Hi everyone, my name is Bethany Alvarez, and I am joining the Alaska Afterschool Network as the Substance Use Prevention AmeriCorps VISTA after attending Indiana University at Bloomington. I will be graduating with my master’s in Behavioral, Social, and Community Health with a concentration in Public Health Administration this Spring (2022). I have combined my graduate program’s internship with my service year as the goals and timeline for each program aligned perfectly. I am a bit of a traveler at heart, born and raised in Rhode Island, then completing my undergraduate degree in Castleton, Vermont. I have previously worked as an emergency room medical scribe at the Rutland Regional Hospital, then a crisis responder at the Stride Coalition in Bloomington, Indiana.
I have always felt a profound fascination with all topics relating to health. I have felt a calling to become a physician since I was very young, and I aspire to one day create and influence healthcare policy. I especially wish to dismantle healthcare disparities. I believe that fostering healthy communities begins and ends with our youth, and my current service work seeks to explore the role that substance use prevention programming can play as it pertains to a child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. I believe that building the capacity of afterschool programs as early intervention will improve health outcomes and help families thrive. I love to be active and in my free time I enjoy ice skating, practicing martial arts, and drawing/painting.