06/06/2011 Health Fields Welcome Hispanics

JUNE 06, 2011

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VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 17

WELCOME Also available in Digital Format

Top Nursing Schools for Hispanics

Mentoring in Medicine

Miami Dade Medical Campus

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® Editorial Board Ricardo Fernández, President

Publisher – José López-Isa

Lehman College

Vice President & Chief

Mildred García, President

Operating Officer – Orlando López-Isa

California State University-Domínguez Hills Editor – Adalyn Hixson

Juán González,VP Student Affairs

Executive & Managing Editor –

University of Texas at Austin

Suzanne López-Isa Carlos Hernández, President

News Desk & Copy Editor – Jason Paneque

New Jersey City University

Special Project Editor – Mary Ann Cooper

Lydia Ledesma-Reese, Educ. Consultant Administrative Assistant & Subscription

Ventura County Community College District

Coordinator – Barbara Churchill

Gustavo A. Mellander, Dean Emeritus George Mason University

DC Congressional Correspondent –

Loui Olivas,Assistant VP Academic Affairs

Peggy Sands Orchowski

Arizona State University Contributing Editors –

Eduardo Padrón, President

Carlos D. Conde

Miami Dade College

Michelle Adam

Antonio Pérez, President

Online Contributing Writers –

Borough of Manhattan Community College

Gustavo A. Mellander

María Vallejo, Provost Palm Beach State College

Art & Production Director – Avedis Derbalian

Editorial Policy

Graphic Designer – Joanne Aluotto

The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a national magazine published 25 times a year. Dedicated to exploring issues related to Hispanics in higher education,The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is published for the members of the higher education community. Editorial decisions are based on the editors’ judgment of the quality of the writing, the timeliness of the article, and the potential interest to the readers of The Hispanic Outlook Magazine®.

From time to time,The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® will publish articles dealing with controversial issues.The views expressed herein are those of the authors and/or those interviewed and might not reflect the official policy of the magazine.The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® neither agrees nor disagrees with those ideas expressed, and no endorsement of those views should be inferred unless specifically identified as officially endorsed by The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine®.

Sr.Advertising Sales Associate – Angel M. Rodríguez Advertising Sales Associate – Cyndy Mitchell

Article Contributors Frank DiMaria, Marilyn Gilroy, Clay Latimer, Sylvia Mendoza, Miquela Rivera, Gary M. Stern

Advertising Sales TEL (201) 587-8800 ext. 102/106 FAX (201) 587-9105 email: Outlook@sprintmail.com The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine® is a member of

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Esquina E ditorial

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elcome to our annual Health Professions Issue. We feature this topic because cultural competency is now widely accepted as an important factor in health care delivery and because there’s an ongoing shortage of Hispanicheritage care providers throughout the country.

The 10 fastest-growing fields, according to an April 17 New York Times article by Cecilia Capuzzo Simon, under the heading “Continuing Ed Careers,” include eight occupations that are health care or wellness related. They are: biomedical engineer, home health aide, personal and home care aide, medical scientist, physician assistant, skin care specialist, biochemist and biophysicist, and athletic trainer/sports medicine. For each occupation, Simon briefly notes the mean salary, why the field is growing, and what training is required.

Add to these occupations the myriad specialties – phlebotomists, CAT scanners, speech therapists, radiologists and dozens more – that are likely short of Spanish speakers, and we see why the health field beckons to Hispanics.

Elsewhere in health news, Dr. Kenia Nunes and colleagues at the Medical College of Georgia are exploring special properties of Brazilian wandering spider venom, said to be even more effective than the widely popular Viagra, at least on lab rats. The Nunes team has produced a synthetic protein that replicates the significant venom toxin. And a good thing, too, because the actual spider venom also causes severe pain and a gruesome death, according to a report on MSNBC. ¡Adelante!

Suzanne López-Isa Managing Editor

Sustainable Cropping and Food Systems (Assistant/Associate Professor) Sociology of Food Systems (Assistant Professor) Cornell University Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University is seeking applicants for two tenure-track positions related to a new initiative in sustainable agriculture and food systems. A position in Sustainable Cropping and Food Systems will be filled in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and a position in Sociology of Food Systems will be filled in the Department of Development Sociology. Both positions have 50% Teaching and 50% Research responsibilities and both appointments will be on an academic year (~9.0 month) basis. Qualified applicants must have a demonstrated ability to establish a distinguished record of scholarship with clear relevance to food system issues, and demonstrated ability to participate in and/or lead interdisciplinary projects.

Applicants for the Sustainable Cropping and Food Systems position (Assistant/Associate Professor) will be expected to teach an introductory course on Sustainable Agriculture, and an upper-level course related to cropping systems and food production. The individual is expected to develop an internationallyrecognized research program involving field-based efforts in sustainable cropping systems and other biophysical aspects of cropping and food systems with a primary focus on field crops. More information on the position can be found at http://css.cals.cornell.edu. Candidates are requested to submit to Sue Bishop (skp5@cornell.edu) a letter of application, detailed resume, research and teaching statements, copies of university transcripts, copies of up to two publications, and names and contact information for three references combined into a single file in PDF format. Reviews will start after August 1, 2011. Inquiries may be sent to Professor Harold van Es, Chair of Crop and Soil Sciences (hmv1@cornell.edu; 1-607-255-5459).

Applicants for the Sociology of Food Systems position (Assistant Professor) will be expected to develop an internationally recognized and externally funded research program on the social organization of food systems. Teaching will consist of 2.5 courses per year focusing on the social organization and restructuring of food systems in the U.S. and/or internationally. More information on food system and other related research, teaching, and outreach in Development Sociology can be found at http://devsoc.cals.cornell.edu. Candidates are requested to submit a cover letter stating why she/he is a good candidate for this tenure-track position, together with a curriculum vitae, a brief research plan, and a statement of teaching interests and experience. All application materials, including the cover letter, curriculum vitae, research plan, statement of teaching interest, selected reprints, and names and addresses of three individuals who may be contacted to provide letters of recommendation, should be incorporated into a single PDF file and submitted electronically to Ms. Cynthia Twardokus (ct259@cornell.edu). Reviews will start after July 15, 2011. Inquiries may be sent to Professor Philip McMichael, Development Sociology, Search Committee Chair (pdm1@cornell.edu).

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Developing Leaders. Improving Lives. Shaping the Future.

Cornell University is an affirmative action/ equal opportunity employer and educator

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Po lit i cal Beat

Wanna Hear a Joke?

“President Trump”

by Carlos D. Conde

I

heard a great joke the other day.

Donald Trump says he’s thinking of running for president. He says he can win because The Donald is nothing but a winner – just ask him – and the Republicans and America need someone like him to straighten out all this mess we’re in.

Trump thinks he’s no joke. And in several early polls measuring potential Republican candidates in the primaries, Trump surprisingly beat some of the contenders in a match-up against President Obama.

“I’m a Republican, so if anything, I’d do it as a Republican,” he told Fox News. “I’m totally serious because I can’t stand what’s happening to this country.”

Trump said he had “common sense and, most important, ‘finesse’ in abundance,” which, he adds, is what this country needs.

Imagine Trump meeting with his counterparts in international meetings, smirking in his bunny hairdo at some of the nonsense that sometimes goes on in those sessions and telling off someone with the equivalent of “You’re fired!”

It sounds like the silly season in presidential politics, but it’s serious business to a field of potential Republican contenders falling all over each other, vying for their party’s nomination, because they think Obama is a sitting duck in the 2012 November elections.

At last count, there were at least

10 who said they would be candidates in the Republican primaries this fall or had set up exploratory committees to measure their chances.

None are fresh talents like a Barack Obama, who came out of nowhere to reach the U.S. Senate where he was a first-term nobody from Chicago but yet managed to captivate the nation’s electorate with a refreshing campaign message.

One of the more promising and prominent would-be contenders, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, skilled in national and Washington politics as a once GOP chairman and premier lobbyist, was an early favorite but dropped out.

He said, as so many politicians do when they quit, that he had the experience, skills and the solutions but no longer that “fire in the belly.”

That still leaves a lot of other would-be contenders out on the hustings, seeking the opportunity to take on Obama and searching for that propelling breakthrough.

With the exception of their niche supporters, most, expectedly, are having trouble finding traction with the general American constituency, which might be mad or disappointed with Obama but seems to be taking a “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” attitude.

Few of the GOP contenders have name recognition to connect with voters, or else a dubious past haunting their presidential ambitions.

Ever hear of Vern Wuensche, Fred Karger, Herman Cain, or know much about Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann or former Louisiana Gov. Charles Elson “Buddy” Roemer, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman?

The opening Republican debate in early May in Greenville, S.C., before a sparse audience, drew five

presidential hopefuls. Of the group, only Congressman Ron Paul of Texas and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty could be considered top-tier candidates.

The winner, according to the audience, was Cain, a Black American entrepreneur and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO. A favorite of the conservative GOP wing and the Tea Party, Cain supports strong national defense, smaller government and reviving the gold standard.

For whatever reasons, some declared or would-be candidates declined the invitation, perhaps still contemplating whether to jump in, while the others, wary of their political baggage, are probably still weighing all the factors from the past.

Now Newt Gingrich, once a GOP political star known for his aggressive legislative ways as House speaker and tainted by personal indiscretions, has announced he is running and already has a formidable political organization he built in anticipation.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who can turn on a crowd with her rhetoric, was also a no-show, and probably not even her husband, who heads her political team, knows her intentions.

For now, she is undeclared, with no political organization – unless you consider the Tea Party as her base, and she operates with minimal staff.

The leading GOP candidates are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been through this before and lost out to Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Frankly, the top GOP candidates are two present and former governors with golden political résumés who claim to have not the slightest interest in being president.

One is Louisiana Gov. Bobby

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Jindal, who by all accounts has done a stellar job in running the Creole state and is a rising Republican star – but insists he wants nothing to do with Washington.

The other is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, probably the most politically talented of the Bush family, who did a commendable job in Florida and who could probably overcome charges of a family dynasty.

Another Bush plus would be his attachment to the growing U.S. Latino population and its political potency and the fact that he is married to a Mexican and, as his father once said, raised a family of “little brown ones.”

Bush, who calls Obama “Hubert Humphrey on steroids,” says no to such suggestions, but he also says, “you never say never about anything.”

So who knows, the Republicans might get stuck with Trump as their candidate, but that’s highly unlikely, though there are polls in some areas that view Trump thumbs up while others savage him.

It doesn’t seem to matter to the utterly conceited Trump, who claims that not only does he have the smarts and that the people love him but that he also has that all-important resource, money, “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put together $600 million myself. That’s a huge advantage over other candidates,” he told ABC News.

So stick it, you Trump bashers.

Carlos D. Conde, award-winning journalist and commentator, former Washington and foreign news correspondent, was an aide in the Nixon White House and worked on the political campaigns of George Bush Sr. To reply to this column, contact Cdconde@aol.com.

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MAGAZINE® JUNE 06, 2011

CONTENTS Top Nursing Schools for Hispanics – Texas Schools Top the Lists by Mary Ann Cooper On Medical Mission,WPU Students Deeply Touched by Dominican People by Mary Ann Cooper

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Debunking Myths About Applying to Medical School 14 Could Help Attract More Hispanics by Marilyn Gilroy Mentoring in Medicine Organization Offers a “Continuous Pipeline” by Gary M. Stern

Marquette Nursing Graduate Battles Miscommunication 20 in Health Care Profession by Frank DiMaria

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Miami Dade Medical Campus Sets a Standard for Mobile Libraries by Michelle Adam

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Beyond the Physical:Tackling Obesity as More than a Health Issue by Sylvia Mendoza

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Flavia Mercado, a Doctor for All Seasons

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by Clay Latimer

Online Articles Some of the above articles will also be available online; go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.

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DEPARTMENTS Political Beat

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by Carlos D. Conde

Wanna Hear a Joke? “President Trump”

Uncensored

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

Interesting Reads and Media...

Book Review

by Mary Ann Cooper

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Solving Latino Psychosocial and Health Problems

High Sch oo l Fo ru m

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College-Bound High School Seniors Rate Their Emotional Health at an All-Time Low

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by Mary Ann Cooper

FYI...FYI...FYI...

Hispanics on the Move

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Targeting Higher Education: Seeking a National Hispanic Leader

by Gustavo A. Mellander (Online only)

Priming the Pump...

by Miquela Rivera

Outlining Skills Support Latino Students’ Learning

Back Cover

HO is also available in digital format; go to our website: www.HispanicOutlook.com.

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Page 20 Cover photo courtesy of WPU School of Nursing

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Texas Schools Top Lists of Nursing Schools for Hispanics HEALTH/SCIENCE

Once

by Mary Ann Cooper

a year, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine focuses like a laser beam on the health industry, examining how many Hispanics are entering the health field and which institutions of higher education are conferring the most degrees on Latinas/os. This year, we center on nursing and rehabilitation therapists. Nursing, in particular, is a high-profile profession in these troubled economic times. Local and state budget cuts have placed nursing jobs and salaries on the chopping block. Yet more and more Hispanics are opting for nursing careers. Texas schools are turning out record numbers of Latina/o nurses and rehabilitation therapists.

Using figures provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, The Hispanic Outlook has compiled lists of the 15 schools conferring the most registered nursing, practical nursing and rehabilitation therapy degrees and/or certificates on Hispanics. Texas institutions are No. 1 for each of these fields and occupy 16 of the 45 ranked positions. Florida is next, its schools filling 14. California had five; New Mexico had three; Arizona, two; and Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, Utah and

Washington were represented with one school each.

The Top 15 schools awarding the most bachelor’s degrees in registered nursing to Hispanics are in: Texas with seven schools; Florida with five schools; and Arizona, California and New Mexico with one school each.

The school with the greatest percentage of Hispanic RN bachelor’s degree conferees was Texas A&M International University with 95 percent.

The University of Texas-El Paso School of Nursing (UTEP-SON), which joined the UTEP family in 1976, ranked first in bachelor’s degrees conferred on Hispanics. At least half of the nursing graduates at UTEP-SON begin their nursing careers in El Paso. The success of UTEP-SON can be credited in part to offering programs enhanced by simulation and other instructional technology and clinical experience. Its research and community projects are designed to address the regional community’s needs and help prepare leaders in the health care field. In 2008, HO ranked UTEPSON third in the nation for awarding nursing degrees to Hispanics. The

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school is home to the fourth-largest undergraduate program in Texas.

Of schools offering associate degrees and certificates in practical nursing and allied careers, three institutions not only grant some of the most degrees and certificates, but more than 90 percent of their total recipients are Hispanic: South Texas College, 93 percent; Florida National CollegeMain Campus, 94 percent; and the University of Texas-Brownsville, 93 percent. Eight states are featured on the Top 15 list for practical nursing and allied career associate degrees and certificates. They are Florida with five schools; Texas with four schools; and Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Washington with one each.

South Texas College (STC), the top-rated school on that list, offers many degrees and certificates. The Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program is accredited by the Board of Nurse Examiners for the State of Texas (BNE). The two-year program prepares the graduate to begin practice as a staff nurse in a hospital or other health care setting. Through assessment of an individual, the nurse graduate plans, implements and evaluates direct nursing care for individuals and/or groups and is able to monitor and direct peers and ancillary workers in technical aspects of nursing care.

The school’s vocational nursing program is a three- or four-semester program offering classroom instruction and related clinical practice in the four basic areas of nursing care: adults, mothers and newborns, children, and the elderly. STC also offers a patient care assistant program, a 21-credit-hour certificate program that offers classroom instruction and related clinical practice in the basic nursing care of adults, children, infants and the elderly.

