I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a scientist. I grew up around hardworking people who believed in education as a path to a better life. Both my mother and grandmother grew up in poor Central American villages and imparted the importance of education on me. “La educación es lo único que nadie te puede quitar.” That means, “Education is the one thing no one can take from you.”
Thanks to my education, I discovered that science could be a way to understand disease and to help people live healthier lives. Now I’m a doctoral student in nutrition sciences, studying metabolic health to improve public policy in the future. But, massive cuts to federal funding threaten my ability to do my work, block universities from training scientists, and stall research that prevents disease and saves lives.
I didn’t realize science could be a tool for service until I transferred from College of the Canyons to California State University, Long Beach, to complete my bachelor’s degree. Through amazing mentors and federally funded research training, I learned how you can study human diseases and apply what you learn to real-world health problems.
That insight led me all the way to Birmingham, Alabama, where I am now in my fourth year of a Ph.D. program. I’ve done research on how different obesity treatments impact health — ranging from bariatric surgery to diet and exercise. As I’ve progressed in the program, I’m focusing on how big societal factors, like neighborhood poverty, can limit what options people have for improving their health. I hope to continue this work with additional training in public health, translating science into solutions that matter for people’s everyday lives.
However, President Donald Trump’s second term quickly snuffed out any semblance of a normal transition into the workplace.
Federal funding is the backbone of my research, and of the research I plan to do in the future. But this February, the Trump administration tried to make massive cuts to the National Institutes of Health. Even though a federal judge blocked that move, another Trump budget proposes $20 billion cuts to the NIH and aims to collapse or eliminate different research centers.
Some people might say that the cuts are mainly going to affect diversity studies. Since I’m in the field of nutrition, I should be fine, right?
Unfortunately, even health sciences have not been spared. Columbia University lost hundreds of millions in funding, leading to the termination of the Diabetes Prevention Program. This program is a landmark diabetes trial that showed lifestyle changes can significantly reduce someone’s chances of getting diabetes. If I was hired to study diabetes and lifestyle interventions at a university, it would be devastating to see funding pulled for political reasons. They are not the only ones affected, with dozens of California universities losing training grants this spring. This creates an inhospitable environment to conduct research and train the next generation of scientists.
I carry the weight of these political threats with a perseverance forged by family and the scientific community. My mom and grandma’s humble lives and wisdom give me the mental toughness to study hard and give back to the community through my education. In California during undergrad, I learned how to be a scientist thanks to the NIH-funded “Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity” program. In Alabama, where the legacy of Jim Crow still lingers, I learned that it takes a massive and sustained effort to undo health inequality.
After all this work, I can’t bear to see biomedical research be forever marred by Trump’s policies. Therefore, us scientists need support from beyond the scientific community to stand up against these anti-science policies that hurt people now and in the future.
I urge you to apply pressure on your elected officials so your universities can study diseases and train researchers the way they always have. Uphold strong educational standards, make it affordable for people to obtain their degrees, and fight back against scientific censorship.
As my family says, your education may be the one thing no one can take from you. But there’s also another saying, “Use it or lose it.” For all of you who have an education of any kind, I’m inviting you to use it with me. Use your words and voices and hold the government accountable to fund biomedical research and leave researchers to their jobs without partisan interference. I don’t want to imagine a world where an education in solving human diseases becomes useless.
Amanda Finn
Saugus
