Ela is a 4th year Global Health Major who is passionate about advocating for the wellbeing and equality of all individuals worldwide. Ela is one of the General Health co-leads for SHA for the 2020-2021 academic year. She is also an intern and facilitator for Save The Children, as well as a lab volunteer for Professor Willis's social psychology lab at UCSD. Ela's hobbies include playing video games, making crafts, shopping, and spending time with friends.
The Student Health Advocates (SHA) of UCSD is an application-only peer health education program that has specially trained peer volunteers that aid in different education and outreach efforts related to health across campus. There are three divisions of SHA: General Health, Sexual Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs. Ela was accepted as a General Health Peer Educator in the winter 2018 recruitment and application process. She spent spring quarter of 2019 going through training for around three hours every week in a lecture classroom. Starting fall 2019, she was officially volunteering for 30 hours every quarter around campus, which included around three hours per week of volunteering at the information booth of SHS, volunteering at the flu clinic, presenting health education materials via tabling, workshops, and different events, as well as meeting with other members in order to plan future events for peers.
Ela states that "by volunteering at SHA, not only did I gain additional communication, teamwork, and leaderships skills, but I also got to be in a warm and educational environment that contributed so much to my experience at UCSD. I can honestly say that it contributed positively to my overall time at UCSD. I also made long lasting friendships with fellow members of SHA, whoa re some of the nicest and wisest people I have met on campus. Overall it has been beneficial to my brain, heart, and soul."
Learn more about SHA here: http://sha.ucsd.edu/
