Group
provides Latino health scholarship opportunities
By
Joseph Serna and Starr T. Balmer
Online Forty-Niner
The Latino Healthcare Professionals Project’s (LHPP) goal is to encourage
Cal State Long Beach students to learn about Latino health issues and participate
in hands-on projects to prepare as leaders for the Latino Community.
The project works with the Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation and
Leadership Training and offers scholarships and internships to help them understand
the importance of Latino health and the obstacles they encounter in health
care.
“They have to be interested in addressing the needs of the Latino community
and be ready to utilize what they have learned to push that agenda forward,” said
Britt Rio-Ellis, Director of CSULB Center for Latino Community Heath.
Those eligible for scholarships include LHPP students who are bicultural and
bilingual, have parents without a baccalaureate degree from the United States,
obtain at least a 2.5 grade point average, have junior standing and obtain
an interest in Health Care Administration.
The LHPP has received about 35 to 40 applicants, and 20 students will be accepted,
LHPP Coordinator Christina Delgado said. Fifteen scholarship applicants are
chosen for scholarships.
Additionally, LHPP participants perform hands-on experiences in Latino healthcare
through various internships. Long Beach Memorial Hospital, HealthNet and Pacific
Care are three of many institutions where students intern to gain more knowledge
of Latino health issues.
Students attend executive meetings, organize workshops such as diabetes and
asthma programs, and write reports on their internship experience, Delgado
said.
The three-day LHPP Summer Orientation and Retreat is also offered for new participants
and students as it helps them with their transition to CSULB and eases them
into the program.
The retreat occurs on campus with the students staying in the dorms and learning
the expectations of the program as well as meeting with academic advisers,
touring the campus, attending the financial aid orientation and visiting the
Career Development Center.
CSULB student Gerardo Gomez participated in LHPP and interned at the Long Beach
Alliance for Children with Asthma and he related to the institution since he
had asthma.
“I was able to relate to the issue to talk to the community about asthma,” Gomez
said. “It kept me motivated.”
Delgado, who participated in LHPP and interned at AltaMed, said she did not
expect to become coordinator of LHPP but her experience as an intern and as
a leader of the project has been a positive one.
“It’s been an extreme turnaround in my life,” she said.
The last day to apply for the project is Friday. The Latino Healthcare Professional
Project office is located in PE-17. |
