Valenti Students Creatively Tackle Public Health Awareness in the Latino Community

Valenti Students Creatively Tackle Public Health Awareness in the Latino Community
Students at the Valenti School of Communication have been hard at work filming 5 mini telenovelas focused on bringing Alzheimer’s awareness to the Latino Community.

The episodes were shot on campus in one of the studios at the Valenti School of Communication. This project includes production of five mini telenovelas shot in both English and Spanish. Filming began in early April and happened on weekends to complete the first three episodes. The script was selected in November after students participated in a “hackathon” for creative script writing.

This ambitious public health project is led by Professor Luis Medina, a clinical psychologist, cultural neuropsychologist, and director of the university's Collaborative on Aging Research and Multicultural Assessment. Last year he received a $2.35 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to increase health literacy in the Latino community on the topic of brain health. According to the research done by Professor Medina, Alzheimer’s is a disease that Latinos are 50 percent more likely to develop than non-Hispanic people.

Once all of the episodes are wrapped, Valenti will celebrate the work of the students at The Valenti Showcase in December. The projects were also recently written up in a Houston Chronicle piece. Congratulations to all involved.