Professor wins diversity mentorship funds to bring Texas student to Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It was a presentation he never intended to do, yet it changed the entire outlook of his post-undergraduate journey. Little did Michael Segovia know, his presentation at an October conference in warm San Antonio, Texas, would a bring him to chilly State College in February for a post baccalaureate research fellowship at Penn State, supported by a diversity supplement funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Aging.

A Texas native, Segovia said he always had the desire to help people through the medical field. He attended a magnet health careers high school with the initial desire to be a health administrator. A key shift to his goal to enter academia is thanks to multiple post-high school mentors who have supported him throughout his journey to where he is today.

Now, Segovia said he is excited to learn more about the area of demography with his mentor, Alexis Santos, assistant professor of human development and family studies and of demography at Penn State. The NIH supplement will support their research on the impact of Medicaid expansion on rural health in the U.S.

“Having this subset of skills that Dr. Santos can offer me is just amazing. I have learned a lot in the span of a few weeks!” Segovia said.

Under Santos’ mentorship, Segovia is on the path to apply for doctoral programs, earn a Penn State diversity studies certificate, complete an online John Hopkins data-specialization certificate, submit research papers for possible publication and receive mentorship, all supported by the diversity supplement that allowed him to come to Penn State.

Segovia’s path to Penn State was supported by a longtime connection between Nittany Lions and Roadrunners from his alma mater, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where he received an undergraduate degree in public health and was mentored by professor Johnelle Sparks, who graduated from Penn State in 2006.

While he did not always know he wanted to go into research on health, another mentor and associate professor of public health, Jeffrey Howard, invited him to participate in a research opportunity with Sparks. From there, Segovia’s passion for research grew. Sparks, the senior associate dean of faculty success and administration, and professor of sociology and demography, then mentored Segovia for the rest of his time at UTSA.

“Through this mentorship and research, something that really sparked my interest was seeing how these people want to help people,” Segovia said. “They wanted to help a random undergrad like me, so I can’t even imagine the help they give to communities with specific health needs.”

Both Howard and Sparks mentored Santos as well, making this mentorship opportunity in Happy Valley a “circle or triangle of sorts.”

The start of a mentorship – from San Antonio to State College

At the October 2023 annual Southern Demographic Association Conference in San Antonio, Santos saw Segovia present “The Effects of LGBT Community Connectedness on Alcohol Consumption among Sexual and Gender Minorities” and said he thought “it was a fantastic presentation.” Sparks then encouraged Santos to bring Segovia to Penn State to strengthen the then-undergraduate student’s knowledge in demography and population health.

After Segovia agreed to the opportunity, Santos, Sparks and Howard, quickly wrote the grant. Together, they formed Segovia’s mentorship team, where all three professors will work to ensure his success in reaching the grant’s objectives over the next 1.5 years. This stands as a full-circle moment, as Sparks and Howard also mentored Santos during his time earning his doctorate in 2015 at UTSA and as he transitioned to his role as a faculty member. At Penn State, Segovia will also benefit from the mentorship of Kent Jason Cheng, currently a postdoctoral researcher under Santos’ mentorship.

Segovia arrived at Penn State in February, prepared to embrace State College winter with a new winter coat and eager to begin his mentorship with Santos.

“I come from Texas, so uprooting my life to Pennsylvania has been a little bit rough around the edges, but Dr. Santos has really made the transition as good as it could possibly be,” Segovia said. “I’m glad that I can come to work and have a very understanding supervisor.”

Santos and Segovia meet three times a week. The earlier meetings are dedicated to planning Segovia’s tasks for the week and discussing readings. On Friday, Santos checks in with the status of these tasks but more importantly, checks in with Segovia’s life in general by asking, “How are you doing?”

“That’s something Dr. Santos really excels in — making sure that whoever he is working with is okay. Not just with their work, but with themselves,” Segovia said. “I basically changed my entire life to be here. I think he recognizes that, and that’s something I really appreciate from him.”

Paving the way for future generations through mentorship

As individuals from underrepresented backgrounds themselves, both Santos and Segovia understand the barriers that students from these communities face as they enter academia and research. For Segovia, the idea of being in the research field was intimidating at first.

His first introduction into research was through Howard, his data management in health professor at the time, who recognized Segovia’s success in his class. Howard recommended Segovia take an open research assistant position with Sparks.

“To me, research was always a ‘smart person’s’ thing,” Segovia said. “Even though I was scared to do it — I was about to be a sophomore undergrad — my dad has always told me that if I want to get anywhere in life, I have to say ‘yes’ to opportunities, especially opportunities that I don’t expect.”

Now, over three and a half years later, Segovia reflected on how these mentors have shaped him and his outlook on academia.

“I realized that nothing is really impossible in academia,” Segovia said. “Things can be really difficult, but mentorship taught me that the more that you collaborate with people, the more you can learn to respect others and the people that you’re researching.”

Segovia said he hopes that more students can follow in his footsteps through opportunities like the diversity supplement, and he acknowledges Santos’s dedication to “wanting more people like me coming into the field rather than enforcing this social norm that you have to go into it alone.”

While both research and university can be intimidating to any student, Santos said he has been very interested in serving as a mentor since the beginning of his career. At Penn State, he continues to be passionate about fostering this diversity and inclusion in how research is approached, efforts that he channels through the Center for Healthy Aging.

“Diversity takes many forms. It's not just racial diversity,” said Santos, who is also a co-funded faculty member in the Social Science Research Institute. Santos highlighted examples such as students who are first-generation, have certain health conditions disabilities or grew up in rural areas. “If we acknowledge diversity comes in different forms, we can also acknowledge the fact that we all are challenged by academic institutions in different ways.”

He said he hopes to involve more people from the communities that are being studied, which can often be done through research funded by diversity supplements.

“That would be an amazing path forward to address structural and systemic barriers for various populations, such as facilitating access to resources,” Santos said. “This can help everybody have an easier time navigating university life. Because I know it’s not easy.”

As a researcher who was a first-generation student himself, Santos said it means a lot to him that those experienced in the field are opening more direct ways to mentorship, a theme that is also seen in Segovia’s journey, and the power of having multiple mentors.

“I was blessed by people who took the time to be with me when I was starting,” Santos said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do, pay it forward to amazing people like Michael.”

From early impact mentors to current colleagues, Santos not only pays it forward, but also continues to receive support himself from others in the Penn State Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

“I’m still a mentee, in many ways, of amazing faculty and colleagues who are also taking care of me as a rising scholar,” he said.

Although this grant brings Segovia and Santos together for 18 months, the meaning of this mentorship will continue to make lasting impacts on both of their lives.

“If at the end of the day, someone said I helped them, then that’s enough for me,” Santos said.