COTO DE CAZA - Tesoro High senior Allison Holcombe won a $2,000 scholarship last weekend after participating in a nation-wide science competition.

Holcombe, 18, was one of 60 high school juniors and seniors selected from across the country to compete in the Young Epidemiology Scholars event this weekend in Washington D.C.

Holcombe gave a presentation called “Autism in Hispanics in California: Evidence for Gene-Environment Interaction.”

Besides the scholarship, Holcombe received an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Q. How did you become involved in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition?

My AP Environmental Science teacher, Mr. Busenkell, told me about the competition and thought it would be something interesting for me to enter. I had won an award in his class when I was a freshman, the Young Naturalist Award sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, so he thought maybe I would have a good chance of doing well in this one as well.

Q. Describe your project, "Autism in Hispanics in California: Evidence for Gene-Environment Interaction."

My project focuses on the increasing rates of autism in California as well as the increasing proportion of the population that is Hispanic. I used data from the California Department of Developmental Services as well as the U.S. Census to try and find a relationship between the two, possibly because of increased recognition of autism in Hispanics over the past decade.

I found that the rates of Hispanics with autism has increased at a higher rate than the overall increase in Hispanics and that in the Central Valley, the proportion of autistic patients identifying as Hispanics was the greatest. This gave evidence for an environmental factor that could play a role in determining if someone is diagnosed as autistic or not.

Q. Have you decided where you want to go to college and what you will study?

I am going to Boston College in the fall and plan to study psychology.

Q. What do you want to do after college, and do you think participating in this competition helped you reach your goals?

After college I want to be a journalist. The YES competition will help me to reach my goals because it has opened my eyes to the world of public health. It has also taught me that even one person's research can have an immense effect on an entire population.