Luiza Alves de Oliveira, a first-year nursing student at the Manhattanville University School of Nursing and Health Sciences in Purchase, New York, has known from a young age that she wanted to take care of people. In her native country of Brazil, de Oliveira helped care for her grandmother and uncle. When she moved to the United States in 2019 to work as an au pair, she helped take care of a newborn with congenital heart disease. She also enjoyed studying subjects like biology and math. Her experiences in Brazil and the U.S., along with her interest in science, led her to pursue an academic path where she could learn how to make a difference in health care, particularly in cardiology. Now, de Oliveira has been selected as one of just 34 recipients nationwide of the prestigious American Heart Association (AHA) Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Scholars Program for the 2024-2025 academic year. Additionally, she is the only 2024-2025 scholar to come from a four-year educational institution in New York state.
This highly competitive program, which drew more than 150 applicants from across the U.S., provides students at Hispanic Serving Institutions – like Manhattanville – with an array of resources, including scholarships and mentoring opportunities. Students accepted into the program engage in a leadership and professional development series to enhance critical skills. They learn about health disparities in Hispanic communities, how cultural sensitivity can provide safe and reassuring clinical spaces, and how inclusivity is essential in science.
As part of the program, de Oliveira is working closely with mentor Christa Hartch, Ph.D., RN, FNP-C., an assistant professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Manhattanville. Hartch has been nationally recognized for her research advances in medication adherence using an app called Medisafe. de Oliveira will help Hartch conduct further research on the use of specific features of the app, which will shed light on the role that social support and cultural factors play in health outcomes, which are critical issues in Hispanic communities.
Manhattanville University has earned a designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, evidence of the increasingly diverse student body and commitment to inclusive excellence. Hispanic Serving Institutions play a pivotal role in fostering opportunities for diverse student populations to succeed in the workforce of tomorrow. To be designated as an HSI, an institution of higher education must have a full-time equivalent (FTE) undergraduate student enrollment that is at least 25% Hispanic. Manhattanville’s student body is more than 35% Hispanic. Manhattanville has also earned an Equity and Inclusion badge from Colleges of Distinction.