When it comes to rehabilitation degrees, Texas schools dominate the field. The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) is not only the top-rated school on the list but also the school with the highest percentage of Hispanics. UTPA boasts that 90 percent of its degree and certificate recipients in rehabilitation are Hispanics. A total of five Texas schools ranked among the Top 15 schools in this category. Florida followed with four; California, with three; and Missouri, New Jersey and New Mexico, with one each.

UTPA offers an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree that prepares students to assist people with disabilities. It also offers a Master of Science degree in rehabilitation counseling. Eleven full-time (tenured or tenure-track) faculty teach in the program. Typical student activities include community projects, fundraising, disability awareness activities and club-sponsored field trips. Recent members have taken trips to Corpus Christi, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

The nursing and rehabilitation professions continue to be dominated by both Hispanic and non-Hispanic women. Five of the 15 ranked schools have no Hispanic men enrolled in practical or vocational nursing. But across all the ranked schools for nursing and rehabilitation professions, Hispanic women outnumber Hispanic men in all 45 schools listed.

A final note on the lists. NCES has a new system. Schools have been given two years to comply with it. For now, not all schools are on all lists.

The Hispanic Outlook has combined available data from all NCES lists to try to give fair representation to all institutions during this transition.

2010 Reg. Nurse, Nursing Admin., Research & Clinical Nursing – Bachelor’s Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Grand Total

University of Texas at El Paso, TX Florida International University, FL Barry University, FL Univ. of Texas Health Science Ctr. at San Antonio, TX Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, TX University of Texas-Pan American, TX University of New Mexico-Main Campus, NM Texas Woman's University, TX Nova Southeastern University, FL University of Miami, FL Texas A&M International University, TX Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, TX California State University-San Bernardino, CA University of Central Florida, FL Arizona State University, AZ

324 220 175 285 511 95 186 459 258 142 57 149 179 424 348

All Men 72 68 31 53 82 25 24 42 25 19 12 26 36 40 54

All Women 252 152 144 232 429 70 162 417 233 123 45 123 143 384 294

Hispanic Totals All

228 138 101 85 82 75 69 67 61 58 54 51 47 47 46

Hispanic Men Women Percentage 50 45 21 16 20 18 7 8 11 8 12 7 4 7 9

178 93 80 69 62 57 62 59 50 50 42 44 43 40 37

70% 63% 58% 30% 16% 79% 37% 15% 24% 41% 95% 34% 26% 11% 13%

2010 Practical & Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants – Degrees & Certificates Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

South Texas College, TX Florida National College-Main Campus, FL Florida Career College, FL Dixie State College of Utah, UT Brookline College, AZ University of Texas at Brownsville, TX Midland College, TX Miami Dade College, FL University of Antelope Valley, CA Schreiner University, TX Daytona State College, FL Northern New Mexico College, NM Mesa State College, CO Heritage University, WA Barry University, FL

Grand Total 273 165 162 623 110 54 53 63 94 72 212 13 103 30 15

All Men 40 31 28 173 8 11 7 17 10 4 31 1 11 0 0

All Women 233 134 134 450 102 43 46 46 84 68 181 12 92 30 15

Hispanic Totals All

255 155 55 52 50 50 22 21 18 15 14 11 10 10 9

Hispanic Men Women Percentage 33 30 14 10 4 10 2 7 2 0 0 1 0 0 0

222 125 41 42 46 40 20 14 16 15 14 10 10 10 9

93% 94% 34% 8% 45% 93% 42% 33% 19% 21% 7% 85% 10% 33% 60%

2010 Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions – All Degrees & Certificates Institution Name 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Grand Total

University of Texas-Pan American, TX 143 Florida International University, FL 104 Univ. of Texas Health Science Ctr. at San Antonio, TX 103 University of Texas Medical Branch, TX 124 Texas Woman's University, TX 259 University of Southern California, CA 261 University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, FL 411 University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, NJ135 Fremont College, CA 53 University of Texas at El Paso, TX 28 Loma Linda University, CA 179 A T Still University of Health Sciences, MO 256 University of New Mexico-Main Campus, NM 42 Nova Southeastern University, FL 127 University of Florida, FL 126

All Men 23 16 27 27 29 42 153 41 23 10 60 90 8 30 17

All Women 120 88 76 97 230 219 258 94 30 18 119 166 34 97 109

Hispanic Totals All

128 59 37 24 20 19 19 19 17 15 15 15 14 13 13

Hispanic Men Women Percentage

Source: NCES-IPEDS surveys for 2009-2010 – Class 1 schools determined to be four-year schools by NCES-IPEDS

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110 48 26 15 18 15 11 14 9 9 9 8 8 12 10

90% 57% 36% 19% 8% 7% 5% 14% 32% 54% 8% 6% 33% 10% 10%

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HEALTH/SCIENCE

On Medical Mission, WPU

by Dominican People When

three William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPU) nursing students traveled to the Dominican Republic as volunteers with a medical mission there, they did so with enthusiasm and the expectation that they were being given an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the people in this Third World community. But Thao (Annit) Nguyen of South Plainfield, N.J., Ashley Perone of Belle Meade, and Raissa Lynn Sánchez of Sussex, all members of the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau and all graduating seniors, soon discovered that the trip was making a difference in their own

lives and confirming their commitment to the nursing profession.

Using their nursing skills to provide humanitarian aid to patients in the San Pedro area of the Dominican Republic, the three got an up-close-andpersonal view of the trying conditions and circumstances that are the norm for their patients, whose typical medical care might be intermittent at best.

They provided hands-on care, under the direction of a nurse practitioner and a physician, as they traveled to various clinics and to a prison to administer over-the-counter medications and vitamins, but also to teach patients about proper nutrition and health. Their trip was organized under the auspices of Foundation for Peace, a not-for-profit organization dedicat-

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ed to working hand in hand with people in need to enable their emergence from poverty.

Their personal odyssey, which has so deeply affected the lives of these three young nurses, began inauspiciously enough at a regional meeting of Sigma Theta Tau’s International Honor Society in New York City. Dr. Joanne Hofmann, nurse practitioner and professor at Hunter College, talked about being a volunteer medical mission leader for the Foundation for Peace in San Pedro, explaining she has been going on these missions for the past few years.

When she mentioned that the foundation was organizing another mission to San Pedro, it really got Perone, Nguyen and Sánchez’s attention.

“She mentioned that she had a few spots left open. Once we heard this, all three of us just looked at each other and said, ‘We have to do this!’ It was a wonderful joint effort, and we were all immediately excited at the prospect,” says Perone.

“For me, hearing about this trip re-ignited in me a passion I had to experience new things while doing what I enjoy best: helping others.

I’ve always had a desire to experience nursing on more than one level. I wanted to be removed from the comfort of our New Jersey hospitals and be thrown into unfamiliar territory so that I could truly test my autonomy and skills. I really wanted to meet new people, experience a different culture and aid in delivering health care to those who really needed it.”

Nguyen, whose family came from Vietnam, echoed Perone’s sentiments about a passion for helping. “Coming from a family where my parents came to America with not even a penny, but have been able to put their children through college, has opened my eyes to many things. I have always had a passion for helping others and especially those who are less fortunate than me. The idea has always been there, but I never had an opportunity.”

For Sánchez, this trip was not only a chance to help others, but an experience she could share with someone very close. “My mother, Paulina Sánchez, was part of the trip, too. She acted as our “professional guardian.” She’s an RN as well, and works on the oncology floor at St.

Students Deeply Touched

by Mary Ann Cooper Claire’s of Denville. I was so excited to share this kind of experience with the woman who continues to inspire me. I’ve always wanted to do something like this – but as a nurse, not just as a volunteer, because I knew I wanted to go overseas with a skills set. As the presentation went on, it clicked in my head. I thought, ‘This is something I have to do. It’s now or never – or at least not for a while. Fate is literally throwing this opportunity in my face, and I need to grab it.’”

With the blessings of their faculty advisor and department chairs, the young nurses e-mailed Hofmann “right away, and a month after the meeting, we were on the plane, on our way to San Pedro, Dominican Republic,” says Nguyen.

“We were welcomed with open arms into the orphanage where we stayed and had meals prepared for us three times a day,” says Perone. “We quickly formed close friendships with the local translators and members of the orphanage. When we visited the bateys [which are old sugarcane fields where people still live], we were greeted and welcomed as well. At the end of each day, they would tell us about their community and how the people truly believe God had brought us to them. They were thankful with every ounce of their hearts. It was the most genuine and heartfelt thanks I had ever received in my life, and I found myself in tears most every day. The people wore their very best when they came for their visits and were friendly and excited to talk to us. Some of my patients were so excited that they tried learning English as I tried learning their Spanish!”

For Nguyen, the comparison of the Dominican Republic to Vietnam gave her a great comfort level there. “I could not have been any happier to be where I was as soon as we landed. I honestly felt at home. It is still so crazy to me – how being away from my family and friends at home and being placed in a country where I’ve never been before with people I’ve never interacted with before can make me feel so good and happy.

Just seeing how happy everyone was to see us and be near us melted my heart.”

For Sánchez, it was all about family. “It was beautiful. The land, the communities and most especially the people! The Dominicans, and most Hispanic cultures, I feel, are a people who love their families. I saw that when we first landed and during our many clinic hours.”

What was most impressive to the young nurses was the spirit of a people poor in material wealth, but rich in spirit.

“Although resources in the Dominican Republic are limited, they try their hardest to work with what they do have and are happy,” explains Nguyen. “I feel like the people in Dominican Republic are one happy fami-

ly who all lend a helping hand to help each other no matter what the problem may be. Whether family, friends, neighbors or strangers, they all helped each other at all times.”

Sánchez says the spirit of the people is even more impressive given the degree of poverty. “It would be naïve to say that the way I or any of my friends grew up was relatable to how these children are growing up. The way of life in some of these communities is heartbreaking to the average American, but many are proud to be where they are, and to say that ‘we feel bad for them’ only displaces their familial pride. But I do believe that there is a way to understand them, and that’s with the rule of not taking the things one has in life for granted.”

Perone notes that the people have adapted to the harshest conditions

without surrendering their pride and zest for living. “There is no largescale trash collection in the Dominican Republic, and the people burn the garbage. As I flew down to land on my way into the country, I saw smoke

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rising from numerous locations and was perplexed as to what it was.” She found out that it was trash being burned all over the country.

“The most amazing part was that while corrugated metal made up most of the homes in the bateys, and concrete was absent from the floors, the homes and communities were clean. The people presented their homes with pride and passion. And where my house outdid theirs in size, their houses outdid mine in pride.”

All three nurses noted that the days were long and rigorous, but none complained about the working conditions.

“A typical day would start with waking up around 7:00 a.m. We would have breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and be ready to board the bus and go to a local batey around 8:30 a.m. We would see patients until around 4:00 p.m. and then clean up and head back to the orphanage,” explains Nguyen. But their day was far from over. “We then began to do sorting of medications and hygiene kits. A hygiene kit generally contained a toothbrush, toothpaste, a washcloth, soap, Band-Aids and some other odds and ends like hand sanitizer. Some kits had each of the items mentioned, and others had only some as we did not have enough supplies. We would also count medications, both over-the-counter and prescription, and bag them into groups of 30 pills. We did this until dinner, around 6:30 p.m. After dinner, around 7:30, we would do more medication counting and hygiene kits before we showered and went to bed.”

Nguyen says the nonstop pace began as soon as they arrived. “The day we landed, we went back to the orphanage and put together over 1,000 hygiene kits to pass out to the families.”

Sánchez was amazed by the sheer number of people who were seen in a single day at one of the bateys, but says she and the others tried to always

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make a little time for fun at the end of the day. “After 10 p.m., time was spent at our discretion. We weren’t allowed to leave the orphanage for security reasons, so Nguyen and I would stay up late with some of our translators, playing UNO or other board games that were available. One of the nights, I learned how to play dominoes ... loudly, which is apparently culturally acceptable. It was fun! I miss those warm nights.”

Still, it wasn’t all fun and games. One of Perone’s biggest fears before embarking on the trip was the idea of visiting one of the island’s prisons to treat the prisoners there. She says she felt frightened as she walked across the grounds through a walkway of prisoners with their handcuffs clanking and into the safety of their barred work area. But her work made her forget her fears. “Once I began seeing patients with the RN I was paired with and my translator, I forgot that we were in a jail. At one point, I remember feeling smacked in the stomach as a 20-year-old boy told us of how he murdered a man and ended up in this jail. I thought to myself, I should be afraid. I asked myself, should these patients be treated differently because they are criminals? And I looked at the young boy in front of me and said, no, when it comes to receiving much-needed care, when it comes to giving medications that are long overdue, these people are just the same and should be treated that way.”

Nguyen was nervous as well, but was relieved when the actual experience wasn’t anything like she expected it to be. “We saw hundreds of prisoners. It took place in a big assembly room in the prison where there were 16 tables set up so that the two nurses, translator and prisoner could be seated and talk about their health issues. Of course, knowing some of the prisoners’ history of how they ended up in jail made me nervous, however, they did not disrespect us at all and were very receptive to us being there as

well. There were prison guards all around us, so I did not feel in danger.”

Like Perone and Nguyen, Sánchez saw this experience as an ethical imperative and wasn’t fearful about being in the company of convicted felons. “I wasn’t scared at all. I mean, maybe if I sat there and thought about it, I’d feel more nervous. In fact, I think I was more excited and glad to be there. Prisoners, despite their crime, deserve medical attention. An ethical decision, yes, but even these prisoners are people, and a nurse or a doctor must do their job fairly and without bias. Besides, there was obviously great security there.”

All three young nurses are grateful to the Foundation for Peace for allowing them the opportunity to join this mission. “Going with the foundation was very rewarding,” says Perone. “They were so organized and helpful and really knew the area and the population that we were working with.

The trip ran incredibly smooth, and it was all due to those people. It was an honor to help to achieve their goals of establishing consistent health care to underserved populations in the Dominican Republic.”

“This experience has been life-changing for me,” says Nguyen. “I can’t even describe the feeling I felt on my way home from the Dominican Republic. I felt accomplished, touched, appreciated and sad all at once. I felt sad for having to leave but mostly touched by the many people I have encountered and how they have changed my view on things. I went into this trip not knowing what to expect and came out with so much knowledge and experience along with many new friends.”

Sánchez, whose trip was heightened because of the opportunity to share the experience and bond with her own mother, is unabashed in her enthusiasm for Foundation for Peace and its mission. “I love the Foundation for Peace! They’re so easy to work with, and they make going overseas to help a very simple process,” says Sánchez. “One of the schools that we had our clinic in was impressive! It had a computer room for students who intend on being future engineers, a cosmetology section for those interested in being a certified beautician, and many traditional classrooms for those who want to be teachers and such. The Foundation for Peace enriched my life in a way that nothing else ever could. ... the steppingstone for me to do something I’ve always wanted to do. I believe that they will be the platform on which I will base the rest of my career.”

Perone, Nguyen and Sánchez are just as mindful of the important role William Paterson University has played in helping them acquire the skills to merit this opportunity.

Perone says that attending WPU’s nursing program has exceeded all her expectations. “I have become a professional and a woman that I never thought I would be. I have made connections with my professors, found mentors and looked out for chances to challenge myself. Without those important connections with professors and advisers, it would have been

difficult. I am able to question things and give my input, and I am encouraged to go for what I desire.”

For Nguyen, WPU’s nursing program is outstanding because of the accessibility and helpfulness of faculty and staff to students like her. “To single out one part of the nursing program at WPU and say that it is the best part is hard to do since I have had only the best nursing experiences at this university. I know that I can always count on the nursing professors and faculties to be there for me for questions or help. I feel really knowledgeable graduating this year and knowing that I had the best education possible and, at the same time, the best professors.”

