Faculty Interview By: Melat Gebre @02640216

We first meet with our faculty advisors. Our faculty advisors arrived late and then they took another 15 minutes to get everything together. I was a little bit frustrated with the lack of organization and structure. After waiting for a while, I decided to ask Dr. Kai to give my group a quick overview of the rubric used for the presentations. After explaining, Dr. Kai allowed my group to leave and begin our faculty interviews. Our group split up, Sarah and Tashi went to interview a sociology professor, while Melissa and I went to the biology building. Melissa and I interviewed Dr. Barpha S. Mitra, who is a biochemist at Howard University. Dr. Mitra said D.C. has a high HIV/AIDS rate because it follows socioeconomic patterns and the normal path of a STD. He also said that HIV/AIDS, just like many STDS, are very common in cosmopolitans; Dr. Mitra is saying HIV/AIDS is a cosmopolitan problem, not just a D.C. problem. Dr. Mitra said that although there has not been any scientific evidence yet found, some people may be more genetically susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS than others. It is hard to pinpoint why D.C. has a higher rate of HIV/AIDs, because you cannot control the environment; so the environment is always going to be a variable within a test. Dr. Mitra also mentioned how an individual’s lifestyle can affect their chances of contracting the HIV/AIDS. One hypothesis that Dr. Mitra mentioned that I did not even think of is that D.C. may have a higher HIV/AIDS because D.C. has a higher percentage of people that have a direct link with Africa. I strongly believe that the fact that the generation in D.C. is closer to Africa, is a contributor to the high HIV/AIDS rate.