From New York to Surfing in Valparaíso: Santiago Center Opens New Path for Mailman’s APEx Program
The Santiago Center worked with a local NGO, Valpo Surf Project, to define opportunities for Mailman School of Public Health students to perform their Applied Practice Experience (APEx) program. Eian Small was the first Mailman student to take advantage of this partnership.
What began with an exploratory meeting between the Columbia Global Center Santiago and Valpo Surf Project (VSP) at the beginning of the year evolved into a hands-on graduate student project, a new collaboration with Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and the beginnings of a longer-term relationship around adolescent socio-emotional development.
VSP is non-profit organization located in the port city of Valparaíso, Chile, that empowers at-risk and underserved youth through a combination of surfing, education, and mentorship. Little did it know at the time that the January meeting would mark the start of what it now describes as a “very significant journey” to welcoming a Columbia graduate student into its work.
Several months after that initial contact, VSP accepted into its program Eian Small, a graduate student from Columbia University, who traveled to Chile to work directly with VSP through the Mailman School of Public Health’s Applied Practice Experience (APEx) program.
Finding an opportunity for Mailman in Valparaíso
The collaboration illustrates one of the Santiago Center’s roles within Columbia’s global network: identifying local organizations and opportunities that can connect naturally with the University’s academic expertise and experiential learning programs.
In the case of VSP, the Santiago Center recognized an organization whose work with children and adolescents in Valparaíso could provide a meaningful setting for a Mailman APEx project. The Santiago Center subsequently connected VSP with the Mailman School, opening the door for the organization to participate in the program in which Eian emerged as the organization’s APEx candidate.
The match proved particularly productive.
Although Eian spoke limited Spanish upon arriving in Chile, they adapted quickly to VSP’s working environment and exceeded expectations across the projects in which they participated. Eian’s first assignment was to develop an annotated bibliography of VSP’s methodology, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of the organization’s work and its impact on children and adolescents in Valparaíso.
That initial research revealed an area where Eian’s interests and VSP’s needs aligned particularly well: socio-emotional development.
The literature review identified an opportunity to strengthen VSP’s existing processes for assessing socio-emotional outcomes. Working together, Eian and VSP therefore developed a project to investigate and systematize different assessment tools that could help the organization improve its methodology.
From an APEx placement to a faculty connection
The collaboration also generated an unexpected second connection, this time with Mailman faculty member Dr. Sabrina Hermosilla, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health.
Through the APEx experience, VSP established a relationship with Dr. Hermosilla, whose background made the connection especially relevant to the organization. A Chilean who knows Valparaíso well, Dr. Hermosilla’s research focuses on the social determinants of mental health and psychosocial outcomes among adolescents living in complex global contexts.
Her expertise became directly relevant to the work Eian had begun with VSP. Dr. Hermosilla helped guide the project and contributed to the organization’s thinking about how to strengthen its approach to socio-emotional assessment.
In this way, an opportunity initially identified as a potential experiential learning placement for a Mailman student developed into a broader connection involving a local organization, a Columbia graduate student, and a Mailman faculty member.
Building a relationship beyond APEx
The relationship is continuing beyond the conclusion of Eian’s work with VSP.
The organization said it remains in contact with both Eian and Dr. Hermosilla as it begins implementing a new socio-emotional assessment strategy as part of an application for specific funds. Eian is also expected to take a class with Dr. Hermosilla during the upcoming semester, providing another opportunity to strengthen the connection.
For VSP, Dr. Hermosilla could become a valuable resource in the future — not only because of her expertise, but also because of her ability to connect the organization with other researchers interested in collaborating with its work.
The experience is also strengthening the relationship between VSP and the Santiago Center. “We are very grateful for this opportunity and for all the support we received from the Columbia Global Center Santiago to make this possible,” said Logan Hunnicutt, VSP Impact Analyst and the Santiago Center’s main contact.
“We hope that we can continue to strengthen the relationship between VSP and the Santiago Global Center, and we will be very attentive to future opportunities similar to APEx that may arise,” he added.
What began as a conversation in January thus developed into much more than a graduate student placement. By identifying a local organization with a strong connection to issues relevant to public health, introducing VSP to Mailman, and helping create the conditions for an APEx project as well as the real possibility of future research collaboration, the Santiago Center helped establish a bridge between Columbia expertise and meaningful work taking place in Valparaíso.
