The purpose of the CHEK-D Community Statistics Outreach Project is to educate high school students in New Mexico and Navajo Nation about statistics and to introduce them to a wide variety of statistics-related careers, including those in the health sciences. Our goal is to motivate students to consider taking a statistics class to learn critical thinking and analytical skills when reading research study findings in scientific and popular press. Ms. Yuri Leyva, from our CHEK-D team, provides students with engaging examples of how to think critically and analytically about data visualizations in her presentation. She conducted this outreach in person before the pandemic, and she switched her presentation to Zoom in response to COVID restrictions. During the summer of 2023, she returned to in-person presentations and reached a wider grade-range of K-12 and college-bound high-school graduates in the following summer programs:
Undergraduate Health Sciences Enrichment Program (UHSEP) – 15 students from 10 NM high schools in Albuquerque, Corrales, and Gallup, NM.
Health Careers Academy (HCA) – 8 students from 6 high schools in Northwestern New Mexico/Navajo Nation, including one Arizona high school.
Building Outstanding STEM-H Students (BOSS) - Spark 2 STEM event hosting close to 40 students from 12 K-8th grade schools located all over Albuquerque.
The CHEK-D is committed to significantly and positively impacting research, education and outreach activities to increase healthcare equity and reduce disparities by partnering with dedicated faculty, staff and community leaders.