Sánchez says she sees WPU as a place where she is viewed as a whole person, not just a name and number on a class roll. “What stands out in our faculty is that, despite how difficult the courses are made out to be, they still reach out to their students and, most importantly, care about them. Even in failure, many students run to their professors for guidance, and it is with the WPU nursing professors that they can find this.

“When the three of us came back from our trip, the rest of the faculty congratulated us and remembered our names even though the last time we saw them was years ago, when we were sitting in their class. It feels awesome to be in the WPU nursing program because we are recognized, not just as students, but people. Just as hard as it was to leave San Pedro, it’s going to be even harder to leave WPU.” Back at the university, Perone, Nguyen and Sánchez are seen as positive role models and ambassadors of its nursing program. “This trip should create awareness of health needs around the world for the students,” says Kem Louie, associate professor of nursing at William Paterson, director of the graduate nursing program, and the honor society’s advisor. “They learned how nurses can play an important role in health care in the community.”

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HEALTH/SCIENCE

Debunking Myths About Applying to Medical School Could Help Attract More Hispanics

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by Marilyn Gilroy recruiting of underrepresented minorities, especially Hispanics, is needed by U.S. medical schools in order to train physicians to treat the nation’s increasingly diverse population. Demystifying the process of applying to medical school might be one of the keys to expanding the diversity of applicants.

“We are deeply committed to increasing the number of minorities in medical schools,” said Dr. Darrell Kirch, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). “You don’t improve the health of communities without having a work force that reflects the diversity of those communities.”

Kirch’s comments are reinforced by research from the American Medical Association (AMA) showing that minority patients prefer minority physicians, thus making it especially critical to attract and retain more minority applicants to medical school. For example, Hispanics make up 38 percent of California’s population, but only 5 percent of the state’s physicians are Hispanic. An AMA report titled Minorities in Medicine states that by 2050 racial and ethnic minorities will comprise half of the U.S. population.

“Diversity in the work force will increase access to health care for the underserved and will help narrow the healthcare disparities gap disproportionately experienced by racial and ethnic minorities and individuals of low socioeconomic status,” states the report from the AMA Medical Student Selection Minority Issues Committee.

Both the AMA and the AAMC have launched aggressive campaigns to pursue minority applicants and help them overcome some of the financial and academic obstacles to enrolling in medical school. Although there have been gains, analysts say there is still much work to be done to train the next generation of physicians.

Minority Enrollment Increasing but Not Fast Enough The good news is that more minorities enrolled in medical schools in 2010, which the AAMC says is a sign that more African-American, Hispanic and Native American students are interested in pursuing careers in medicine. Hispanic men represented the most significant change, with an increase of 17.1 percent over 2009, while overall enrollment by Hispanic men and women rose 9 percent. The number of new AfricanAmerican medical students increased about 3 percent, according to figures released in an AAMC study. Native American enrollment increased by nearly 25 percent over last year, but the actual numbers were small compared with other minority groups.

Overall, the number of students who enrolled in medical school was up by 1.5 percent from last year.

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Dr. Darrell Kirch, President and CEO, AAMC

Although those trends are promising, they are not enough. The association projects that the nation will have a shortage of 90,000 doctors by 2019. The health care overhaul, which in its current form will provide insurance to 32 million Americans currently uninsured, creates an even higher demand for physicians. On a positive note, a study done by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School found that the opportunity to help traditionally underserved populations is motivating more minorities to be interested in medical school.

Some medical schools nationwide are targeting minorities, often as

early as grade school, by offering programs designed to foster an interest in science and medicine among children. Other programs, such as those at Texas A&M and the University of Rochester’s Early Medical Scholars program, guarantee medical school admission to college undergraduates who meet program requirements, which include maintaining a certain grade point average and participating in educational summer programs.

The goal is to make medical school seem attainable to students who might think it is out of their reach and to strengthen their position as medical school candidates.

what has drawn them to the profession. Medical schools are trying to bridge the gap that societal disparities might have caused, and they will read these essays very carefully.”

Admissions committees review the entire application, says Busnaina, including letters of recommendation, looking for clues that reveal a student’s sincerity and motivation.

“Applicants who use the essay to build a consistent and powerful message about who they are as an applicant hold a tremendous advantage when seeking a coveted spot in a top-notch school,” he said.

Myths and Missteps in Applying to Medical Schools Myth No. 2: The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores Unless students are part of an automatic admissions program, most alone predict admission to medical schools. individuals who aspire to medical school must deal with the hurdles of “MCATs are very important, but schools often are lenient about score applying. Some have called the medical school application process among cutoffs when evaluating applicants from underrepresented groups or lower the most competitive tasks in all of higher education, with admissions socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Busnaina. “Admissions committees being more competitive than law or business school. The application know that minorities can face a ‘double whammy’ because they have gone process and the cost of medical to poorer schools without rigorschool have been identified as two ous academic programs.” factors that often drive away would- First-Year Enrollees To U.S. Medical Schools, That is why the role of MCAT 2003-2010 be minority physicians. tests has received a lot of attenExperts say that with planning tion and is under scrutiny, espeAsians Blacks Hispanics Other cially given the need to ease the and professional advice, applicants can boost their chances of accep- 2003 path to med school for more 3,460 1,205 1,091 1,127 tance and follow their passion for a minorities. career in medicine.

Almost all U.S. medical 2004 3,460 1,263 1,175 617 “Candidates need to be proacschools require the MCAT, 3,756 1,240 1,272 430 tive, taking control of their admis- 2005 which consists of standardized sions destiny by highlighting their multiple-choice items and an 2006 3,682 1,264 1,288 495 unique backgrounds and skills,” essay section. The six-hour test reports Veritas Prep, an admissions 2007 is designed to measure knowl3,932 1,288 1,281 467 consulting firm. Veritas reports that edge in the biological and physimany medical school hopefuls fall 2008 cal sciences to assess verbal 3,941 1,293 1,416 699 victim to a series of myths about the reasoning.

4,114 1,312 1,412 840 medical school admissions process, 2009 Like many other standardand commit all-too-common appliized tests, such as the SAT, the 2010 4,214 1,350 1,539 891 cation errors that significantly comstrict use of MCAT cut-off scores promise their chances of gaining Source: Assn. of American Medical Colleges Data Warehouse, in admissions has been chaladmission into their top choice pro- Applicant Matriculant File lenged by those who say it can grams. Here are some of the combe disadvantageous to students mon myths: of color. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest, has said that MCAT limits educational equity and blocks access to higher Myth No. 1: The actual application and personal statement are not education for Latinos, African-Americans and Native Americans and lowvery important in the admissions process. income applicants who generally score lower on the tests and therefore “The reality is that the whole application, particularly the personal receive disproportionately fewer scholarships. Hispanics often lack the statement portion, provides critical information that medical schools use necessary academic background to prepare them for the MCATs and the to evaluate an applicant’s candidacy throughout the entire admissions rigors of medical school. They are less likely to take AP and honors coursprocess,” said Dr. Ibrahim Busnaina, a Veritas consultant and co-author of es and major in science.

Examkrackers: How to Get into Medical School. He also has served as a To overcome some of these deficiencies, Hispanics should take advanconsultant for the television shows Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. tage of MCAT preparatory courses offered by many colleges and organizaBusnaina says one of the biggest mistakes applicants make is neglecting tions, says Busnaina. These courses usually include sessions on chemistry, the various application components, thus giving up the “biggest wild card” biology and physics. The courses provide access to practice tests. they have to play in the process.

The AAMC also encourages preparation and suggests that all students need “Many minority candidates who do not have strong MCAT scores have to spend a substantial amount of time preparing to take the MCATs. More than really important stories to tell as to why they want to become physicians,” 50 percent of applicants end up taking the test twice because they mistakenly he said. “They need to hone those stories and explain in a compelling way believed that just having good grades in science courses was enough.

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Boosting Minority Chances There are several resources available to minorities who want to increase their chances of obtaining a slot in medical school.

The AAMC maintains a medical minority applicant registry (Med-MAR) to enhance admission opportunities for groups who are underrepresented in medicine.

“The registry is just one more way that the AAMC is trying to reach out to minorities,” said Angela Moses, AAMC program specialist. “I get lots of calls from students who want to participate in Med-MAR.” Students may elect to participate in the registry by self-identifying when they take their MCAT exams, which are given 25 times per year. Once the list is compiled, it is sent to medical schools, which use the registry to contact students directly and encourage them to apply.

“The list usually includes more than a thousand participants,” said Moses. “It’s a wonderful way for schools to learn about these students and see how well they have done on the MCATs.” Busnaina recommends that minorities take advantage of mentoring opportunities, such as those offered by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), the oldest and largest organization serving medical students of color. There are more than 100 chapters at U.S. colleges and universities with “pipeline programs” designed to strengthen minority preparation for medical school at the undergraduate level.

SNMA, he says, has a “great record of helping minorities get into medical school.”

Admissions committees also look at GPAs, including the difficulty of courses taken and the type of school that the applicant attended.

Extracurricular activities, such as volunteer work and some type of clinical or research experience, is usually viewed as an indication of a candidate’s interest in the field of medicine.

Myth No. 3: Majoring in science is a must for getting into medical school.

Although the majority of med school applicants do major in biology or other natural sciences, students from all academic majors are admitted to medical schools. All students must satisfy some prerequisites, but institutions such as the State University of New York-Geneseo Medical School encourages applicants who have a broad-based, varied education. Drexel University says that because the medical profession is changing, its admissions officers are placing a greater emphasis on critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving ability.

Several admissions directors indicated on their medical school websites that they give no preference to either science or nonscience majors but would rather see well-rounded students who immersed themselves in a nontraditional undergraduate program.

Fluency in a second language is a big plus, says Busnaina, noting that Hispanic applicants should not overlook the strength that their language skills might bring to the applicant profile. He urges Hispanics to emphasize their versatility because it is an important capability, as he has learned while completing his residency in psychiatry in Los Angeles.

“There are days that I don’t speak a word of English on the job,” he said, adding that although he is not a native speaker of Spanish, he has become fluent in the language.

College of the Desert is located approximately 100 miles from Los Angeles and San Diego among the desert resort communities of the greater Palm Springs area. This premier location is characterized by the physical beauty of its mountains and desert.

ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION TITLE V Project Director/Student Affairs Faculty Non-tenure 5 year grant $66,948 - $96,951/year Position open until filled.

First screening of applications will be mid-June.

PLEASE NOTE: We accept online applications only. To apply online and to view job posting, go to: jobs.collegeofthedesert.edu Human Resource Office College of the Desert 43500 Monterey Ave. Palm Desert, CA 92260 EOE

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Marketing Faculty Position The Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School invites applications for a faculty position to start in July 2012. Marketing encompasses understanding consumer behavior, international marketing, business-to-business marketing, product management, new product development and marketing organization and systems.

Applicants should have outstanding records in Ph.D. or DBA programs, strong potential and interest to do research at the forefront of their fields, and great enthusiasm for teaching.

Position entails teaching in graduate and executive education programs and creative development of appropriate teaching materials.

Candidates should submit CV, copies of publications and working papers, and letters of recommendation at: www.hbs.edu/research/faculty-recruiting/.

Closing date for applications is July 1, 2011.

If there are materials that can only be sent in hard copy, you can send them to: Harvard Business School, Faculty Administration, Attn: Marketing Application, Morgan Hall T25, Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA 02163.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

UNCENSORED

by Peggy Sands Orchowski

COLLEGE DIPLOMA? CHECK! JOB READY? THAT’S THE QUESTION – “Colleges should serve the job market!” U.S. state governors declared recently. “Colleges need to do a better job of aligning their programs with the economic needs of their states.” These were the findings of a new report by the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices. It highlighted steps taken in Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington state that “moved beyond their traditional emphasis on a broad liberal-arts education to think more about skills for specific jobs.

The center suggests that colleges use “rigorous labor-market data” to set goals, and get more input from local businesses on the skills they think graduating students need for the work force. As the Obama administration increasingly pushes towards its goal that “every American should attend at least one year of college,” this question will be a central focus. Should colleges be comprehensive educators or job trainers?

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ARE COLLEGE PROFS STILL THE “GO-TO” PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS? – In Washington, D.C., where policy is proposed and made by recognized experts in the field, it is increasingly apparent that cloistered university academics are losing ground as the go-to experts to think tank Ph.D.s, former top-ranking generals and senior diplomats. At times, the academics are even gently mocked. In a recent press launch of a groundbreaking policy paper on the need for negotiating peace in Afghanistan, senior career diplomat Thomas R. Pickering proudly noted that the report had received unanimous support not only from its broad committee of prominent diplomats and experts from throughout the world but also “even from those dark corners of academia where experts work huddled over their desks.” Pickering was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., India and Russia as well as former secretary of state for diplomatic affairs during President Clinton’s Taliban crisis in Afghanistan. He is known for his straight talk.

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VOCABULARY ALERT: “FOREIGN” and “ALIEN” ARE VERBOTEN – A recent job advertisement from NAFSA made me perk up. The National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA) is an organization that I have respected and covered for decades. But in its recruitment ad, that name did not appear. NAFSA was referred to as the Association of International Student Counselors. Apparently never more should any student on a foreign student F1 visa ever be referred to as a “foreign student,” according to the career counselors who are required by law to be designated at every university that has been vetted by the U.S. State Department to give out foreign student visas to foreign student applicants. Still, the verboten word “foreign” is handy in the acronym. A similar fate has befallen the word “alien” when in conversation one refers to an immigrant (legal or illegal). Even though “alien” is the word used in immigration law, it has been deemed not-to-be-spoken by the politically correct. However, again, immigrant advocates have found the word to be useful in acronyms for their most popular legislative proposals. What do you think the “A” in the DREAM Act stands for? (FYI: DREAM actually stands for the “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors” Act.)

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PHILIPPINES LOSING IRREPLACEABLE PROFESSIONALS; TIME TO GET AMERICANS? – At the March conference of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the executive editor of The Philippine Star news group told me that the Philippines was facing a crisis dearth of medical and other professionals (including financial and management) in its public institutions and agencies. Increasingly larger proportions of these professionals who trained in the country are leaving for better-paying, even if not equivalent, jobs in Europe, Singapore, the Middle East and the U.S. (where medical doctors can earn more as nurses in the U.S. than they can as M.D.s at home). “They are irreplaceable,” Ms. Ana Marie Pamintuan lamented. “But we don’t stop them from going because we hope they’ll come back once they’ve made money abroad – we even give them dual citizenship to encourage that.” In the meantime, Americans who want to be nurses (including many military vets who served as medics in Iraq and Afghanistan) can’t get trained because of the lack of community college funds to support nursing educators. Some suggest that Americans go to the Philippines to be trained. “Not a bad idea,” said the editor, raising her eyebrows. Maybe they could pay for their education by serving in the hospitals that Philippine medical staff abandoned for the “American Dream” – that’s the one American students can no longer participate in. How’s that for globalization?

CAMPUS GUN ADVOCATES COPY GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT STRATEGY – Advocates who are increasing their efforts to allow guns on college campuses (especially in Arizona) are not doing it because they are concerned about students protecting themselves against increasing incidents of violence, writes University of California-Los Angeles Law Professor Adam Winkler. “Their true motivation is to remove the stigma of students carrying guns.” They’re using the same strategy as gay rights groups do: the more you see them (gays and guns), the more you accept them.

Margaret (Peggy Sands) Orchowski was a reporter for AP South America and for the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She earned a doctorate in international educational administration from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she was an editor at Congressional Quarterly and now is a freelance journalist and columnist covering Congress and higher education.

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FACULTY/MENTORING

Mentoring in Medicine Offers a “Continuous

F

by Gary M. Stern

“If you’re a classroom student

listening to a physician explain that he had to drive a cab to make it through college and now is dean of minority affairs at a medical college, that’s powerful.”

