Ex-beauty queen shuns Harvard in pursuit of public health career By MICHAEL A. SALORIO, Staff Writer
Sunday, August 31, 2003 9:24 PM PDT
Most people accepted to Harvard University do not turn down the opportunity to attend the prestigious ivy-covered campus, but that is exactly what a former beauty queen from El Centro did, with good reason.
In 1990, Esmeralda Iniguez, now 27, was named Miss Junior Teen San Diego. She competed against 57 contestants from Imperial and San Diego counties after entering the contest on a whim when she read an ad in the Valley Shopper promoting the contest.
In the case of Harvard, Iniguez was one of 54 accepted of 1,000 who applied for admission to the university's epidemiology Ph.D program. Epidemiology is the branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution and control of disease in a population.
Epidemiologists are frontline soldiers when outbreaks of disease occur, such as recent incidents of West Nile, SARS and ebola viruses infecting people around the globe. They track the origin of outbreaks and develop strategies for containing them and preventing them in the future.
Iniguez said she originally intended to become a physician because since she was a little girl she possessed the desire to help people.
Iniguez graduated from Central Union High School, where she played clarinet in the Great Spartan Band, in 1994. She then attended the University of California, San Diego, where she earned a bachelor's degree in physiology and neuroscience in 2000. During her stint at UCSD, she played clarinet and piano for the school orchestra.
During her undergraduate years Iniguez decided to pursue a career in public health instead of medicine.
"I didn't go into medicine because it's very individualistic. Public health research has an impact on whole populations. I wanted to have an impact in the community helping people," said Iniguez.
While at UCSD, she worked on a study that looked at health-care utilization patterns among the Latino population in San Diego County. The results of her study were published in the Journal of Poor and Underserved Populations.
The results indicated Latinos, specifically recently arrived Mexicans, in San Diego were being underserved in their health-care needs because of poverty, lack of insurance and cultural roadblocks. The roadblocks included language barriers and a lack of trust with the Western health care system.
According to Iniguez's findings, Mexicans in San Diego County were seeking alternative avenues to meet their health-care needs. They especially were relying on traditional "curanderos," who act as shamans and healers in the rural areas of Mexico.
In 1998, Iniguez presented her findings at the National Minority Research Symposium in New York City.
In 2000, she was invited to present her research into skin cancer prevention at the American Public Health Association's 128th annual convention in Boston. Iniguez said the experience was a nerve-wracking one because it was the first presentation she had given to health-care professionals. The New York symposium had been an undergraduate research conference.
While at the Boston symposium, Iniguez met U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. She discussed her research with Satcher, who told her to keep up the good work.
After graduating from UCSD, Iniguez attended San Diego State University, where she earned her master's of public health degree this year.
While at SDSU she conducted research into tobacco use among teenagers and developed a smoking-cessation program for middle school students. High school students were recruited and trained to speak at middle schools to serve as peer counselors and encourage middle-schoolers not to smoke.
"The kids were really involved," said Iniguez.
In 2001, she presented the preliminary results of her tobacco cessation project at APHA's 129th annual convention in Atlanta.
Her tobacco-cessation research efforts led her to Germany in summer 2002, where she studied tobacco company marketing strategies. Additionally, she spent this summer in France, where she studied government health data on tobacco smoking patterns.
While in France, she met with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who visited the Canadian House at the University of Paris, where Iniguez was residing.
After mulling her admission offers from Harvard and other universities, Iniguez decided to pursue her Ph.D. at UCSD. Harvard did not provide her the financial aid package UCSD did. She was awarded a National Institute of Health fellowship that effectively serves as a full scholarship to UCSD.
"It was the hardest decision in my life. Harvard is a very good school, but it's more expensive," said Iniguez.
Iniguez said she also chose to remain in San Diego, where she will be able to continue working with the professors with whom she has an excellent working relationship. Additionally, she will be close to her family in Imperial County.
Ultimately, Iniguez would like to become a college professor or an epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control working on international disease outbreak projects.
Iniguez's mother, Carlota Mendez of El Centro, said she is proud of her daughter's accomplishments. Mendez said although she saw to it that her daughter, her only child, received a well-rounded education, having enrolled her in etiquette, piano and equestrian lessons in her youth, it was her daughter's efforts that led to her success.
"I feel that her success is compensation for her efforts and consistency with her studies. She sacrificed a lot to get where she is today. She has given priority to her studies," said Mendez.
Her late uncle Francisco Mendez, aunt Margarita Iniguez and upbringing in the Catholic Church also deserve credit for her success, said Carlota Mendez.
The thing that makes her most proud of her daughter is that she has remained a humble person. She pointed out her daughter volunteers to help peasants in Baja California by educating them in health-care issues and offering basic medical care. This volunteer work is performed with a group from SDSU, UCSD and the Autonomous University of Baja California in Tijuana twice a year.
Iniguez said she became involved with the group while working on her master's degree.
"It's an awesome experience. Out of all the things I have done, it has been one of the most rewarding things," said Iniguez.
As for her daughter giving up Harvard to remain close to home, Mendez said she prefers her daughter continue working with the professors who have been a critical component of her success. However, she is proud her daughter was accepted to Harvard.
"I have the utmost confidence in her," said Mendez.
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