Deeyana Desronvil ’24
Health Policy and Management
Biology
As a health policy and management major since her first semester at Providence College, Deeyana Desronvil ’24 of Brockton, Massachusetts, was excited to learn the ins and outs of the healthcare industry. She’s learned both major concepts and smaller details, but it’s the connections between healthcare, society, culture, and economics that deepened her interest in healthcare as a study and a career.
Working with Aishah Scott, Ph.D., assistant professor of Black studies and health sciences, Deeyana has developed a concrete understanding of racial and economic inequities in the field. Her exploration of American obesity, for instance, led her to learn more about how the epidemic is compounded by poverty and poor access to nutrition in neighborhoods termed “food deserts.”
Informed by research, she and her health policy and management classmates prepared a proposal for a local nutritional campaign in Providence. One challenge was to identify the best places and times to distribute healthy foods and ingredients. Based on observations as bus riders (a Providence College student ID is also a Rhode Island public transit pass), they chose key bus transit hubs as distribution sites.
Deeyana is grateful that students and faculty in her health policy and management classes are eager to understand ideas from different racial, gender, and other social perspectives. “It’s a study where people come in wanting to learn what other people see and experience. They want to understand,” she said.
Outside of her classes, Deeyana is also involved in the campus community joining the cheerleading team during her first year, as well as Friars Club, Motherland Dance Club, and the Pre-Dental Society. She also hosted a podcast where she and her friends discussed their experiences as Black women at a primarily white college.
Deeyana has mastered the art of seizing opportunities at Providence, yet she still carves out time for community service. She has volunteered as an adult literacy tutor and taught local primary school students about oral health (she aspires to a career in dentistry and has added a biology major). She was mentored by a student in the Horizons Program and is now a mentor herself, as well as a program coordinator.
“I am grateful for these four years. I’m valued here as an individual. I am heard, supported, and never alone,” she said.
More:
- Check out scenes from Motherland Dance Group’s annual fashion show.
- Learn about academic programs like health policy and management offered by the Department of Health Sciences
- Get reading recommendations from Aishah Scott, Ph.D. — one of Deeyana’s mentors and an assistant professor of Black studies and health sciences.