Dr. Lynne Holden, ER Physician, Montefiore Medical Center, Clinical Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine 18

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ourteen years ago when her daughter was born, Dr. Lynne Holden, an emergency room physician at Montefiore Medical Center and a clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., nearly died from heart failure and fluid build-up in her lungs. She survived and vowed that when the timing was right she would give back to society.

Riding the subway in 2005, Holden had a life-changing reminder. She was reading Gifted Hands, a book about neurosurgeon Ben Carson. A woman standing above her noticed the book and told her that her 9-year-old son wanted to become a brain surgeon. Holden knew three practicing neurosurgeons, took the woman’s name and later hooked her son up with one of them. This experience reaffirmed what Holden knew she had to do: start an organization to encourage minorities to become health career professionals.

In 2006, Holden launched Mentoring in Medicine (MIM), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health careers for minorities. Holden describes the key goals of the program as “exposing students to medical education, serving patients and encouraging students to be leaders in their community.”

Its cornerstone program offers emergency room internships and mentors to college students interested in medical careers. Helped by a $20,000 grant from Well Met Ladies, a private funder in New York, Holden started the organization and has led it while holding her full-time job. MIM offers a smaller program in Oakland, Calif., and is expanding to Atlanta, Ga. MIM offers an array of programs aimed at different audiences: 1) an annual “Yes, I Can Be a Healthcare Professional” conference that attracts elementary, middle school and older students to spark initial interest in health careers; 2) programs aimed at high school students to generate interest in biology and other science subjects; 3) emergency room internship and mentoring program for undergraduates and post-bachelor’s students; 4) program(s) preparing college graduates to take the medical boards.

Thus MIM provides a “continuous pipeline from elementary school to graduating college to launching a career as a health career professional,” said Holden, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and graduate of Temple University School of Medicine.

The number of Latino and African-American physicians has not kept pace with the growing minority population. According to the Association of American Medical College’s latest statistics for 2008, Latinos constituted 5.4 percent of all physicians; and African-Americans, 6.3 percent. Hence about 12 percent of physicians are minority, despite numbering 30 percent of the population. Holden decided that something had to be done to raise those numbers.

Most minority students lack role models in the health field. “For most minority students, their only exposure to medical career professionals is dealing with an emergency care physician. At MIM, most medical professionals they see look like them, and they want to hear their stories,” said Holden. She noted that 75 percent of the medical professionals who volunteer with MIM are minorities.

Indeed Holden wants minority students to hear the personal stories of medical professionals. “Many people have overcome obstacles and challenges to practice their craft. If you’re a classroom student listening to a physician explain that he had to drive a cab to make it through college and now is dean of minority affairs at a medical college, that’s powerful,” Holden said.

Why One Medical Student Became a Mentor When Juan Robles, a fourth-year student at Albert Einstein College of

Organization Pipeline” Medicine, learned about MIM from one of his medical professors, he welcomed the opportunity to mentor and train minority students. A native of Honduras who moved to New York at age 13, Robles graduated from Cornell University and became a science teacher in the New York City public schools before applying to medical school.

He tells MIM students that if they work hard, they can make it in medical school. Succeeding in medical school depends on persistence, learning from mistakes and rebounding from them. He advises minority students to create a strategy to apply to medical school, obtain financial aid and do well on the med boards. Everything must be mapped out and orchestrated in advance.

In his experience, some minority undergraduates take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), receive low scores and give up. Robles’ advice: If you score low, work hard to boost your scores. He didn’t do well on his first medical boards, but took a prep course (which he paid for by credit card), raised his scores and got admitted to medical school.

Becoming a physician is only one career path that MIM describes. “There are so many opportunities in health careers,” Robles says, referring to nurse practitioners, radiology technicians and teaching science in public schools.

But the effects of MIM don’t stop at medical school. The program encourages medical students to study family medicine, emergency medicine and pediatrics and practice in urban communities. Indeed when Robles completes medical school in 2011, he plans to become a family medical specialist in the Bronx, near the neighborhood where he was raised.

More than 650 mental health care professionals are involved in MIM, but most don’t have to commit to a weekly one-on-one session. Some professionals are only involved with conferences that happen once a year, and others become interns and mentors of college students. MIM provides training that encourages mentors to emphasize their own personal stories, respond openly to student questions, and stay upbeat and constructive.

MIM sparks students’ interest in health careers at a young age. The “Yes, I Can Be a Health Career Professional” is an annual conference held in New York, Oakland and Atlanta. Last year, the New York conference attracted 68 biomedical representatives that described careers in occupational therapy, paramedics, respiratory therapy, psychology, surgeons and nurses. MIM partners with the Explorehealthcareers.org website where students can obtain more information.

Attract Students in High School to Motivate Careers in College MIM created the Human Biology and Disease Course, targeting students in six New York City public high schools over the course of 10 weeks. Each week, students focus on different organs of the body. One week, students study the heart, lung and kidneys; and the next week, endocrine, skin and reproductive systems. The program is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. Starting this spring, MIM planned to introduce the Healthy Living and Health Careers course in two New York secondary schools.

Holden says the high school program enables MIM to “expose students to health careers at an earlier age and help students with advance biological concepts and teach them about disease.” The more students are motivated by science, the more they are likely to apply to college, raise their grades and consider a medical or health professional career.

In some minority communities, being smart can lead to ridicule, so the high school program builds self-respect as well as academic skills. “It’s serving as a safe haven for students interested in health careers. It allows students to see health professions up close and be exposed to what they do,” Holden said.

Why Internships Are at the Core of What MIM Does Any minority undergraduate in college in the New York metropolitan area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, can apply for MIM’s Emergency Department Clinical Exposure and Mentoring Program. Since no housing is included, students must live in proximity in order to travel daily to Montefiore Hospital’s emergency room where the internships take place.

The program lasts three to six months a year, and because emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day seven days a week, students can participate on weekends or after work to accommodate their schedule. In 2010, 150 students participated in the internship program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, and 30 students were involved at Highland Hospital during the summer in Oakland, Calif.

About 300 students applied, and because they must be cleared and vetted thoroughly by Montefiore, which can take 10 weeks to complete, many students lose interest and drop out. The students who are most persistent and meet the criteria are accepted into the program.

Students are expected to spend a minimum of eight hours a week in emergency rooms. They shadow doctors, nurses and physician assistants and observe how medical personnel treat patients. In addition, student interns perform a variety of nonmedical tasks such as distributing pillows and food trays.

Students derive “a bird’s eye view of how an emergency room operates, including seeing patients and their illnesses,” Holden said. Moreover, physicians describe the diseases that most afflict the minority community.

For example, interns learn about hypertension and diabetes, which minority people suffer from in higher percentages.

Even during college, students can deal with the harsh realities that medical staff face on a daily basis. “It’s not too early to see a baby being born, someone having a heart attack, or seeing a family’s reaction when a loved one dies,” Holden said. The mentoring and internship program can help determine if the student is serious about pursuing a career in medicine or other health fields.

Participating in an emergency room internship and mentoring program alone won’t train minority students to raise their MCAT scores, which are critical to medical school acceptance. That’s why MIM established the Medical Pathway Program in which academic specialists prepare students to take the MCAT and improve their scores.

While many medical internship programs only attract elite students with 3.8 GPAs, Medical Pathways appeals to the middle-performing students. It targets students with under 3.0 GPAs whom Holden calls “the forgotten” – students who require guidance on how to take a test, manage time, read between the lines and master the strategies that many mainstream students learn growing up. Medical Pathways lasts 20 weeks and meets at the Frederick Douglas Academy High School in Harlem.

Having started with a modest grant in 2006, Holden has expanded MIM such that this year its budget is $250,000. It still doesn’t have a full-time staff, but she has hired some part-time college graduates who are taking a break after graduation. Montefiore donated office space, and Holden still writes the grants to keep MIM operating.

Holden aims to expand MIM beyond New York and Oakland. MIM held its first dinner with the medical community in Atlanta last November, attracting 400 people and 70 medical professionals, so clearly the interest is there. A follow-up dinner took place in the spring.

What impact is MIM having on students? Holden said tracking their progress after graduating from college is difficult but that at least 130 MIM graduates have embarked on careers in medicine and related fields.

Robles said that because of the program, “More Latinos and AfricanAmericans are getting accepted into medical school and are staying in minority communities after they graduate.”

If funding can increase, Holden would like to see the program build chapters nationally, in numerous disadvantaged communities. Somewhere that mother who spoke with Holden on the rush-hour subway car is smiling.

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HEALTH/SCIENCE

Nursing Graduate Battles Miscommunication in Health Care Profession

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by Frank DiMaria

ommunication is important in most aspects of life. But communication between a health care provider and a patient could mean life or death. This issue is of particular importance for nurses who have intimate contact and need frequent and lengthy patient interactions. But when the patient and health care provider do not speak the same language, the results could be disastrous.

Angela Melchor, a recent graduate of Marquette University’s (Wis.) nursing program, noticed that many of the patients she would see for post-hospitalization follow-ups while on her clinical rotation at a community clinic as a nursing student were underinformed, misinformed and sometimes completely unaware of their condition. As a result, many of Melchor’s patients did not know how to care for themselves after leaving the hospital.

“One patient, in particular, had been admitted to the intensive care unit at a local hospital for a serious cardiovascular condition and was released with a complex medication and health regimen to follow. At his follow-up at the clinic, we discovered that this patient was entirely unaware of the condition that he had and did not know why he was even admitted to the hospital, why any of the medications given to him were necessary or how to properly take the medications,” says Melchor.

The patient’s health care providers were puz-

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zled as to why he had not been following through with the recommendations from doctors, given the seriousness of his condition. But they soon discovered that his lack of adherence to the regimen centered on the fact that he had never received the vital health information in a way in which he could fully understand it.

It was not until Melchor sat down with this patient and spoke to him in Spanish and explained his situation that he fully comprehended the gravity of his condition. “He was shocked and felt somewhat betrayed that nobody had taken the time to explain this to him in this way earlier,” she says.

In the weeks to follow, the patient made serious and necessary life changes, taking all of his medications as prescribed, altering his diet and even exercising on a regular basis. At his last follow-up with Melchor, showing tremendous progress, he shed tears as he thanked her for “saving his life” and again told her that if only someone in the hospital had taken the time to help him understand his condition and how to take care of himself, he would have started making these necessary, life-altering changes earlier.

This particular patient made quite an impression on Melchor while in Marquette’s nursing program. “It was empowering, knowing that I could make this much of a difference in a patient’s life,” says Melchor. This empowerment compelled her to launch a research project at

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Marquette called Exploration of Hospital Discharge Instruction Comprehension by Spanish Speaking Clients Attending a Community Clinic at First Post-Hospitalization Visit. Melchor and her research team are exploring Spanishspeaking patients’ ability to understand the health instructions that are provided to them upon discharge from the hospital.

When patients are admitted to the hospital and before they are released, they receive detailed discharge instructions that typically include an explanation of the diagnosis, health care instructions and recommendations, followup instructions and a phone number to call should they have any questions or experience any complications. These instructions, and the patient’s ability to comprehend them, are vital to ensuring that the patient understands and can carry out the actions required to make an optimal recovery at home.

“Too often, patients have a difficult time comprehending this information – and it becomes particularly difficult for Spanish speakers because of the added language barrier,” says Melchor.

Melchor is studying Spanish-speaking patients’ discharge experiences to identify their general level of comprehension of the specific discharge instructions and whether there were any factors that influenced, either positively or negatively, their ability to comprehend these

instructions. Through personal interviews with the study participants, Melchor asks questions about their experience in the hospital. She determines whether the health care provider spoke Spanish or if a translator was provided, if family members were involved in the discharge process and then more specific questions about how well the patients felt they understood the instructions and if there was anything specific that was done that either helped or hindered their ability to understand the instructions.

“This is done,” she said, “with the goal of identifying ways that I and other health care providers can improve the discharge process for Spanish speakers and facilitate their comprehension of discharge instructions so that they can go home feeling empowered to be an active and important participant in their own recovery.”

Melchor’s goal is to help the growing number of patients who have difficulty understanding discharge instructions and are inadequately informed about how best to take care of themselves after being discharged from the hospital.

Melchor has the opportunity to perform this research as a result of her participation in the Ronald E. McNair Summer Research Internship at Marquette University, where she has been under the tutelage of faculty mentor Dr. Ruth Ann Belknap, associate professor at Marquette’s College of Nursing. The McNair Scholars program helps first-generation, lowincome college students prepare for graduate school through a rigorous, eight-week summer research internship.

Melchor is performing the research at a community clinic in the Milwaukee area that serves uninsured individuals, the majority of whom speak Spanish as their primary or only language.

Melchor knew in high school that she would end up in the health care profession. As a junior, the athletic trainer for her soccer team approached her about an opportunity she had to send a student to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Nursing in Boston. Melchor accepted the offer, thinking it would allow her to explore the health care field. In Boston, Melchor shadowed nurses on several different units at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“I became fascinated with how much the nurses invested in their patients and the types of close and personal relationships they would create with each one of them. I saw how the patient’s faces lit up when a very caring and compassionate nurse came to see them, and it helped me to reflect on my personal experiences in doctors offices and hospitals – and how it was always the nurse who provided the comfort and

care that made me feel like things were going to be OK,” says Melchor. Melchor noticed that nurses provided patients with a refuge from the fear and stress of being sick, and she realized that she, too, wanted to provide this same kind of refuge to those in need.

“I wanted to be that one person who, although I couldn’t completely solve their problem or take away all of the pain, could at least make that person feel valued, cared about and give them the hope they needed to believe that their illness could become manageable. Today I couldn’t imagine myself being anything other

profession was for her, she searched for a college that provided direct admission into a nursing program, was located in a metropolitan area, and was no more than three hours away from her family.

“Aside from its beautiful campus its Catholic Jesuit ideals and core values of faith, leadership, service and excellence, and its nationally ranked College of Nursing, Marquette University offered me a shot at a $20,000 scholarship through its College of Nursing Scholarship Competition. I was a high school senior when I attended this competition and won, which awarded me $5,000 a year for tuition and put Marquette

Angela Melchor (pictured center) with her mother, Minerva Melchor, and her father, Luis Melchor, at Melchor’s graduation

than a nurse,” says Melchor.

Melchor was born in Highland Park, Ill., and shortly thereafter moved to Park City, a small town about an hour northwest of Chicago. Her parents came to America in their late teens from a very poor, rural town called Escuchapa, Guerrero, in southern Mexico. They settled first into a small room in a house occupied by many other recent migrants. When Melchor was 4, they bought their own home in Park City.

Once Melchor decided that the health care

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above any of the other schools I was considering at the time,” says Melchor.

As an undergraduate, Melchor traveled to the International Congress on Migration sponsored by the American Jesuit Migration Service in the spring of 2009. Her nursing professor, Belknap, sought bilingual nursing students to help her with a research study that examined the effectiveness of a self-led support group for migrant Latina women in decreasing their risk of depression and intimate partner violence.

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Melchor was one of two students who volunteered as a research assistant and served as a co-facilitator of the support group. Throughout the study, Melchor compiled field notes and participated in analyzing themes that arose out of these support groups.

Belknap, who had attended the International Congress on Migration and Social Institutions years before, approached Melchor about attending the 2009 conference and presenting the research for their study. Having never presented research before, Melchor was nervous and apprehensive. But she accepted Belknap’s offer and attended the conference at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

“It was rather intimidating being one of very few undergraduate students presenting research, but it was definitely an unforgettable experience.

I was able to learn about the many different kinds of projects that are taking place all around the world which serve to understand and improve the situation of migrants everywhere,” says Melchor.

Since graduating with her nursing degree in December of 2010, Melchor has traveled to Chiapas as the translator for an undergraduate health course taught by Belknap. The course, titled Health and Migration: the U.S. and Mexico, analyzes the social, economic, political and cultural factors that drive individuals to migrate to other areas and the health implications that result from this migration for both the migrant and the sending families.

