Frida Calvo Huerta SURF SMART
Bay Area Low-Income Suburban Households’ Housing and Transport Choices
I will work closely with my SURF-SMART mentor, Alex Pan, on her project “Qualitative Insights on the Housing and Transportation Choices of Low-Income Suburban Households in the San Francisco Bay.” While poverty has been a primarily urban issue, in recent years, focus has shifted to suburban areas. Suburban households under the poverty line face unique accessibility challenges, as they may be farther from employment opportunities and have fewer transportation options compared to urban areas. My mentor’s research uses a mixed-methods approach to understand the characteristics of households under the poverty line in suburban areas and the transportation and housing choices of the suburban poor. I will assist with qualitative data analysis of in-depth interviews and ethnographic shadowing fieldnotes. Working collaboratively, I will transcribe interview recordings, do qualitative coding, write coding memos, and compile a final written report. We will work closely in the qualitative data analysis process to interpret the data.
Message To Sponsor
I am grateful for the opportunity to get hands-on research experience with my SURF-SMART mentor. Thank you for giving me the support to pursue research and help me explore if I would like to continue it in graduate school. I look forward to strengthening my qualitative analysis skills and learning about social determinants of public health to prepare me for my senior thesis.