Alondra Elena Arevalo
  • May 22, 2026

  • UC Irvine social sciences gave student-body president Alondra Elena Arevalo a springboard toward her path in public health

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When she was a kid in the Inland Empire, Alondra Elena Arevalo's parents — who both have psychology degrees — prioritized traveling on summer breaks. "I grew up being very appreciative of the world and all the differences that everybody has," she says.

International studies, then, was a perfect fit. After arriving to UC Irvine in the fall of 2022, drawn in part by a strong financial aid package, which she knew would provide security when she was completing her degree, Arevalo was keen to study abroad. "I've always really liked learning about people and their stories and their backgrounds and how their backgrounds influence things, from their political stances to their own identities and how they interact with other people," she says. "Someone's background can influence everything about them." Set on international studies, she elected to focus geographically on Europe and Asia.

Eager to study abroad, she jumped on the opportunity during her sophomore year, opting to attend a host school in Spain, Carlos III University of Madrid. "I enjoyed immersing myself into the Spanish culture," she says. "I'm Latina — my family is from Nicaragua — so the cultures are very similar, it wasn't that much of a culture shock. If anything, I felt more comfortable over there, speaking Spanish, because that was my first language. Being able to hear it in my day-to-day was actually really comforting."

Getting her study abroad done early was strategic. "I wanted to be more involved my junior and senior years here on the campus, and I knew if I was leaving in the middle of the year, I wouldn't be able to be as involved."  Once back at UCI, she made good on her plan to make the most of her last two years in Irvine. She's now the ASUCI President and has worked at the Basic Needs Center on campus for about 15 hours a week since her junior year. She also decided to commit to a double major in public health policy.

"I actually didn’t realize I wanted to be on this path until my second year at UCI, when I ended up taking a class on global health and how it influences everything from the political situations of a country to each individual community," she says. "Politics can very much affect health." The major couples well with background provided by School of Social Sciences on cultural aspects of health, giving her deeper context about the policy and biological side of things, too.

That choice was an important one to her future. She was accepted into four Master of Public Health (MPH) programs - Johns Hopkins, Yale, Boston University and The George Washington University - for the coming fall, and she's decided to commit to Johns Hopkins. "I'm excited to see what happens next," she says.

Post grad school, she wants to work with a nonprofit, such as an international NGO, as well as do policy research. "I want to investigate things that we could do to help make the international health landscape better, particularly in nutrition equity and food security for low- and middle-income countries."

She'll miss the environment in Irvine, in terms of not only its physical climate but also the academic one. "Everyone here, and in the School of Social Sciences particularly, is very supportive and uplifting. I don't think you really get that culture anywhere else." She's referring equally to faculty who have mentored her, like Yousuf Al-Bulushi, current undergraduate director and associate professor in the Department of Global & International Studies, as well as to her peers.

"It's been really easy to find ways to make friends and have those connections. I don't know how common this is at other universities, so I think this is something that's very unique to us," she says. "It is a big school, but everything just feels so small. It feels like everybody knows everybody."

Heading into graduate school this autumn, she feels well prepared for the road ahead. "UCI was my first choice for a reason. I think it really equipped me with the background I needed," she says, from courses in political science to education about policy writing. "I really did enjoy my time in the school and the program. I can't wait to see how it influences what I do later, because I feel like the influence of the program will always stay with me."

-Alison Van Houten for UCI Social Sciences
-pictured: Alondra Elena Arevalo in the Social Sciences Plaza courtyard. Courtesy of Luis Fonseca, UCI Social Sciences.

 

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