Belknap’s course includes an immersion component for which students travel to San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, to live with the native people and learn from the unique indigenous voice and perspective about the culture, lifestyle and situation of the poor, indigenous people in Chiapas. “I attended this same trip two years ago as a student in the course, but now that I graduated, I was invited to join them as the interpreter. It was an honor being able to share the stories of the people and to be able to spread the knowledge that would help the students better understand the lives of the people in Chiapas,” she says.

Melchor decided not to seek employment after graduating from Marquette but rather traveled. She intends to go to graduate school and will seek employment in the city in which she will ultimately do her master’s. “I intend to work in a community setting where I can use my bilingualism as a valuable resource to the Latino community,” says Melchor.

In February, Melchor was accepted to Columbia University’s graduate nursing program

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but is undecided. Ultimately, she plans to work as a Family Nurse Practitioner and focus on the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions in the Latino community. She hopes to work in a community clinic that serves families with low resources and would love to one day work as a member of a nurse-managed health center and provide accessible, affordable and language concordant health care to families in need. After several years of working as a nurse practitioner, she would like to teach part time at a nursing school where she can offer courses on health and culture and cultural competence.

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“My lifetime dream is to be able to help set up a health clinic in my parent’s hometown and establish scholarship programs for individuals there interested in attending nursing school in Mexico. I want to help increase the number of health care providers available in that area but also try to prevent the impulse for out-migration by providing a means for individuals to attend college, have employment opportunities and in this way preserve the integrity of the families and the culture that makes my parents’ hometown so beautiful,” says Melchor.

Interesting Reads Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us About Ourselves

By Dr. Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall This book makes the case that research into the human genome confirms what fossil bones have told us about human origins. It serves as a companion volume to the American Museum of Natural History’s new permanent exhibit.

2008. 216 pgs. ISBN 978-1585445677. $29.95 cloth. Texas A&M University Press. (800) 826-8911. www.tamu.edu/upress.

Thriving in the Crosscurrent: Clarity and Hope in a Time of Cultural Sea Change

By Jim Kenney The premise of the book is that the 21st century is experiencing a rare global revolution. It describes the causes of the impending revolution and offers a plan to help get through the turbulence and be more prosperous than ever.

2010. 216 pgs. ISBN 978-0-8356087-6-3. $16.95 paper.

Quest Books. (630) 665-0130. www.questbooks.net.

Torch Song Tango Choir

By Julie Sophia Paegle Paegle, the daughter of immigrants from Argentina and Latvia, takes readers through the turmoil of displacement and migration with poems that connect with the strong folk songs and tango music of her youth.

2010. 96 pgs. ISBN 978-0-8165-2864-6. $15.95 paper. The University of Arizona Press. (520) 621-3920. www.uapress.arizona.edu.

and Media...

The Trees Have a Mother Concerning a young man who has recently gone missing in the forest, the film depicts his mother’s attempts to find him with the local shamans. Viewer discretion is advised because of some content is suited only to adults.

2008. 71 minutes. ISBN 978-1-61616-097-5. $179.95 DVD. Films for the Humanities and Sciences. (800) 2575126. www.films.com.

Solving Latino Psychosocial and Health Problems

by Kurt Organista John Wiley & Sons Publishing, Hoboken, NJ, 2007, 368 pages, $48.95 paper, ISBN 978-0-470-12657-8.

The

mistake most talking heads make when discussing the Latino culture is assuming they are speaking about a one-size-fits-all demographic group. The Latino culture is as diverse within itself as the American culture is in total. The author, Kurt Organista, charts the similarities and differences as a guide to the best practices for working with varied groups within Latino culture.

And the timing of this teaching tool couldn’t be more appropriate. In an estimated two generations, the United States will follow Mexico with the second-largest Latino population in the world.

Politicians as well as service providers need to quickly understand and learn to engage the social welfare of this important ethnic community.

As the author states succinctly, “The process of becoming Americanized can result in very different levels of adjustment and adaptation for different ethnic groups.

Why is it that some ethnic groups have considerable success achieving the American Dream while others do not? That is, why is it that some ethnic groups achieve high levels of power and participation in mainstream culture, politics and economics while other groups struggle and suffer at the margins? Using socioeconomic status (SES) as perhaps the most central indicator of general social welfare, it’s fairly easy to rank-order ethnic groups, with Euro-Americans mostly at the top and people of color mostly at the bottom.” The author’s mission is to provide a teaching resource to find the answers to that question – a mission he succeeds in accomplishing.

The first section of the book places each Latino subgroup in a historical and social context, discussing events such as the battle of the Alamo and the path of immigration to explain why Latino acculturation cannot be compared to European acculturation in the United States. For instance, why is it that Latinos from Central America settled in different areas than those from South America? The section ends with a practice model for working with Latinos. The second section spotlights practical programs detailing the best and most promising practices for working with various Latino populations.

The author is careful to include comprehensive coverage of problems and experiences of Latinos in the United States today, providing context for greater understanding of the inherent problems of serving the current and future Latino community. And while written in a clear and concise manner, the author spares no detail or example to present an integrative approach that makes this book relevant to a broad range of helping professionals and addresses the needs of diverse groups within Latino culture.

The practice model in section one is particularly helpful and instructive, building on the work of other pioneers in cultural competence and mental health such as Doman Lum and Lloyd Rogler. The model offers a new four-dimensional framework aimed at promoting culturally and socially competent interventions.

The author’s exhaustive research into the subject matter is apparent. The result is that he has presented the best and most promising practices, policy and professional roles, which he weaves together with compelling discussions of Latino families, youth, health, mental health and political power.

Solving Latino Psychosocial and Health Problems is an important tool for those who want to positively and productively engage the Latino community of the United States. It is an absolute must-read for practitioners, students and policymakers.

Reviewed by Mary Ann Cooper

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DISTANCE LEARNING/TECHNOLOGY

Miami Dade Medical Campus Sets a Standard for Mobile Libraries

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irst there were books and card catalogues, and then there were computers. Now a unique library at Florida’s Miami Dade College (MDC) is setting a trend for other community college libraries to follow. It’s introduced a mobile library and library system whereby students at Miami Dade’s Medical Campus have mobile access to information more expediently than ever before.

In 2009, Miami Dade’s Medical Campus – a 2,338-student-large campus compared to MDC’s 164,798 students – created its first-ever mobile library in an effort to provide its nursing students a way to access medical information while working on site at hospitals.

“We noticed back in the summer of 2008 that our nursing department had decided to pilot a program where they loaned tablet PCs to nursing students. We thought that was the rave back then. The college bought these and loaded them with textbooks, teachers’ PowerPoint slides and other class material,” said Carla Clark, faculty librarian at the Medical Campus’ library. “A year later, in January of 2009, our Physical Therapy department decided to loan out iPod touches to their students, and they loaded material onto them.

We felt we needed to keep up because these students wouldn’t want to use the traditional library. That is where the idea came to develop a mobile website.”

The new mobile library at Miami Dade’s Medical Campus carries much of what the traditional ones do – on-site books, card catalogues, periodicals and places for students to gather, read, work on projects, conduct research and do much more. Beyond this, students can also search the library catalogues and access library information online. What makes the mobile library unique, though, is that now students can download eBooks, a medical encyclopedia and an abbreviated version of the library’s website onto SmartPads, iPads and other smaller mobile devices that students use regularly.

At first glance, this change from being a library with a regular website for desktops to one designed for smaller devices might not seem unique. But in reality, this transition required a year of hard work in which Iván Toledo, assistant library director and reference librarian, refor-

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by Michelle Adam

matted the library’s website information so it could fit on a small screen.

“I had to develop the website so it could fit smaller screen sizes. We also had to reorganize some of the information,” explained Toledo. “For example, we wanted scrolling up and down to be limited. We wanted all of the information to be on a single page. So we had to make journal database sizes available to students in mobile versions.”

Toledo explained that they wanted to provide a condensed and consolidated version of information from their website so students could access quick reference material. “We wanted something that was simple and very easy to use and mobile. We wanted ready reference materials for drug information or scientific material for the medical campus that could be used on different devices such as the iPhone, mobiles or any other small- or largesize phone. We had to deal with the network department to make sure everything was showing up the way it was supposed to show,” he said. “We tried to look for outside sources of information that are mobile. We wanted to provide students with a new way to get information they needed. They can check information, news, announcements, books and more, and they don’t have to come to the library if we don’t have what they need or have it online.”

This easy access of information through the Medical Center Campus library is an especially tremendous asset for Miami Dade’s nursing students, who are required to do a lot of hands-on work in hospitals and retrieve quick and accurate information.

“These students really desire quick access from a Smartphone when they are at the bedside of a patient. The immediacy of information is very appealing. You can even show the phone of information to the patient,” Clark explained. “Prior to the mobile website, they could try to find a desktop somewhere, which is usually hard to find. Typically there is only a desktop at the central nurses’ station, but not in the hospital room with patients. So they’d need to go away from the patient, or even go down into the medical library. They’d maybe come back in half an hour.”

“For our students who don’t know how to evaluate good or bad information, we evaluate it and only put accurate and reliable information on the website,” added Clark.

Among community colleges in Florida or nationwide, Miami Dade College is one of a few and perhaps the only one to have a mobile library such as this.

“I haven’t found anybody who has been using this in Florida. We made presentations at other community colleges, and no one said they had this,” said Toledo. “Harvard, Duke and Yale have mobile sites. We wanted to check out

what type of information they were including on their websites. But when ours was done, we had more information and had added other catalogues. We added some resources from the Web that are useful to our students, like drugs.com, medline.com and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

When Toledo and Clark demonstrate how to use the new library resources, students are surprised to learn that the information presented can be seen later, legibly and simply, on their iPhones or other devices.

“When we go into the classrooms, the students try to access the smaller versions on their phones, and they really like it,” said Toledo. “Our student assistants tell me that this has been very useful.”

Rafael Castellano, a student in the Medical Laboratory Technician Program, remarked that “the Medical Campus mobile website is innovative, practical and timesaving because students can locate library material and medical information on the go, considering they have a busy daily schedule.”

Despite the usefulness of the mobile library, many students have yet to use this new technology because they are unaware of its existence. “For the months we have had this ready reference resource (March 2010 to March 2011), we’ve had 700 to 800 views on the site. We know students are using it, and we teach them how to use it in the classroom,” said Toledo.

“It is not very popular yet because we haven’t had the time for everyone to find out about it. The only challenge is communicating this site to the students so they know they have access to it. But usage has been going up.”

While the Medical Center Campus has set the stage for other community college campuses to follow suit, the larger Miami Dade College has yet to do so. MDC is the largest and most diverse college in the nation. With eight campuses and more than 170,000 students from across the world, the college offers more than 300 programs of study and several degree options, including vocational, associate and baccalaureate degrees. MDC features numerous community education classes, online credit classes through the Virtual College, the New World School of the Arts, the Honors College and Dual Enrollment.

As the No. 1 college in the nation providing associate degrees to Hispanics, MDC and its Medical Center Campus are now able to offer these additional on-the-cutting-edge resources for many Hispanic students.

Students in the following programs can now access the new library resources: Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, A.S. Allied Health Technologies, Associate of Applied Science, Advanced Technical Certificate, Career Technical Certificate Programs, College Credit Certificate Programs, a Bachelor of Science, a Bachelor of Applied Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“We did this because we were looking into the future and saw that this was something everyone would have,” said Toledo, who imagines that in five to 10 years (or sooner) everybody will be working with mobile libraries.

“This will make the work we do here taken even more seriously than it is right now, given that we are keeping up with the changes in the world.”

Keeping up with changes in the world of technology isn’t easy – it requires diligence and upkeep. Yet doing so is key for Toledo and the Miami Dade Medical Campus. “It all changes so much, so fast, and we try to change with the technology. When everyone created blogs, we created a blog. Mobile devices are very important, and we have to keep up with that.

Everyone buys readers for students to access eBooks,” said Toledo.

“I see us changing with technology, since that is the only way libraries are going to survive. Without it, people aren’t going to want to go there anymore.

We have to keep up with everything, and focus on the students’ needs.”

Adapting to these changes is something the Medical Center Campus library has definitely done, and continues to do. And these adaptations have created a whole new idea of what a library like MDC’s looks like in today’s modern world.

“There’s the stereotypical image of the lady in the glasses telling students to ‘sh’ in the library. But that has changed a lot,” said Clark. “It is noisier in the library now. It comes down to those cell phones ringing all the time and students talking and sitting at tables and working together. There are also others printing and making copies. It is a bustling environment.”

Beyond the library premises themselves, now students will be accessing information without even entering a building with collections of books and materials. They will be mobile – in a hospital, in a conference room, or in a classroom – and obtaining quick and concise information on their subject of choice. And at MDC or at any other campus with a mobile library, all that will be required is for students to have the latest technology in hand.

“I don’t think students will find it revolutionary. A great majority of

“I see us changing with

technology, since that is the only way libraries are going to survive.”

Iván Toledo, Assistant Library Director and Reference Librarian them have nicer phones than I do,” said Clark. “More and more of it will be expected. If you don’t have a mobile site, something will be wrong.”

For now, however, Miami Dade College and its Medical Center Campus might be considered a bit revolutionary within the world of community college libraries. The school has provided an example that can inspire those in the health care field to continue growing mobile resources in its profession, and can encourage other colleges to do the same for their students.

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Beyond the Physical: Tackling Obesity as More than a Health Issue HEALTH/SCIENCE

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by Sylvia Mendoza

besity trends in the United States are alarming – but the issue is more than health-related. At the 2011 AAHHE (American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education) Conference, expert panelists addressed the ripple effect obesity has on

barrier to educational advancement, including even the capacity to finish high school.

The scary factor: childhood obesity in minority communities has increased. “‘Obese’ is a politically correct term, but kids at play don’t know that word,” says Dr. Gilbert

the American Public Health Association, cited findings that showed normal-weight/height children had significantly better IQ performance than obese children. In addition, obese boys and girls are one and a half times more likely to be held back in school. Also, if boys are obese at

Dr. Fernando Trevino, Executive Director, American Public Health Association

Dr. Elena Ríos, President, National Hispanic Medical Association and the National Hispanic Health Foundation at NYU

Dr. Gilbert Ramírez, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, FIU

Hispanic communities, as well as the long-lasting social, emotional and intellectual impact on an individual’s well-being.

Obesity was defined as a body mass index of 30 or higher. The body mass index is a measure of an adult’s weight in relation to his/her height.

The surprising correlation was how obesity’s impact on a child’s health status is directly related to achievement. Obesity, it seems, can be a

Ramírez, associate dean of academic and student affairs at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at Florida International University. “They just say, ‘You’re fat.’”

This stigma can impact self-esteem, which relates to lower performance levels. Dr. Fernando Trevino, past president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and executive director of

16, they are less likely to pursue higher education; they will receive less schooling overall.

In the 1990s, only 10 states reported having an obesity problem. In 1995, that rose to 25 percent; in 2009, the rate reached 30 percent.

Where do Hispanics fall in this trend? Compared to non-Hispanic Blacks, Latinos are better off, but worse off than non-Hispanic Whites.

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Beyond the Physical Obesity is not just a health issue. It is complex, multilayered and multifactorial. If an obese child’s emotional, mental and social capacities are affected, education, income, employment, health, health care and behavioral issues can all be adversely affected over time. However, it once again seems that “it takes a village.” To address obesity at an individual level, social and health inequities must be addressed at a community level.

