Announcing the 2022–2023 Youth Equity Discovery Initiative Scholars

Congratulations to 23 UC Berkeley undergrads who have been named as 2022–2023 Youth Equity Discovery Initiative Scholars.

The Youth Equity Discovery Initiative (YEDI) Scholars Program is a year-long cross-disciplinary research mentorship training program that “seeks to provide [UC Berkeley] undergraduate students – particularly students with lived experience of marginalization – with a coherent, multi-phased, mentored trajectory of meaningful research to become changemakers toward youth well-being and equity.”

YEDI is a program of Innovations for Youth (i4Y) and funded by the UC Berkeley Discovery Initiative with support from the School of Education, the School of Social Welfare, and the School of Public Health. Selected students take part in a “YEDI Immersion Experience” as a member of a faculty-driven team conducting youth equity research, often through community partnerships.

This is YEDI’s fifth year and, including this year’s cohort, has trained over 100 UC Berkeley undergraduate students in research skills centered around youth equity issues.

This academic year (2022/23), undergrads Shukri Suhir, Amanda Porras, Sophia Franco, and  Lucy Shang will be working on a project assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Experiencing Homelessness (YEH) with Berkeley Public Health Associate Professor Coco Auerswald.

Undergraduates Sakina Bambot and Madeline Keo will be working with Berkeley Public Health Professor Emily Ozer on a Youth Voice and Youth Participatory Action research project; Zachary Khouri, Leslie Reider, Alex Lei, and Jacqueline Richards will be working with Berkeley Public Health Associate Professor Valerie Shapiro on Helping Educators Use Research Evidence to Promote Student Wellbeing; and Jasleen Randhawa, Nicole Sears, Claire Shintani, Andra Zhang, and Mahek Kaur will work with i4Y Director Marieka Schotland on Research Translation and Dissemination.

Other projects include student wellbeing, the socio-emotional and academic development of Chinese American children in immigrant families, teacher wellbeing, health literacy, and more.