Sixth Annual NPAA Award Presented

Elena Guzman was named the recipient of this year’s $1,000 NPAA Award, in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments and her goals of pursuing a nonprofit career.

NPAA Board Member Charlene Mathe ‘82/’89 announced the award to a surprised and pleased Elena at the annual awards banquet of the Kinesiology and Health Sciences Department on May 1.

Charlene Mathe `82/`89 presents NPAA Award to Elena  Guzman

This outstanding student is a Public Health major who will graduate this summer with a Master in Public Health. While taking a full course load, she also works full time and supports herself and her mother. Her position at Planned Parenthood WIC (Women, Infants & Children) includes responsibility as one of two coordinators of a longitudinal research project exploring the effectiveness of a new group nutrition education class of WIC participants and their preschool children.

As part of her graduate program she will complete an unpaid 240-hour internship. She reports that the NPAA award will be of tremendous help during that time.

Her graduate research project is to identify barriers to and perceptions about breastfeeding among Latina clients of the WIC program. The findings of the research project will be implemented in producing an educational video for breastfeeding mothers.

Elena participated in NPAA’s mentorship program in Spring 2006. She was matched with Michele Silva `86 of Maternal Outreach Management System (MOMS) in Santa Ana, Elena’s home town. Her experience at MOMS included orientations with several of the senior staff and department heads, observation of a home visit, and the agency’s site visit from the County of Orange Health Care Agency.

Elena’s career goal is to take a leadership role in planning, implementing and possibly administering public health programs that will help improve maternal and child health. In a letter of recommendation supporting Elena’s nomination, Michele writes, “As a fellow Titan, I am proud to recommend Elena Guzman for the NPAA Award…Elena is incredibly bright and ambitious. I was impressed by her knowledge of nonprofit organizations and her commitment to working with underserved and at-risk communities.”

Elena writes, “I just wanted to thank everyone who is on the NPAA scholarship committee for selecting me as the scholarship recipient. It is truly an honor to be the award recipient. This scholarship could not have come at a better time. I recently found out that I was selected by Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) to participate in their internship program. I will be leaving in June to Tampa, Florida and will be working at the VA Hospital for 10 weeks.

“Once again, Thank You.”