About
Amanda De La Cerda is a second year medical student from Sylmar, CA. After graduating from Mount Saint Mary’s College in 2006, she began working as middle school science teacher at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, CA. Amanda found that being a leader and role model to kids that were from where she was from, and going through things she could relate to was powerful. This transformative teaching experience further motivated her to continue working with underserved populations. She was dedicated to cultivating an engaging learning environment and worked with students and their families to set realistic goals to ensure student success. During her time as a post-baccalaureate student at San Francisco State University (SFSU), she used her skills as an educator in her role as the Co-Director of the Summer Science Institute at SFSU which worked to promote the entry of underrepresented minority students into the health professions by means of academic support, community building and mentorship. While in San Francisco, she worked as a health coach at the Haight-Ashbury medical clinics. Her dedication to adolescents and the underserved population that these clinics served was evidenced by the positive results she saw with patient-led action plans and the lowering of clinical values like A1C levels. Amanda is in the UCLA PRIME program, which is dual degree program focusing on the development of leaders in medicine who will improve the health care delivery, research, and policy in underserved communities. Her experiences have taught her the importance of patience, the value of dignity and necessity of compassion when serving others.
Undergrad Institution: Mount Saint Mary's University; San Francisco State University
Hometown: Sylmar, CA