UPDATE

Updates from UNP Scholarship Recipients

Since 2007, more than $200,000 in scholarships have been given to 63 students through the UNP Alumni Association and Wolf/Meritus Scholarship programs. Below are updates on just a few of those students.

Clarissa Avila - Meritus III (2013)

I am currently in my senior year and will be receiving my bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in Spring 2017. I also attended Salt Lake Community College during the summer semesters because it’s cheaper and helped me stay on track for graduation.

My major is Special Education with an emphasis on Mild/ Moderate Disabilities and Human Development. In addition to my studies, I am an after school aide at the Madeleine Choir School.

I love volunteering with Kids Like Me - a group where gender creative kids express their gender fluidity. I also volunteer at the Community Learning Center in Glendale, helping kids with homework and organizing college exposure field trips. And I love hiking, dancing and listening to some good live music!

I applied to many scholarships in high school and didn’t find any luck. I was so tired of getting rejection letters that I almost didn’t apply to the UNP scholarship in high school. But I did, and when I was selected there was a major boom in my self-esteem. Since then I have made the Dean’s List every semester at the U with a cumulative GPA of a 3.8 and have a 4.0 transfer GPA from SLCC. I am so excited to finish my last two semesters at the U!

Vanessa Robles - Meritus II (2014)

I am still enrolled at the University of Utah, working on a degree in social work. I also volunteer and work as a processor for the Sundance catalogue. This scholarship helped me out immensely.

Kanesha Winston - Meritus II (2009)

I have attended the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College on and off, but I have not yet completed my degree in social work. Right now I work as a customer service rep.

This scholarship was a great opportunity. Thank you!

Sergio Ramiro Lopez-Peralta - Alumni Association (2010)

I attended the University of Utah before leaving on my mission. Coming back, I returned for one additional semester and then was not able to attend for another year due personal finance issues.

Then I was nominated for a program through my employer. I am a manager at Discover Financial Services, which works with Salt Lake Community College and Westminster College and pays full tuition and expenses. I am about to finalize my associate’s degree and then will graduate from Westminster with a bachelor’s degree. I am now studying Business Administration with an emphasis on Operations Management with a double major in Spanish.

These days I’m busy with work and school, but I am also starting a business this year, and I volunteer at a young men’s organization, and am involved with scouting. This scholarship was a starting point for me so that I could determine whether or not college was for me. The opportunity changed my life.

Community Scholar in Residence (CSRI), 2015-2016

Jason Castillo Associate Professor, College of Social Work, University of Utah

While immigrants and refugees have had a positive economic impact on the localities and states in which they reside, many live in poverty and have limited access to traditional financial institutions (banks and credit unions), which hinder their overall financial development, mobility, and security. In working to further examine the financial knowledge and practices of immigrants and refugees in Salt Lake City, Utah, I worked closely with eight individuals of refugee and immigrant backgrounds who were enrolled in the University of Utah College of Social Work Case Management Program. The members of the team represented countries including Mexico, Iraq, and Congo.

Through this project, the team (1) successfully developed a written semi-structured interview guide in English for a pilot-study focus group; (2) successfully developed a written consent form for a pilot-study focus group; (3) planned and developed the mechanism(s) for informing others in their respective communities of the pilot-study focus group; (4) conducted three focus groups with approximately 25 English, Spanish, Arabic, and Twi-speaking individuals; and (5) disseminated their findings in the form of a PowerPoint presentation with peers and instructors in the Case Management Program. The findings from the pilot-study focus groups will be used to develop a survey/questionnaire that will be translated into several languages and administered during the next year.

Community Resident in Action (CRIA), 2015-2016

Julia Chandler Board of Directors, Latino Behavioral Health Services

With the help of community partners, Jacqueline Gómez-Arias is well on her way to establishing Latino Behavioral Health Services (LBHS) as the only “peer”-run organization of its kind in Utah, meaning that individuals with mental illness, including substance use disorders, operate the programs. It is also the only community-based non-profit serving Latinos with mental illness by Latinos in recovery.

Jacqueline’s work focuses heavily on capacity building – for LBHS as an organization and for the individuals we serve as members of a community.

Individuals and their families are offered weekly, one-onone mentorship where Jacqueline and other Certified Peer Specialists and Family Resource Facilitators guide them towards obtaining and maintaining recovery. LBHS has made a national “Peer to Peer” program available in Utah for the first time and has trained 11 instructors to teach classes.

It has also brought evidence-based programs to the community, like “Family a Familia” and CRAFT, in which families of individuals suffering with mental illness or substance abuse learn about tools to deal with situations, take care of themselves and ultimately engage their loved ones in treatment.

In the last two years, over eighty individuals who began their road to recovery through LBHS classes or support groups are now giving back to their communities as facilitators, instructors, mentors, or as para-professionals in the behavioral health field. This deep and meaningful change in people’s lives demonstrates the effectiveness of LBHS’s theory of change and Gomez-Arias’s work as a Community Resident in Action.