Seminole State student expanded her horizons through Leaps and Bounds

"First of all, I'm so glad I started at Seminole State and not some other school, I would not be where I am school-wise without it," said Tatiana Restrepo. Currently a junior at the University of Central Florida with plans of attending medical school, Restrepo started at Seminole State College of Florida in Summer 2022 and, while searching for scholarships, found the Leaps and Bounds program that fostered her healthcare dreams. "At first my goal was to become a PA, but I talked to Dr. Byfield and I'm going to try for med school.” She said, “I figured if I'm going to do healthcare I might as well try to go all the way."

Uninjured Determination

Restrepo currently dreams of going into orthopedic and sports medicine surgery. As an active person and lifelong soccer player, after going through treatment for a severe injury Restrepo realized that she could also help athletes and help better. "I was told I was never going to walk again. I tore my ACL and then had to get two other surgeries and then because of those I had to get a patellar tendon reconstruction. That was the most difficult as it is the tendon that connects your knee to your lower leg." Restrepo said.

After successful surgeries and physical therapy, Restrepo recovered. "When a surgeon told me I was never going to walk again everything changed for me. I want to be the doctor who tells my athletes or my patients that they are going to walk again. I'm going to get you to walk again," she said.

Going Far with Research

Restrepo's altruistic nature carried over into her research work during the Leaps and Bounds program. She focused on case discrepancies in prostate cancer for Hispanic males, using the SEER database to look at age ranges, mortality rates, population sizes, what states and areas were more affected and investigated the Hispanic population vs their white counterparts to find that Hispanic men were being affected more in the population sizes. "For me, it was very exciting that I could do this research for my community," Restrepo said.

"It is important for the Hispanic communities to know, whether it is language barriers or socio-economic factors of where they live, it could be a whole bunch of different things, but now we know it is real and it is happening, and we can't always put minorities in the same group because they are different groups dealing with different things."

Dr. Maya Byfield, along with Dr. Marisol De Jesus Berrios, Dr. Simone Nelson and Tamara Steffy, created the Leaps and Bounds program with a $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program utilized high-impact practices and required students to take part in research opportunities, which they then presented collegewide and across Florida. Restrepo, along with a few other cohort members, got the chance to share their research in places including Washington D.C. and Chicago.

"Probably my biggest highlight is presenting at the American Heart Association at Nemours Children's Hospital," she said. Presenting her research to doctors was daunting, but she had the support of the program's mentors and her cohort members. "The program not only has given me this travel and networking experience but also shown the importance of communication and being able to talk to people about what I'm doing, why it is important and why we should keep looking at it."

For others starting college, Restrepo encourages them to get involved right away and to apply to every scholarship opportunity available. She also encourages them to build relationships with the faculty and staff. "Tammy Steffy was my mentor during this program and it is really nice to have that mentor there that you can be open with, and they feel trustworthy," she said. "Seminole State definitely has those professors and staff members you can trust and feel comfortable with talking to."