Walt Whitman Students Featured In TedEd Student Talks: Watch

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — Four Walt Whitman High School students were recognized for their recent work with the Huntington Breast Cancer Coalition to present various research topics that will be featured on TedEd Student Talks, the South Huntington School District announced.

Zahra Choudry, Erin Torres, Ira Dubey, and Salma Laraki each hope to inform others about healthy food choices and economic accessibility to anxiety and epigenetics, or the study of how behaviors and environment can affect the way one's genes work.

The student's involvement with the Huntington Breast Cancer Coalition helped spearhead their research endeavors. The mission of the Huntington Breast Cancer Coalition’s student program is to plant the seeds of environmental health education and advocacy, according to South Huntington. Their programs focus on health risks and the importance of environmental research to provide a wealth of knowledge related to the causation of chronic diseases.

“It’s amazing seeing these young ladies do this and the personal connections they’ve made,” said Dr. Matthew Murphy, supervisor of Math, Science, Technology Education, Business Education & Instructional Technology. "This is a great accomplishment and it’s exciting to see their work be published and featured."

Each student chose topics that felt personal to them, making their research applicable within their own lives and relatable to others.

Junior student and environmental health ambassador Zahra Choudry chose to delve into the economic issues that affect food choices throughout the country. Lack of access to healthy choices due to financial burden becomes the cause of health deficits in lower-income households that lead to worsening issues over time.

“Low-income areas don’t have the same access to healthy foods and resources, so there are high rates of obesity and health issues,” Choudry shared in her TedEd presentation.

The inspiration for this research topic came from her own experience growing up eating quick and easy to acquire meals that in turn affected her body. In her research, Choudry discussed how the government plays a role in subsidizing ingredients commonly used in fast-food chains, explaining the reason fast food is so cheap. She further explained how the problem is not lack of food but rather economic and financial instability.

If healthy foods are consistently priced higher than fast food, lower-income areas will continue to lack the resources to allow them access to healthy foods and thus resulting in a greater risk of health issues. There are options for those seeking improvements in their overall nutrition.

Choudry did "exceptional work" in presenting her recommendations on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, the school district wrote.

Stress and anxiety also play a huge role in overall health. Regardless of whether or not someone is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, all people have felt some degree of anxiety and stress in their lives.

Senior Erin Torres shared her story of how generalized anxiety disorder presented itself and how her experience helped change her perspective on mental health. Common beliefs often come from the stigmas around mental illnesses and disorders due to inaccurate media depictions. Stigmas can make those suffering from mental illnesses feel uneasy in seeking help and expressing themselves, often worsening symptoms and delaying treatment.

In her research, Torres discusses how America is the seventh most stressed country in the world.

“We live in a society that prioritizes climbing the labor ladder,” Torres shared.

Many people do not consider stress and mental health to be environmental issues, according to Torres. Human bodies produce a cascade of stress hormones that lead to physiological changes and cause us to engage in habits that can lead to long-term damage. Because of the recurring stigmas against youth mental health, it took Torres five years to receive a proper diagnosis.

Anxiety manifests in several ways, whether it be through intrusive worries and thoughts. Erin notes how stigma impacts every aspect of society, causing fear to seek mental health care for concern over retaliation. Her research and work within her own experiences have allowed her the opportunity to prioritize mental health and through her presentation, she encourages others “to do your own research to address the stigma.”

Ira Dubey and Salma Laraki also took anxiety into consideration in their research on epigenetics. Epigenetics describes how environmental exposures can change your genetic expression which may be inherited by one's children.

Stress and anxiety can impact all aspects of health and through their research in epigenetics, they discuss the impact such stress can have on future generations. Dubey explained how stress can raise cortisol levels that often contribute to the development of diseases, and so the goal should be to minimize stress to reduce these levels.

By identifying stressors and eliminating them wherever possible, it becomes easier to self-regulate and tackle these anxieties. Stress is not always a quick fix, for example, economic disparities, but there are aspects of our lives that we have control of and can help to minimize stress for the betterment of ourselves and future generations.

"Congratulations to these students on representing Walt Whitman in the TedEd Student Talks series!" the school district stated. "We thank Ira Dubey, Salma Laraki, Erin Torres, and Zahra Choudry for bringing these important topics to the forefront and providing ways to improve our health, both physically and mentally."