Past Fellows – UCLA Immigrant Youth Task Force

Summer 2020 Undergraduate Fellows

Ada Chung

Project Title: Mental Health Amongst the Undocumented Adolescent Homeless Population in Los Angeles

Research Mentor: Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi, MD, MS
Psychiatry
Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital

Student Bio: Ada Chung is a first-year Psychobiology student minoring in Disability Studies. She is deeply passionate about the intersection between mental health, developmental disability, immigration policy, and the underserved community. Through her research with Dr. Ijadi-Maghsoodi, she hopes to be able to push mental health care forward and create suggestions to create better mental health care tailored to undocumented/mixed immigration status youth experiencing homelessness. Her future goals are to obtain an MD/MPH and become a psychiatrist. At UCLA she is involved with the undergraduate branch of the Immigrant Youth Task Force and All Brains. Outside of academics, she is passionate about ballet, painting, and exploring restaurants in LA.

Niousha Farhangi

Project Title: The Emotional Dimensions of Immigrant and Youth of Color Activism

Research Mentor: May Lin
PhD Candidate in Sociology, USC
UCLA Public Affairs Lecturer

Student Bio: I am an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Public Affairs. My passion lies at the intersection of public policy and grassroots advocacy; researching and developing ways to inform more inclusive and effective policy around issues such as immigrant rights.

Summer 2020 Graduate Fellows

Sophia L. Ángeles

Project Title: Living and Learning under a Global Pandemic: Lessons from Los Angeles Immigrant Youth

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marjorie F. Orellana, Professor, Department of Education

Student Bio: Sophia L. Ángeles is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Education examining the experiences of newcomer youth in high school and their transitions to college under the mentorship of Dr. Marjorie F. Orellana and Dr. Cecilia Rios Aguilar. She graduated from Cornell University with her B.A. in Psychology, and minors in Education and Latino Studies. She then received her M.S. and Ed.S. degrees from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro in Counseling, specializing in school counseling. She worked as a school counselor in North Carolina and across Northern California. Sophia is committed to creating school systems that create opportunities for all newcomer youth to be college and career ready..

Naseem Rangwala

Student Bio: Naseem Rangwala is a second year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has a BA in Public Health from UC Berkeley. Driven by her interest in working with immigrant communities, she joined the Immigrant Youth Task Force at UCLA and aims to continue to integrate public health and human rights advocacy into her work with immigrant populations as a physician.

Ritika Rastogi

Project Title: Meeting the Social Developmental Needs of Immigrant Youth in Schools

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jaana Juvonen
Professor of Psychology

Student Bio: Ritika Rastogi is a third year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program at UCLA. After receiving her BA in 2016 from Northwestern University, she worked under the supervision of Drs. Julie Lumeng and Allison Miller at the Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Michigan. Informed by her own experiences as a second-generation US-American, Ritika’s research examines the various roles that Youth of Color play in their school communities, with a focus on the interpersonal, psychosocial, and academic outcomes associated with their peer relationships. She is particularly interested in understanding the social and interpersonal experiences of immigrant-origin youth.

Mia Yanez

Student Bio: Mia Yanez is a second year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Human Biology and minor in Spanish. As a future physician, she is interested in eliminating health disparities by not only working in primary care, but also serving as an advocate on a health policy level for underserved populations such as the homeless and immigrant communities.

Stephanie Yu

Project Title: Academic-Community Partnership: Adapting Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youth-Acute (SAFETY-A) for Immigrant Youth

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anna S. Lau
Professor, Vice Chair of Graduate Studies

Student Bio: Stephanie Yu is a second-year Clinical Psychology PhD student at UCLA, working with Dr. Anna S. Lau in the Culture and Minority Mental Health Lab. She graduated from UC Berkeley with her B.A. in Psychology and Social Welfare, and minors in Asian American Studies and Education. She completed her post-baccalaureate research with Dr. Allison Harvey at UC Berkeley, implementing an evidence-based sleep intervention into community mental health clinics of Alameda County serving diverse, underserved communities. Stephanie is passionate about increasing access to quality mental healthcare for health disparity populations.

Specifically, her research is focused on:
1) examining how to adapt and implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) into community settings serving racial/ethnic minority and immigrant communities
2) school-based implementation of culturally-responsive EBPs (e.g., suicide interventions) to increase reach for diverse youth
3) culturally-informed stigma reduction

Summer 2020 Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA) Intern

Alejandra Vargas

Student Bio: Alejandra Vargas is the daughter of parents from the states of Oaxaca and Nayarit in Mexico, and grew up in Tijuana, Baja California. She is a current Master’s of Social Welfare student at The University of California, Los Angeles where she is specializing in Social & Economic Justice and Public Child Welfare. Alejandra received a Bachelor’s Degree in Latin American/Latinx Studies & Literature from The University of California, Santa Cruz where she managed a suicide hotline for 6 years and participated in programs to foment safety, community, and education within the Latinx community.

Summer 2019 Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA) Intern

Abou Ibrahim-Biangoro

Student Bio: Abou Ibrahim-Biangoro is an MPH student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She has a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and is currently studying within the Environmental Health Sciences department for her Masters. She has a passion for the environment’s impacts on the healthcare system, and how that influences policy.

Summer 2019 IYTF Research Fellow

Natalia Garcia Penaloza

Student Bio: Natalia Garcia Penaloza is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA/DREW joint medical education program. She graduated from San Francisco State University, where she began her formative work with community organizations analyzing social and medical conditions faced by marginalized and vulnerable communities while learning about the labor of love for community and medicine. Later, she worked at a Federally Qualified Health Center as a health educator amongst various clinics and high schools servicing underserved, immigrant, and homeless populations as well as youth, expectant mothers, and others. Through her medical education and as a future physician, she hopes to work towards ensuring equitable high-quality healthcare for all, especially to those who are most vulnerable.

Spring 2020 Undergraduate Research Fellow

Hazel Ramos

Project Title: The Effects of Electronic Ankle Monitors on Immigrants’ Health

Faculty Mentor: Mirian Martinez-Aranda MA
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Sociology
University of California Los Angeles