2023 CHS Houston Endowment Awardees Reflect on Successes

Published September 12, 2023                                                                                                      By Darlene Muguiro                                                                                                                    UTEP College of Health Sciences

Christian Carbajal, James-Paul Duran, Victoria Rocha, and Aixa Rojas were selected as the 2023 Houston Honors Endowment award recipients for the College of Health Sciences. The Houston Honors Endowment’s professional development and scholarship funds aim to support outstanding undergraduates within each of UTEP’s academic units who have also been declared honors program inductees. Annually, each of the colleges review applications from among a select group of students and selects the most promising proposals for funding, which support various professional development and leadership activities. This year, in addition to the top awardees from the CHS Honors Program, all juniors and seniors in the program received funding for professional and leadership development.

Duran, a junior in the Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Sciences program, received a prestigious $2,000 Houston Endowment scholarship as well as professional development funds, which supported printing and other research expenses associated with his poster presentation at the UTEP COURI symposium held earlier this summer. He says that the scholarship funding will have a major impact on every goal he has set for himself, particularly around his professional goal of becoming a physician assistant (PA).

“Time is a precious resource that I often overlook, but this scholarship gives me the opportunity to maximize my time,” he said. “Achieving quality clinical hours during my undergraduate degree is vital to my goal of attending PA school. Without the financial burden of paying for college, this will allow me to gain meaningful clinical experience in a family practice setting as well as focus on studying for the Graduate Record Examination.”

Carbajal, a senior Public Health major and first-generation college student, was also selected to receive a $2,000 Houston Endowment scholarship. He credits the Honors program with helping to fine-tune his leadership and networking skills, and believes that the scholarship is an additional tool that will help expedite his long-term goal of serving his community.    

“My goal after completing my degree is to work as a community health educator and eventually apply into a graduate program to earn a dual master’s degree in nutritional science and master’s in public health which I will use to work as a research or community dietitian,” he said. “The Houston Endowment Scholarship has helped to bring this goal one step closer to becoming reality.”

Kinesiology majors Aixa Rojas and Victoria Rocha both used their professional development funding to attend the Texas chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (TACSM). Rojas represented UTEP as a member of the Student Bowl team, but also had the opportunity to visit with other undergraduate students presenting their research.

“I was humbled by seeing all the amazing work fellow undergraduate students are doing in their area of research, not only presenting their abstracts, but also winning awards for their hard work,” she said. “I was inspired to ask questions about my own research I hadn’t thought of before. This made me realize how much growth I have yet to do and encouraged me to work even harder to contribute as much as possible to the scientific community.”

Rocha was honored at the TACSM conference with the Undergraduate of the Year award. She was thankful to have had the opportunity to network with other students across Texas and to see the significant impact of the research they were conducting in their labs, as well as sharing the results of her own work as part of the MiNER Laboratory.

“Representing UTEP and COURI at the conference was a proud moment for me, and I hope to inspire other students to pursue their goals with determination,” she said. “TACSM opened my eyes to the world of research, and presenting my work alongside master’s and PhD students was inspiring. TACSM was a learning experience that I will always cherish, and I am grateful for the opportunities it has provided me.”

Dr. Sudip Bajpeyi, professor of Kinesiology and director of the CHS Honors Program, said that each of the students was selected based on their stellar academic record and professional pursuits.

“The support from the Houston Endowment is helping to advance the professional and career goals of these students,” he said. “We are pleased to continue providing support to our outstanding Honors students and are very proud of their achievements.”

###

Go Miners!