Disparities Research.
⇒ Learn more about the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.
Professor Sunil said like the IHDR’s other research projects, project PAASA will offer opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to get involved as research assistants.
“At the IHDR, our current and past research projects reflect a demonstrated commitment to addressing health disparities in underserved communities,” Sunil explained. “Our projects have given UTSA students opportunities to get hands-on experience in a formal research setting by applying their public health knowledge through internships and volunteering.”
This urban-serving research institute, housed in UTSA’s College of Liberal and Fine Arts, was established in 2010 and its primary mission is to reduce and eliminate health disparities in South Texas through integration of biomedical and sociobehavioral science approaches.
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The UTSA University Career Center invites you to attend the STEM Career Expo from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feburary 8. Meet, connect and recruit UTSA students and alumni.
H-E-B Student Union Ballroom, HSU 1.104-1.106The UTSA University Career Center invites you to attend the All Majors Career Expo from 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feburary 8. Meet, connect and recruit UTSA students.
H-E-B Student Union Ballroom, HSU 1.104-1.106This competition is for students who are working on a project and prototype and want to assess the market opportunity and commercial potential of their technology in a risk-free environment.
Science and Engineering Building, SEB 1.150GCitation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Zotero can also generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual eventChiquita Collins, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at UT Health San Antonio, will virtually engage in conversation regarding the 2023 Black History Month theme, “Resistance. Persistence. Excellence.”
Virtual eventThe Carlos Alvarez College of Business and the Alvarez Student Success Center will host their Second Annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Symposium. The theme for this year is inclusive leadership. The featured keynote speaker will be Melissa Majors, author of “The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders.”
H-E-B Student Union Ballroom, HSU 1.106Join your fellow Roadrunners for the annual Heart Health Walk. If you can’t meet up on campus, get outside and walk for at least 10 minutes at 9 a.m. Walkers are encouraged to wear red and post their pictures to Instagram using the hashtag #28DaysOfHeartAtUTSA.
Rowdy Statue, Sombrilla PlazaThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