Health and education community partnerships started early in a child’s life can improve health outcomes, which can affect fitness scores and academic progress and success. Spotlighted was Trevino’s Bienestar Health Program. In his studies, he found a high rate of type 2 diabetes in overweight, low-income Mexican-American children. In a partnership with the San Antonio Independent School District, health and physical education classes, family programs and afterschool health clubs were incorporated; school cafeteria food choices and health and nutrition education were improved. The program used culturally relevant materials, such as the game Loteria, to make specific points. The study suggests it is possible to improve the physical fitness

of this target population with a comprehensive program. The curriculum seems successful and has become a prototype for other ethnic groups.

Prevention is a focus at the federal level, as well. Grants for community transformation plans are aimed at clinics, health education, schools and restaurants.

Culturally Relevant Health Care Health care reform bills such as the Affordable Care Act and the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act focus on access, quality, prevention and work force – as well as education, nutrition, increased patient outreach/ patient-centered care, and the Hispanic lifestyle.

Even given disparities in health care, the current system lacks Hispanic representation and leaders; in the nursing profession, for example, only 2 percent are Hispanic. By 2042, one in four Americans will be Hispanic, says Dr. Elena Ríos, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) and the National Hispanic Health Foundation (NHHF) at New York University. More diversity is needed in fields such as nursing, mental health, pediatrics, internal medicine and research. In the meantime,

organizations such as NHMA and NHHF represent more than 45,000 Hispanic physicians looking to improve Latinos’ health care.

Culturally competent training is absolutely essential and key to confront behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together in the system, says Ríos. At the Office of Minority Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, guidelines on culturally and linguistically appropriate services are offered to train staff to be culturally relevant and respectful with a target population.

Licensing of doctors can hinge on this cultural relevance training, which California and New Jersey already enforce, she says. Perhaps then, patients suffering from obesity and diabetes might become more comfortable talking with a doctor, and will get better treatment.

A continued shift in paradigm is essential to tackle obesity and its related issues. When individuals, families, community sources, the medical work force, educators and government collaborate, positive change can occur. Says Trevino, “Obesity is not only a medical problem anymore.”

Biology Lab Specialist Allied Health Sciences & Nursing Admissions Coordinator Roane State Community College is a multi-campus comprehensive community college serving an eight-county area in East Tennessee. Qualified applicants, including current employees, must apply for and submit a new application and resume (if required) for each position opening. Unofficial copies of transcripts/certificates must be included with the application or resume when a degree/certificate is required, in order to be officially considered. Official copies of college transcripts required upon employment.

Applications accepted online only.

RSCC-EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA Employer.

A Tennessee Board of Regents Institution.

To apply for these positions please go to: www.roanestate.edu/humanresources

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HEALTH/SCIENCE

Flavia Mercado, a Doctor for All Seasons

by Clay Latimer

In

the two years she had been a medical school resident, Flavia Mercado had grown used to the hectic pace – an intensity that sometimes made it feel as though there were 48 hours in a day.

Then one day, a group of Honduran teenage boys dropped a sick friend at the emergency ward entrance and sped away. Suddenly, Mercado’s previous schedule seemed easy.

Lacking money, insurance, family and English-language skills, the 16-year-old patient turned to Mercado for help on several fronts in his moment of desperation, a moment that changed the young doctor’s career path.

“At the time, due to the political environment, many people were leaving Honduras, and some of them ended up in D.C.,” she said.

“Many were young men leaving the war and also looking for work.

“When this boy got sick, he couldn’t keep up

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his bargain of paying the rent on the house or going to work with the other guys. There was nothing they could do, so they took him to the emergency room and left him.

“The young man ended up having cancer. At the time, I was the only resident who spoke Spanish. I ended up being the doctor, interpreter, social worker, his whole support. It was very stressful, very difficult. But I knew I wanted to continue working in clinics serving Spanishspeaking people.”

Today Mercado is an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine, where she teaches the value of cultural competency, which requires that physicians be aware of cultural differences. In 1996, she became the first bilingual pediatrician hired to provide care for Mexican-American families at the Lindbergh Women and Children’s Health Care Center, where she works today.

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In 2002, she co-founded and currently is the medical director of the International Medical Center at Grady Memorial Center, which provides primary care health services to limitedEnglish patients. She also developed a Spanish immersion program for Emory medical students and is a member of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Selected for the Leadership Fellowship Program of the National Hispanic Medical Association in 1999, Mercado has become a leading speaker on Hispanic health care issues, advocating for better health access and services and the elimination of health disparities.

“My original goal was to become a privatepractice pediatrician. I never expected to end up where I am, teaching medical school students, running a clinic, seeing patients and advocating at meetings,” she said. “I’m doing a

lot of different things I wouldn’t have done in private practice.”

The oldest child of Puerto Rican immigrants, Mercado was the first in her family to be born in the U.S. After high school in Europe and the U.S. – her father was in the U.S. Army – she moved on to Atlanta’s Emory University and Emory Medical School, where, initially, she couldn’t decide between pediatrics and surgery initially.

“Nobody in my family is a health person, so I really didn’t have mentoring in my family. But I had seen my parents struggle with my younger brother’s medical problems. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him; he needed a lot of care,” she said.

“In medical school, I realized I really enjoyed working with children. Their personalities suited me better. And when children get sick, they quickly bounce back. Unless its cancer, you can take care of children, and they will be healthy. It was just a natural fit.”

After completing her pediatric residency at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Mercado joined a private practice in Chevy Chase, treating both embassy families and charity cases. Returning to Atlanta in 1996, she found a changed city. From 1980 to 1995, when immigrants poured into Atlanta to build venues for the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Hispanic population of Georgia grew 130 percent. By 1996, the year Lindbergh hired Mercado to become its first bilingual pediatrician, there were 462,973 Hispanics in Georgia.

“I just happened to come at that time. I spoke Spanish, and I wanted to work in that environment,” she said. “But I’d never done medical school in Spanish or even traveled to Mexico. When I started there, I could have been a non-Spanish-speaking pediatrician. I didn’t connect on a cultural and lingual level.

Let’s put it this way – the families didn’t consider me Hispanic.

“Many days when I would talk to people, they didn’t seem to understand me, and I didn’t seem to understand them. Mexican Spanish has a lot more Indian words. And I didn’t understand the Mexican culture. It was quite different than Puerto Rican culture, which is very loud and talkative. Mexicans are much more reserved.

“One of the things I learned to do was ask which country of birth they were from. Many of them were from Mexico, but more were Guatemalans. Even though we were trying to speak Spanish,” she said, the Guatemalans “were not very fluent in Spanish. I didn’t under-

stand they were using more native Indian with Spanish – I had to do a lot of learning about different cultures. After a year, maybe a little more, I started realizing I was a trusted pediatrician and I understood the culture. It was definitely a difficult year, but I learned so many things.”

After working as a pediatrician for several years, Mercado realized she wanted to pursue an interest in public health, health policy and health advocacy. The first step was a National Hispanic Medical Association Leadership fellowship. “It’s kind of like getting a master’s in public health but in a small amount of time. It’s for people like me who need to learn how to advocate for their patients,” she said.

“It’s kind of how I got to start the clinic.”

The need in the Atlanta area for doctors and staff who speak Spanish was becoming increasingly evident: of the 4,449 babies delivered in 2002 at Grady, the state’s largest public hospital, more than 50 percent were born to Hispanic mothers. Of the nearly one million patients the Grady Health System saw in 2003, approximately 8 percent were Hispanic. According to the Latin American Association, Hispanics made up 7 percent of metro area residents that year.

Yet overcoming language, cultural and health care barriers was a problem for many Hispanic patients.

Immigrant patients often don’t understand the concept of refilling prescriptions or couldn’t follow instructions written in English.

Misunderstandings were common: one day a Spanish-speaking woman requested a pregnancy test as part of a triage process to decide if she should go to the emergency room or urgent-care clinic. She was unable to convey that she had been raped and needed treatment and counseling.

Instead of continuing to use interpreters, Mercado and Dr. Inginia Genao founded the Department of Multicultural Affairs at Grady and the International Medical Center, a bilingual outpatient clinic at Grady. Doctors at Emory and Morehouse universities volunteered their time for the project, which also included a children’s clinic once a month at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital.

“I consider it global health in Atlanta,” she said. “In talking to medical students wanting opportunities, I would say: before you go to South America, why don’t you work at my clinic and get some experience in the language – try out your project and get a little acculturated.”

In 2005, more than 2,000 people came to

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Grady Health System for a health fiesta, earning the hospital an award from the Metro Atlanta Corporate Volunteer Council. The festival targeted the Latina community, in hope of reaching women who get little medical attention. Led by Mercado, hundreds of volunteers provided tests and medical screenings. Those with abnormal results were told how to get follow-up care.

But the environment was changing. In 2006, Georgia passed a law requiring immigrants to show proof of legal residency to receive medical care. Within a year, Mercado reported, Atlanta organizations were scaling back health services for Hispanics and had stopped sponsoring Spanish health fairs, fearing that they would be raided by police or immigration officials. At the same time, faced with rising health care and increasing numbers of uninsured people, the state’s Medicaid program began sharply reducing benefits.

“As an American citizen, I understand that you want to make sure the resources are there for the right people,” Mercado said. “Yet how can you deny someone health access? If we don’t treat and prevent illness, our community is going to suffer.”

But the setbacks hardly diminished Mercado’s passion. During spring break last year, she led a group of Emory medical students on a trip to Ponce, Puerto Rico, helping organize activities ranging from a mock patient interaction conducted entirely in Spanish to a workshop on the country’s most common illnesses.

The trip underscored a familiar philosophy.

“Every patient encounter is a cultural encounter,” she said. “We all have a different cultural background.”

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HIGH SCHOOL FORUM

College-Bound High School Seniors Rate Their Emotional Health at an All-Time Low

H

by Mary Ann Cooper igh school seniors know the drill. They have to make sure they have their medical files in order. Colleges set medical standards for their student body – athletes and nonathletes alike. And while the value of having the proper vaccinations and examinations is indisputable, it’s easy to overlook the status of the prospective student’s mental health. Obvious mental illness is just that – obvious. Depression, stress and anxiety that are unnoticed and unchecked, however, can put a high school student on a potentially deadly collision course in college. And Hispanics are most susceptible to that disaster waiting to happen, according to a recent survey.

The economic turmoil has made the view of the general public gloomy, and the pessimism is beginning to trickle down to high school seniors entering their first year of college in 2010, according to the Cooperative Trends in Emotional Health During Senior Year of High School, by Sex (% Indicating “Highest 10% and ”Above Average”) 80

Emotional Health: Men

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% of Students

70 65 60 55 50 45 40

1985

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Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey, the University of California-Los Angeles’ (UCLA) annual survey of the nation’s high school students entering four-year colleges and universities. The survey, part of CIRP and administered nationally by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, shows that those students’ self-ratings of their emotional health dropped to record low levels last year. The 2010 Freshman Norms report is based on responses of 201,818 entering four-year colleges and universities as first-year students in 2010 at 279 of the nation’s baccalaureate colleges and universities.

Only 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was in the “highest 10 percent” or “above average,” a drop of 3.4 percentage points from 2009 and a significant decline from the 63.6 percent who placed themselves in those categories when self-ratings of emotional health

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were first measured in 1985. Indeed, the self-rated emotional health for high school graduates on their way to college in 2010 was at its lowest point since HERI first posed the question 25 years ago. Numbers applied to the general population of high school seniors are better, however, than those applied to just Hispanics.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, approximately 13 percent of Latino high school students have attempted suicide, compared with 6.7 percent of Whites, and 18.9 percent of Latinas in high school made at least one suicide attempt within a year’s period. Death from homicide is almost five times higher for Latino youth (28 percent) than for their White peers (5.8 percent), according to CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. Hispanic and Asian-American female teens have the highest rates of depression.

Across all ethnic groups, female students were far less likely to give themselves a high level rating of emotional health than male students (45.9 percent vs. 59.1 percent), a 13.2 percentage point difference. Women were also more than twice as likely as men to feel frequently “overwhelmed” as high school seniors. The report reveals that high school students who give themselves a lower rating on the state of their personal emotional health were often depressed in high school and did not view college as a place where they would prosper and have their needs fulfilled. In 2010, 38.8 percent of female high school graduates said they were stressed frequently from a feeling of being overwhelmed while only 17.6 percent of their male counterparts said they experienced that kind of stress.

If there is a bright side to the report, it is in the manner in which these same students channel their negative feelings about themselves and their future. While trend lines charting students’ emotional health show a downward movement, trends showing these same students’ ambition and ability to succeed are going up. More students than ever before (71.2 percent) rated their academic abilities as “above average” or in the “highest 10 percent,” and 75.8 percent rated their drive to achieve in the same terms.

John H. Pryor, lead author of the report and director of CIRP, says these conflicting trends have the potential to make matters worse for “overwhelmed” students. High levels of drive to achieve and expectations about academic ability could also contribute to students’ feelings of stress. “Stress is a major concern when dealing with college students,” he said. “If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation.”

Further complicating the mental health picture, especially for Hispanics, is the lack of professional resources to deal with depression,

anxiety and other mental issues. First and foremost, Hispanic high school students might come from households without insurance. It is estimated that 62 percent of Hispanic adults are uninsured. That’s almost double the number of uninsured African-American adults (33 percent). To make a stark comparison, children of color receive more mental health services through the juvenile justice system and child welfare system than through schools or mental health clinics.

Additionally, according to a report published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (Kataoka, S.; Zhang, L.; & Wells, K.), 88 percent of U.S.-born Latino children/youth have unmet mental health needs.

An inescapable conclusion is that one of the factors contributing to increased depression and stress is the financial strain of bad economic times. A lack of financial resources affects college choice and the quality of college experiences. Many high school students feel this stress and depression as they begin to go through the application process.

The proportion of students using loans to help pay for college was 53.1 percent in 2010, and more students reported receiving grants and scholarships than at any point since 2001 – 73.4 percent, a 3.4 percentage-point increase over 2009.

“The increasing cost of higher education poses a significant barrier to college access for today’s students,” said Sylvia Hurtado, co-author of the report and director of the Higher Education Research Institute. “Students and families are now charged with the task of becoming more resourceful and strategic in finding new and creative ways to pay for college.”

The survey contains anecdotal information about what is going on in

the homes of students as they prepare for college. It documented unemployment on the rise for students’ parents. The percentage of students reporting that their fathers were unemployed (4.9 percent) was at an alltime high, and the percentage reporting unemployed mothers (8.6 percent) also continued to increase. These factors put added stress on students who, for example, had to take those realities into consideration when choosing between staying close to home to aid the family financially and going away to school.

Incoming freshmen also appear to have an increased awareness of their need for counseling and communication with mentors and counselors. As the survey notes: “Perhaps coupled with the decrease in perceived emotional health and increased pressures and the financial concerns students have, the expectation to seek personal counseling in college is also at an all-time high of 9.7 percent, almost one in ten, from when we first asked the question in 1971, when the figure was 7.1 percent (an increase of almost 50 percent). More students do seem to know that communicating regularly with their professors is an important behavior to follow; with a record high of 38.2 percent believing that there is a ‘very good chance’ they would do so (up from 33.6 percent when first asked in 2000).”

Finally, despite all the various hopes, fears and determinations of the class entering college in 2010, optimism about their college education soars, with 57.6 percent believing there is a “very good chance” that they will be satisfied with college, the highest this figure has been in 28 years, since 1982, when it was also at 57.6 percent.”

Theory into Practice High school teens jealously guard their privacy, so it’s difficult to determine what’s going on inside their heads and hearts. The teen years are also a time during which hormonal mood swings are quite common. It’s all part of growing up. It’s difficult to tell if what a teen is going through is normal growing pains or depression, but the Mayo Clinic offers the following tips for parents, guardians, teachers and counselors to identify the kind of persistent depression that diminishes a teen’s quality of life. Once depression is suspected, it’s time to consult the teen’s family doctor or mental health professional trained to work with adolescents. Here’s what the Mayo Clinic suggests as warning signs of teen depression: • Sadness, irritability or anger that goes on for two weeks or longer – the key here is the time period. Teens have their ups and downs, but long-term negative behavior can’t be brushed off.

