USU Announces Annual Diversity Award Recipients

Utah State University announced the winners of the 13th Annual Diversity Awards. The awards recognize individuals on campus or throughout the community who have made significant contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity at Utah State.

Juan N. Franco, Maria de Jesus Cordero, LuAnn Helms, Melissa Nuntpreda and Bartell Cardon are the 2006 recipients of the honor.

 

Franco will be honored in the category of administrator. He is vice president for student services and is recognized for his efforts to advance diversity on campus. During his tenure at USU, Franco acquired more than $100,000 in scholarship support for Native American students and supported the establishment of the Allies on Campus program that provides support for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students. Franco established a service-learning program and in 2004 was selected as the Utah Statesman Administrator of the Year. Franco is leaving USU in July and was given his award at a farewell reception held in April.

 

Cordero, an associate professor of Spanish in the languages, philosophy and speech communication department, will be honored in the faculty category. A native of Cuba, Cordero celebrates her heritage and works to help others understand cultural differences and issues such as immigration and internationalization. She participates with her students in the Spanish Club, Latino and Latina groups, re-entry student groups and often attends multicultural student events. Cordero gives her money and time to lead USU students to Latin American countries in need including a trip to Mexico over spring break, where she and her students helped build houses. Cordero started a reading group for adolescent and young adult Latinas to bring them together through literature and art and help them appreciate their culture. During her recent sabbatical she was invited to be part of the prestigious and active Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, where she gave lectures and volunteered in multicultural organizations that promote Caribbean culture. Well-known in her field, her books focus on autobiographical writings of Cuban women and women of color and have received rave reviews.

 

Helms, a psychologist at the USU Counseling Center, will receive the award in the staff category.  Devoting considerable personal time and energy to various multicultural activities, Helms volunteers and provides support for the Multicultural and International Student offices. She co-founded and developed USU’s Allies on Campus program, which has trained 164 students, faculty, staff and administrators to be more sensitive to gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual individuals. Helms has secured grant monies for the Gay-Lesbian Student Resource Center and serves as a board member.

 

Nuntapreda is an undergraduate student in nutrition and food sciences with a goal of going to medical school. She will receive the student award. She was invited by Utah’s First Lady, Mary Kay Huntsman, to be an ambassador for the Power in You program designed to boost teenagers’ self-esteems. Nuntapreda has been actively involved in USU Women in Science program and the Asian-American Student Council and is part of a mentoring program for children with behavioral problems and difficult home lives. She is also one of three “ACES” working for Multicultural Student Services, an organization that puts together major events and programs for the MSS office. Nuntapreda conducts research under biology professor Daryll Dewald on a Multicultural Science Research Fellowship.

 

Cardon is the community award recipient. He established and later directed Bear River Mental Health Services, Inc., not only helping those with mental illnesses, but working to counter the stereotypical and negative views of the mentally ill. He was one of the founders and the first chair of the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Center of Cache Valley, now renamed the Multicultural Center of Cache Valley. In this role he aided thousands of individuals and families with no other source of assistance. Cardon was instrumental in organizing the Cache Community Connections, a group consisting of religious, civic and university leaders formed to promote understanding and cooperation among various entities. He led community fundraising effort in the community to obtain playground equipment for Angel’s Landing, a specially designed playground for disabled youth, which was completed in the spring of 2005. Cardon was one of the founding members of the Cache Community Health Clinic, a medical program designed to provide health services to the area’s uninsured, and was often at the clinic working with patients and translating for the Hispanic population.

 

Recipients will be recognized by USU President Stan Albrecht at a ceremony next fall. For more information about the awards, call David Ottley in the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity office at Utah State, (435) 797-1266.