Taking a sick day was never an option for Ana Mascareñas’ mother, who had to upkeep her job as a high school counselor to support four children. Staying healthy was integral to taking care of her family.
Mascareñas, a graduate student at the Fielding School of Public Health, said she grew up admiring her mother’s commitment to physical health. So when the opportunity presented itself to help support her fellow graduate students’ research through running, she welcomed the chance.
Mascareñas will use her mother as inspiration on March 15 when she plans to run alongside fellow students, faculty, alumni and Dean Jody Heymann in the ASICS L.A. Marathon Charity Relay. Each of the 20 to 30 UCLA runners currently signed up is responsible for raising $500 tosupport graduate fieldwork fellowships. All of the money raised in the relay and marathon will go to the fellowships.
Lauren Harrell, co-president of the UCLA Public Health Student Association and a doctoral student, said she thinks some students struggling to pay tuition and supplemental professional school fees are limited in how they can impact their community.
Students and faculty who signed up for the marathon are preparing in different ways, though group runs are set to begin soon, Harrell said.
“I’ve run the L.A. Marathon once before,” Harrell said. “And I’ve been swimming and running six times a week to prepare. Students who are doing the charity relay are just getting into their longer runs.”
Mascareñas said she heard about the run through Students of Color for Public Health and decided to challenge herself. Although she has only run 5K and 10K marathons in the past, she said she wants to complete the charity relay to benefit fellow classmates committed to solving local and global health problems.
“My mother always impressed on me the necessity of taking care of yourself, to take care of others,” Mascareñas said.
Mascareñas had to depend on outside funding to complete her summer fieldwork improving emergency health care access in rural Nicaragua. She said she thinks running the marathon will help her to support current students with their fieldwork projects.
“Professional programs are especially financially challenging for students who put their jobs and responsibilities aside to start studying again,” Mascareñas said.
Students in the School of Public Health will be able to apply for fieldwork fellowships funded by the money raised through the marathon. Past fieldwork in the public health master’s program has included combatting childhood asthma in the Los Angeles area with global fieldwork involving cancer prevention and lowering air pollution exposure.
Heymann said she is training for the marathon by combining multiple short runs during the week with one long-distance run on weekends.
Since deciding to run long distance, Heymann said she has run two marathons within a year.
“My favorite part is being able to see so much of the city,” Heymann said, “When you’re on a bus you can miss so much. A marathon allows you to take everything in at a pace where you can really appreciate it.”