• Poor school performance or frequent absences from school – this type of acting out, particularly skipping school, could indicate that this teen is attempting to isolate himself from the rest of the world.

• Talking about running away from home or attempting to do so – this may indicate that the teen feels that her life is intolerable and she needs to escape from it.

• Loss of interest in family and friends – as a troubled teen’s depression deepens, he might draw inward, cutting himself off from those who could help him the most.

• Conflict with friends of family members – teens often try to quietly work through depression and resist letting friends and family get too close and learn their secret. Pushing them away, they reason, keeps them in the dark.

• Extreme sensitivity to rejection or failure – every misstep can reinforce depression and a feeling of inferiority for depressed teens.

• An ongoing sense that life and the future are grim and bleak – teens who are depressed create their own self-fulfilling prophesy. They view life through a lens limited to seeing the dark side of everyday life.

• Neglected appearance such as mismatched clothes and unkempt hair – often depressed teens lack the energy to maintain appearances. They even lack the energy to drag themselves out of bed in the morning.

• Reckless behavior – teens can become so paralyzed by depression that they sometimes take dangerous chances just to feel alive.

• Use of alcohol or drugs – depression can create such dark and dangerous thoughts for the troubled teen that he might try to numb its effects by getting drunk or high.

The Mayo Clinic also offers this warning: Depression symptoms may not get better on their own – and may get worse or lead to other problems if untreated. Teenagers who are depressed may be at risk of suicide, even if signs and symptoms don’t appear to be severe.

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The Hispanic Outlook In Higher Education

www.hispanicoutlook.com

Education Secretary Duncan Speaks at HACU Forum WASHINGTON, D.C.

America’s ability to answer President Obama’s call to “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build” the rest of the world is inextricably linked to the future of the Latino community, said Secretary Arne Duncan in a speech in April at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities’ (HACU) National Capitol Forum in Washington, D.C. Nearly 150 presidents and other leaders from Hispanic-Serving Institutions gathered at the 16th Annual Forum to discuss initiatives to ensure greater college access and completion for the country’s Latino population. Duncan answered questions from the audience and spoke of the importance of being multilingual in our 21st-century global

New College Grad Hiring Up 19 Percent Over Last Year BETHLEHEM, Pa.

Employers report that they will hire 19 percent more new college graduates this year than they did last year, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

In September, employers projected hiring 13.5 percent more new graduates from the class of 2011 than they hired from the class of 2010. Employers responding to NACE’s current survey upped that increase to 19.3 percent.

“This is the first time since 2007 that

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economy. Duncan explained that during his time overseeing Chicago Public Schools, the district made important investments in Chinese language instruction, a program that also benefited many bilingual Latino students.

The secretary noted that in many countries such as China, children aren’t just learning one additional language, but are often becoming trilingual, and that for Americans to compete in a globally connected world we must invest early in language instruction as part of a well-rounded education.

Duncan also answered questions about the DREAM Act – a bill that failed to pass Congress last year, and had it been adopted would have opened the doors of higher education and military service to young people brought to America without documentation by their parents while they were children.

Duncan voiced his strong support for Congress to continue working on a solution:

“There are thousands of hardworking, patriotic young people who are leaders in their communities and who are looking for an opportunity to attend college or serve our country in the military, but they cannot, through no fault of their own. We need the talent and skills of all of these students.”

There are currently more than 12 million Latino students in America’s public schools, making up more than one in five (22 percent) of all pre-K-12 public school students.

Only about half of Latino children earn their high school diploma on time, and those who do finish high school are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college.

The Department of Education continues to work with students, parents, families, teachers, education leaders, governors, mayors and organizations such as HACU to ensure that we are all sharing responsibility in helping Latino students win the future.

we’ve seen a double-digit increase in spring hiring projections. That’s a good indication that the job market for new college graduates is gaining momentum,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

The NACE survey also found that hiring increases were expected across regions and across most industries. In particular, oil/gas extraction companies; chemical manufacturers; computer/electronics manufacturers; and finance, insurance and real estate employers report the most aggressive hiring plans.

“The survey also found that employers are receiving fewer applications per job opening as current graduates now have more opportunities to choose from,” says Mackes.

Overall, responding organizations report-

ed the number of job applications has risen nearly 45 percent since last year at this time.

At the same time, however, the total number of positions reported by respondents has tripled. As a result, the average number of applications per opening has fallen from 40.5 in 2010 to just over 21 currently.

About the Job Outlook 2011 Spring Update survey: The survey was conducted among NACE employer members from Feb. 28 to April 8; 174 organizations, or 19.9 percent, responded. By region, 28.7 percent of the respondents represent organizations in the Northeast, 32.2 percent are from the Southeast, 27.6 percent are from the Midwest, and 11.5 percent are from the West.

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The Hispanic Outlook In Higher Education

CADE Brief Explores Diversity in the Professoriate WASHINGTON, D.C.

American public higher education needs to increase diversity within the professoriate to meet the dramatic shifts in the racial and ethnic composition of the student population projected to occur over the next decade, according to a new issue brief from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ (APLU) Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence (CADE).

A New Hope: Recruiting and Retaining the Next Generation of Faculty of Color provides information regarding the current state of U.S. faculty demographics and highlights obstacles and opportunities in the recruitment and retention of faculty of color.

The brief concludes with recommendations for supporting faculty of color based on

Early College High Schools Improve Student Performance BOSTON, Mass.

By expecting every student to earn substantial college credits – up to an associate degree – while in high school, early college high schools in Texas have seen 95 percent of the 900 students who graduated in 2010 earn some college credit and more than one-third earn an associate degree, which can reduce by half their time to a bachelor’s.

A report issued by Jobs for the Future (JFF), Making the Grade, examines what’s

www.hispanicoutlook.com

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scholarly research and examples of exemplary practices underway at APLU member institutions. The brief also spotlights a faculty diversity initiative at the University of Louisville and the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE program for graduate students.

The brief was written by Luis Ponjuan of the University of Florida; Marybeth Gasman of the University of Pennsylvania; Elliot Hirshman of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County; and Lorenzo L. Esters of APLU. “With this issue brief, CADE hopes to initiate a conversation among APLU university leaders regarding the issues, challenges and opportunities facing faculty of color,” said Esters, APLU vice president, access and the advancement of public Black universities.

“The success of American higher education over the next several decades relies on higher education leaders demonstrating a strong commitment to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty members. This

brief not only explores the current status, but also offers practical suggestions and highlights exemplary programs underway at APLU member institutions in support of faculty of color.”

The issue brief also includes short essays from three APLU member presidents and three provosts describing efforts to recruit and retain faculty of color on their campuses, including: • William E. “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor, University System of Maryland • Diana Natalicio, president, University of Texas-El Paso • Gregory H. Williams, University of Cincinnati (Ohio) • Joseph A. Alutto, executive VP and provost, Ohio State University • Annette Digby, VP for academic affairs and provost, Lincoln University (Mo.) • Suzanne Ortega, executive VP and provost, University of New Mexico

behind this successful formula by studying two early college high schools – Mission Early College High School in El Paso and Collegiate High School in Corpus Christi.

Mission, with 483 students, is on the campus of El Paso Community College.

Collegiate, with about 400 students, is at Del Mar College.

“Texas, with the support of the Texas High School Project, is a national leader in reaching students through early college schools,” said Joel Vargas, vice president of High School through College at JFF. “Texas is working to increase the numbers of its workers with education or training beyond high school, and early college schools are a

key part of this overall strategy.”

Additional findings from Making the Grade: • Eighty-seven percent of Mission Early College High School graduates and 86 percent of Collegiate High School graduates enrolled immediately in college. In comparison, 57 percent of high school graduates statewide enrolled in college.

• Graduates earned $5.6 million in college scholarships (about $6,220 per graduate).

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HI S PAN I C S O N T H E MO VE Becerra-Fernández New FIU Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Puerto Rico and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Irma Becerra-Fernández, professor of management information systems and director and fellow of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center within the College of Business Administration, has been appointed vice provost for academic affairs at Florida International University (FIU). Becerra-Fernández has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Miami and a doctorate in electrical engineering from FIU.

García Receives ADEA Presidential Citation American Dental Education Association (ADEA) President Dr. Sandra C. Andrieu presented a Presidential Citation to Dr. Lily T. García, chair of the Department of Prosthodontics and director of the Division of Advanced Education and External Affairs in the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) Dental School. García has an M.S. from UTHSCSA Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Certificate Prosthodontics from UTHSCSA Dental School, and D.D.S. from Baylor College of Dentistry.

University of Arizona Names Anaya Regents’ Professor Professor S. James Anaya received the highest award honor for national and international academic achievements, as he was inducted as a Regents’ Professor at the University of Arizona (UA) in December.

Anaya, James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at UA’s James E. Rogers College of Law, has a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Rodríguez Named AAHHE Faculty Fellow The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education selected Louie F. Rodríguez, assistant professor at California State University-San Bernardino’s (CSUSB) College of Education, as a faculty fellow for 2011.

Rodríguez attended San Bernardino Valley College and is an alumnus of CSUSB, where he was a McNair Scholar. He has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Rosa Elena Carrasquillo of the department of history at the College of Holy Cross (Mass.) has been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure.

Carrasquillo’s research and teaching interests include Latin America, Afro-Caribbean history, gender history and the history of Latinos/as in the U.S. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of

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Photo © John Buckingham

Carrasquillo Becomes Associate Professor of History at College of Holy Cross

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Ramos Named Adelante’s New Assistant Director of Student Services The ¡Adelante! U.S. Education Leadership Fund has appointed a new assistant director of student services, Sarah Ramos, to oversee the coordination of Adelante’s student programs and student workshops of the 13-yearold national nonprofit organization’s Annual

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Leadership Institute and Leadership Days.

Ramos has an undergraduate degree from the University of TexasSan Antonio and is on track to complete her master’s degree this year.

AERA Honors Orosco The American Education Research Association recently gave the Frank Pajares Award to University of California-Riverside Assistant Professor of Education Michael J. Orosco for his article “A Sociocultural Examination of Response to Intervention with Latino English Language Learners,” which was published in Theory Into Practice, a peer-reviewed journal, in October. Orosco went to the University of Northern Colorado for his undergraduate degree and the University of Colorado-Boulder for his master’s and Ph.D.

Herrera Organizes IU’s First Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival Israel Fernando Herrera, lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University (IU), organized IU’s first-ever Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival, held in April.

Herrera plans to promote the concept at other universities in Indiana and throughout the Midwest with the eventual goal of a regional festival.

JULY J ULY 23–26 23–26 WASHINGTON, W A SHINGTON, DC

HENRY G. CISNEROS

JANET MURGUÍA

06/06/2011

LUIS CASTILLO

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Samuel Merritt University, founded in 1909 and located in Oakland, California, educates health science practitioners to be highly skilled and compassionate professionals making a positive difference in diverse communities. Over 1,400 students are enrolled at SMU, with campuses in Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Mateo.

The University offers an undergraduate degree in nursing; master’s degrees in a variety of nursing fields, occupational therapy, and physician assistant; and doctoral degrees in physical therapy and podiatric medicine. For more information visit the SMU website:

www.samuelmerritt.edu

Persons of color are encouraged to apply.

Samuel Merritt University is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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Lehman College Is Preparing Students For Lifetime Careers in the Health Professions Bachelor’s Degrees in s Nursing s Dietetics, Foods, & Nutrition s Exercise Science s Health Education & Promotion s Health Services Administration s Recreation Education Master’s Degrees in s 1XUVLQJ s +HDOWK (GXFDWLRQ 3URPRWLRQ s 1XWULWLRQ s 3XEOLF +HDOWK s 5HFUHDWLRQ (GXFDWLRQ

3RVW 0DVWHUpV &HUWLÞFDWHV LQ s )DPLO\ 1XUVH 3UDFWLRQHU s 1XUVLQJ $GPLQLVWUDWLRQ s 1XUVLQJ (GXFDWLRQ s 3HGLDWULF 1XUVH 3UDFWLRQHU The CUNY Institute for Health Equity Based at Lehman College, the Institute works to improve the KHDOWK VWDWXV RI 1HZ <RUN &LW\pV underserved populations.

For more information on all our programs, visit www.lehman.edu.

LEHMAN ALSO OFFERS PROGRAMS IN PROFESSIONAL AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, AS WELL AS A RICH DIVERSITY OF EXHIBITS AND CULTURAL EVENTS IN ITS ART GALLERY AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER.

DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Tiffin University (TU) seeks a Dean of the School of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences. The Dean will provide leadership in ensuring the academic quality and integrity of all courses offered by the school. In addition, the Dean will manage the day-to-day operations of the school, to include scheduling, faculty development and new hiring, strategic planning, budgeting, and serve as the face of the school with other constituencies both on- and off-campus. The Dean reports to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The successful candidate will possess extensive academic experience, a high level of selfmotivation, outstanding technical, interpersonal, and communication skills, as well as the ability to handle multiple tasks at once. Also required are demonstrated skills in supervision and collaboration in a high intensity academic environment, including assigning work, providing training, and evaluating performance. Master’s degree with significant prior administrative experience in criminal justice or national security required; terminal degree and previous academic experience in higher education preferred. The successful candidate will be expected to begin work no later than August 1, 2011. Send cover letter, resume, and names and phone numbers of three references to: Tiffin University Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs Attention: Jeanie Fisher 155 Miami Street Tiffin, Ohio 44883 e-mail address: FisherJM@tiffin.edu Tiffin University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Assistant Professor Department of Food Science College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)

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Teaching (50%) Research (50%) Tenure Track â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 9 month appointment Cornell University â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Stocking Hall â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ithaca, New York Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

The Department of Food Science seeks an Assistant Professor in the area of Biology of Food Perceptions. This position offers a unique opportunity for a creative scholar to develop a cutting edge, multidisciplinary teaching and research program for the study of human perception of foods and food components. Cornellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outstanding students and faculty, world-class applied and basic research programs, and a new Food Science building scheduled to open in 2013 provide an ideal environment for scholarship in this area.

The position includes a teaching component (50% effort) with the following responsibilities: â&#x20AC;˘ Teach a senior undergraduate course in Sensory Evaluation of Food, develop and teach a course in the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s area of expertise, and contribute lectures on human perception of foods in other departmental courses. â&#x20AC;˘ Provide high quality teaching and advising for students enrolled in Food Science undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

The position also includes a research component (50% effort) focusing on human perceptions of foods and food components. The successful candidate will be expected to: â&#x20AC;˘ Develop a world class, externally funded research program to study human perceptions of foods and food components, with a focus on the biological and biochemical mechanisms involved in response to stimuli. Possible research areas include but are not limited to: identification and structural characterization of chemoreceptor proteins in the mouth and nose; relationship between genetic variation in trigeminal, taste, and odor chemoreceptors and food perception or preference; impact of sodium reduction on flavor perception in the context of whole foods; effects of flavor perception on satiety; effects of flavor compounds on gene expression and implications for obesity prevention; genomics of perceptions in human populations; or physiology and aging of human sensory perception. â&#x20AC;˘ Establish collaborative research relationships with Cornell colleagues in food science and related disciplines such as nutrition, genomics, biochemistry, neurobiology, plant breeding, chemistry and chemical biology.

Qualifications: Doctoral degree and post-doctoral research experience in one or more of the following fields: neurobiology, molecular biology and genetics, biochemistry, cognitive psychology, physiology of human perception, food science, nutrition or a related field.

A record of excellence in scholarship as evidenced by publications in peerreviewed journals.

