Rachel Bernardo is a third-year student at American University, where she will graduate in 2020 with a B.S. in Public Health and a minor in Biology. She is involved in the Honors in Health Studies Program and hopes to attend medical school after college. She is currently studying abroad in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is taking public health courses through a partnership with the University of Nairobi. She is also interning at a local organization called Lea Toto that serves HIV+ children in Nairobi’s slums through providing medical care, prevention education, counseling, and economic empowerment.

Last summer, Rachel interned for Housing Works, a New York City-based, non-profit fighting AIDS and homelessness. She worked specifically with the PrEP program, striving to increase adherence and retention for the once-daily medication to prevent HIV. Rachel has also volunteered in her local community mentoring middle school students through DC Reads, a program that aims to close the achievement gap in DC Public Schools. Relating to decreasing inequity, Rachel has served as the President for the American University Chapter of United Against Inequities in Disease, where she worked on developing a program to teach health literacy classes to low-income areas in DC.