Preferences: Demonstrated success in securing competitive grants preferred.

Prior teaching experience is highly desirable.

Application procedure: Qualified candidates should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, selected reprints, academic transcripts, statement of research goals and plans, statement of teaching philosophy, and three letters of recommendation to: Dr. Carmen I. Moraru, Search Committee Chair Department of Food Science Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: cim24@cornell.edu Phone: 607-255-8121 Review of applications will begin on August 1, 2011 and will continue until the appropriate candidate is selected.

Cornell University seeks to meet the needs of dual career couples, has a Dual Career program, and is a member of the Upstate New York Higher Education Recruitment Consortium which assists with dual career searches. Visit http://www.unyherc.org to see positions available in higher education in the upstate New York area.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Developing Leaders. Improving Lives. Shaping the Future.

Cornell University is an affirmative action/ equal opportunity employer and educator

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Assistant/Associate Professor in Plant Sciences - Whole Plant Physiologist Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis The successful candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research will focus on integrative, whole plant physiology with emphasis on environmental, developmental and/or stress physiology.

Research areas may include but are not limited to (1) physiological functioning to optimize crop management strategies under different environmental conditions (2) identifying key phenotypic traits that could increase efficiencies in sustainable annual or perennial plant cropping systems (3) understand and predict effects of environmental changes and management practices on ecosystem dynamics. Candidate will be expected to operate well in multi-disciplinary teams focused on the development of practical solutions to critical issues related to sustainable crop production and ecosystem management practices in California and across the world.

The successful candidate is expected to teach core courses in the Plant Sciences undergraduate curriculum and graduate courses within her/his area of research expertise in the Horticulture and Agronomy or Plant Biology Graduate Group. Advising and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students is required.

Participation in departmental, college, and campus committees and with state, regional and national organizations is expected.

Expanded position description can be located at: http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences/ databases/directory/news/jobs.asp Qualifications: Ph.D. or equivalent level of experience in plant physiology, crop physiology, plant biology, or related fields.

Salary: Commensurate with qualifications and experience.

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4 weeks $195 For more information: 1.800.549.8280

www.HispanicOutlook.com

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TO APPLY: Candidates should begin the application process by registering online at http://recruitments. plantsciences.ucdavis.edu Please include statements of research and teaching interests, curriculum vitae, publication list, copies of 3 of your most important research publications, copies of undergraduate and graduate transcripts (if within 5 years of either degree), and the names, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of at least 5 professional references. For technical or administrative questions regarding the application process please email plantsciences@ucdavis.edu Review of the applications for all positions will begin August 1, 2011. The position will remain open until filled.

UC Davis is an affirmative action/equal employment opportunity employer and is dedicated to recruiting a diverse faculty community. We welcome all qualified applicants to apply, including women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

Center for Urban Transportation Research Director The Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida (USF), is seeking a new Director. The Director should be an entrepreneurial visionary capable of anticipating and analyzing trends in transportation policy, framing responsive strategies, and finding ways to launch and sustain new research efforts. The Director will be adept at outreach and building traditional and nontraditional collaborative partnerships, diversifying the funding base, and growing CUTR. The Director will also be responsible for the oversight of the current research, training and technical assistance programs, which include over 110 active projects valued at approximately $25 million.

CUTR was established in 1988 by Florida statute, is internationally recognized, and serves as a resource for state policymakers, transportation agencies, transportation professionals and the public. CUTR conducts over $8 million in research annually for a variety of sponsors including federal, state, and local governmental agencies, as well as private organizations.

To learn more about CUTR and USF, please visit www.cutr.usf.edu. For full position description and application instructions, please visit www.cutr.usf.edu/jobs.

USF is a EO/EA institution

• Ta m pa • S t. P e t e r s burg • Sa r a sota - M a n at e e • P o l y t e c h n i c 06/06/2011

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P.O. Box 68 Paramus, NJ 07652-0068 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

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OUTLINING SKILLS SUPPORT LATINO STUDENTS’ LEARNING O

Miquela Rivera, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with years of clinical, early childhood and consultative experience. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M.

utlining is an invaluable skill that can help Latino college students be more efficient and effective academically – and beyond.

Students often consider outlining an onerous task required for writing assignments, but its benefits exceed narratives. Outlining helps students develop logical thinking and organizational skills necessary for writing, public speaking and problem solving. Since Latinos are often contextual learners, outlining puts a larger picture together so that the smaller informational pieces are meaningful and easier to master.

Developing an outline is best taught beginning in elementary school and built into curricula across subsequent years. Instead of requiring young students to develop an outline to base stories, it is easier to first help them learn how stories or other information are put together. As early as fourth grade, students can take notes from text, outlining the main points and details of the work they are reading, paragraph by paragraph.

Pinpointing the main idea and seeing the details support that main idea helps young students learn the logic, order and structure of written thought. It also helps them organize their own approach to understanding the material. With ongoing, continual practice, the student comes to expect an order to writing and presentation and will eventually be able to pinpoint discrepancies or missing information. Questioning and critical thinking thus emerge naturally.

Since Latino students typically engage well by interacting with teachers and other students, the questioning (and more outlining!) supports the students’ learning. Eventually, students will intuitively take those skills and apply them to their own assignments.

Once the note-taking-based outlining skill is mastered, students can move to developing their own storylines and writing the narratives. The process of creating an outline – brainstorming, organizing, ordering and labeling – should be taught in all classes. Outlining’s application then transfers to other disciplines: math (developing geometric proofs), science (following the scientific method) and art (project and performance development). Outlines are crucial to project management – academically or professionally – and even routines of daily living, detailing

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action steps needed to complete a final product.

Outlining helps young Latinos develop confidence in test taking. If Hispanic students can take material and identify the main purpose or “big picture” in any written text, they can do so with exams, too. Instead of last-minute cramming and examday anxiety, students can read, outline and review academic material steadily across time. Outlines become the self-developed study guides in which students reaffirm the main points of the material and master the details. And at test time, the students then use their outlining skills to read the items and formulate answers based on a meaningful context of complete, integrated knowledge and understanding.

If I extolled the merits of teaching outlining to students, they might reply that it is like pulling teeth. If I were to try to convince Latino students directly of the merits of outlines, they might consider me another crazy old lady. Outlining needs to be taught using fun techniques until the skill becomes second nature (and not aversive) to students doing their work.

For Latino students, interactive assignments or games requiring them to develop outlines as a map or blueprint for events will engage them more readily. Group work, while shunned by some, can engage Latino students to cooperatively list details of a larger picture in an organized, meaningful, logical way – an outline developed by a team. Visual aids and manipulatives such as sticky notes, component blocks or other materials or even having students develop a “human outline” by doing skits and physical activities can help make outlining fun as it is being mastered.

Once mastered, outlining is the Latino student’s automatic go-to for approaching any assignment or task logically, meaningfully and with skill.

Latino college students can increase their efficiency, academic effectiveness and logical, critical thinking by knowing how to develop and use outlines. Viewed as drudgery by some students and teachers alike, requiring the students to build this tool in the late elementary school years results in a developed automatic way of thinking by the time the student is out of high school.

These articles appeared online only in the 06/06/11 Issue

TARGETING HIGHER EDUCATION

Seeking a National Hispanic Leader

In

by Gustavo A. Mellander the 1980s, there was a recurring drumbeat in the nation’s press that the era of the Hispanics had arrived. There was a lot of fanfare. Time magazine proclaimed the new age in a cover story. It was a bit saccharine.

Most accounts were not so gauche as to proclaim “Hispanic power,” but that was the implication. It was reasoned that given Hispanic population growth, their buying power and their growing political influence, they would not only transform themselves but the nation as well. Many of society’s ills would disappear. A new day was aborning.

I thought that was a lot of nonsense and certainly foolishly premature. I so stated and wrote while in New Jersey and later in California.

Colleagues chastised me. I was as popular as a skunk at a lawn party. I really didn’t care. I don’t believe Hispanics can afford the luxury of “feel good” philosophy that goes nowhere. We must be particularly pragmatic while remaining optimistic but not foolishly so.

Well, I fear time has proven me right. Right as virtue. Hispanic nirvana in this country did not burst forth like Venus from the forehead of Zeus.

One of the reasons I felt it was an unrealistic bubble was that I could not identify a single Hispanic national leader.

Time has passed, and many Hispanics are still waiting for that boat to come in.

I do believe the age of Hispanic/Latino serious influence in this country will arrive, probably within the next 15 years. By then, the enormous effects of Hispanic population growth will in all probability become a reality. It will come when we have more Hispanics launched in meaningful careers. Ergo the importance of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine, which exists to help more Hispanics attend and succeed in college.

In less than 20 years, Hispanics are going to inherit a vastly different society than the one we live in today. They will change that world dramatically.

As for the present, Hispanic influence is a bit dreary, but more noticeable than it was a mere generation ago. I know we still have to contend with loud disparate voices, and fringe groups are certainly more vocal now. But I think their influence will be transitory if Hispanics unite and stay on message.

Much of today’s vitriol is predicated on economic uncertainty and, yes, fear. No government welfare program is going to change that. Serious education reform might.

There has to be a moral awakening, and for that, leadership, national leadership, is essential. One of the problems we face is that there is no national leader among the nation’s 50.5 million Hispanics.

Paul Taylor and Mark Hugo López of the Pew Hispanic Center have studied that phenomenon. I am not so sure such a leader ever existed. But the lack of one at the present is a debilitating reality.

Readers of The Hispanic Outlook need not be reminded that Hispanics do not have a national leader. Their understanding of that fact reflects what

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the Pew Center study revealed. To wit: when a national sample group was asked to name the person they considered “the most important Latino leader in the country today,” nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they did not know of anyone. An additional 10 percent said, “no one.” It’s a painful but accurate reality.

At present, we don’t have a Susan B. Anthony, a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or a César Chávez. Until we raise up such a Hispanic leader, the movement for full equality will be rudderless.

It is distressing that, aside from not being able to identify a single national leader, the respondents of the survey selected a really inert group of Hispanics as leaders. Inert because they are not in the necessary positions or trajectory to become a national leader. Further, shockingly so, the percentages by which they were identified were so very low.

For instance, the most frequently named individual was Sonia Sotomayor, the recently appointed United States Supreme Court justice. She garnered a mere 7 percent of the votes. Given that she is the court’s first Hispanic and that her appointment is recent history, her popularity and visibility may be due to those facts. It cannot be due to any previous leadership role. That’s not a criticism of that illustrious person, just a painful truth.

The percentages gets slimmer and slimmer. Luis Gutiérrez, a vocal U.S. representative from Chicago, was next with a dismal 5 percent. Next, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came in at a much-lower 3 percent.

They and others may have potential, but the present implications and the ramifications are obvious. There is no national Hispanic leader. We might have left the starting line, but we are just a few steps into the marathon. It’s hard to be too optimistic for the near-term future.

Any hope or prospects on the horizon? Well, in the Nov. 2, 2010, elections, three Hispanics, all of them Republicans, were elected to top statewide offices: Marco Rubio won a U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Brian Sandoval was elected governor of Nevada, and Susana Martínez was elected governor of New Mexico.

The prominence of these offices and the dearth of Hispanic

Republicans in positions of authority could conceivably help them develop platforms from which to emerge as a national Hispanic leader. There are, of course, a slew of Puerto Rican politicians from both parties on the island, but the separation from the national scene is too cavernous.

So it’s back to the three recently elected officials. Conceivably any one of them could become a national leader, but to do so they would have to overcome some strong partisan headwinds. Nationwide, Hispanics have slipped away from the Republican Party. The efforts of all three Bush politicians, the two presidents and the former governor of Florida, have gone by the wayside.

Some of it was due to the immigration issue, even though President George W. Bush supported what was dubbed an amnesty proposal. On the other hand, the House Republicans, by and large, were less supportive of Hispanic desires.

There were also other local issues that convinced Hispanics to support Democratic candidates by a wide margin in November 2010. Actually, it was a continuation of a pattern of Hispanic support for Democrats manifested in recent elections. Candidate Obama was a strong proponent of Hispanic issues before his election. Since then, President Obama has been a disappointment for Hispanics on several fronts.

The most recent census data notes that Hispanics are 50.5 million strong. They continue the nation’s largest minority group, constituting more than 15 percent of the U.S. population. Their growth trajectory is strong and vibrant. One would assume Hispanics would have considerable national clout. But they don’t.

As a group, they feel increasingly targeted by ethnic bias. More than six in 10 report that discrimination against Latinos is “a major problem” that prevents members of their ethnic group from succeeding in America. That perception has grown from 47 percent who felt that way in 2002.

Today not only are most Hispanics unable to name anyone they consider a national leader, but many identify and support divisions within the existing Hispanic communities. Yes, I said communities.

Some examples: there are schisms between the native born and foreign born. About half (45 percent) say they believe that immigrant Hispanics and native-born Hispanics are working together to achieve common political goals. Not a substantial percentage, but one we could build upon except that a nearly identical share (46 percent) say they do not believe these two groups are working together at all. That split is discouraging and remains a problem to be solved.

Both the native born (who comprise 47 percent of the adult population of Hispanics) and the foreign born (who comprise 53 percent) are also roughly equally divided on that question.

There is a clear division between the native born and recent immigrants. Divisions are also seen among immigrants from different Latin American countries. Dominicans have their mindsets as do Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorians, Panamanians and on and on. It is a divided community. They frequently do not cooperate outside their nationalistic enclaves.

They resent and do not support Hispanic leaders outside their own national heritage.

Many reasons have been suggested such as: They don’t cooperate politically for many are chilled by or turned off on politics. They have had political disappointments in their native countries and here as well.

Others remain extremely nationalistic, and age-old resentments against other Latin countries die slowly. A good number of immigrants still hope to return “home.” Even though most never will, the hope lingers. All of

that as well as other reasons work against Hispanics developing a cohesive united front.

What to Do? Enough of problems. A few positive suggestions: 1) Universities, foundations and other groups should establish agendas dedicated to Hispanic issues. Hopefully, leaders, national leaders, will emerge from those directed movements.

2) Although I think leaders already exist, anxiously awaiting a following, it is also wise to dedicate energy to create and prepare the second wave of Hispanic leaders.

The Hispanic Congressional Caucus has taken a leadership role here. It already has several programs that could lead the way.

It has an internship program designed to combat the lack of Hispanics working in the halls of Congress.

Its fellowship programs developed for college students and graduates works to introduce talented young Hispanics/Latinos to the inner workings of Congress to prepare them to become part of the work force in Congress.

A 2009 report by the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association showed that only 2 percent of congressional senior staff are Hispanic, even though Hispanics comprise 15 percent of the nation’s population.

The caucus is committed to opening doors so that young Hispanics can have access to jobs on Capitol Hill. The increasing wide gap of Hispanics in government positions has to be addressed.

The group also strives to create diversity within its own group of interns. Last year, its summer interns represented 12 different Hispanic ethnic backgrounds. They were diverse in their education interests as well, pursuing 16 different fields of study for their bachelor’s degrees.

The congressional interns participate in weekly leadership and professional development sessions and meet with corporate representatives, national elected officials and foreign dignitaries. They are also required to engage in community service projects during their stay in Washington, D.C. The interns are provided with housing, roundtrip transportation to and from the nation’s capital, and a stipend.

The Hispanic Congressional Internship Program has been named one of the “Top Twenty Leadership Programs” for Latinos by Latino Leaders magazine.

For our part, we should encourage our students to apply for a variety of opportunities that exist. More information is available at www.chci.org.

Bottom Line It has been said the future belongs to those who prepare for it. It certainly has worked for us.

Let’s unite to identify and support programs and agendas that will nurture a National Hispanic Leader. Ya es mas que tiempo.

Dr. Mellander has a Ph.D. in Latin American history and was a college president for 20 years.

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