With the beginning of the new year, we once again have the opportunity to reenergize our plans for healthy nutrition, more physical activity and better stress reduction. Web sites from the CDC to Huffington Post have weighed in on the Best Healthy New Year's Resolutions for 2013. Changing habits is hard, but never possible if you don't start. Now in the middle of flu season, we are passing around the hand sanitizer and being extra careful to keep our hands clean.

After reviewing all the expert opinions, I have decided on a few healthy resolutions of my own, including fostering a healthy environment and healthy habits for our university community; keeping the piles of papers in my office more under control; supporting healthy food outlets in our local community; committing and sticking to an exercise schedule; as well as sitting less and making more time for fun.

A great opportunity for UTEP students, our Minority Health International Research Training Program has extended its application deadline to February 11, 2013. Funded by the National Institutes of Health-National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIH-NIMHD), the MHIRT program supports both undergraduate and graduate trainees in basic sciences, clinical, biomedical, health, and behavioral sciences to participate in mentored research experiences in international settings focused on Hispanic health disparities. Approximately 10 students will be chosen to participate in the Summer 2013 activities in Ecuador, Costa Rica and our newest site, Panama. Applications are available on the program website: http://chs.utep.edu/mhirt.

I am incredibly proud of the accomplishments of our award-winning faculty, staff and students that you can read about below. They are making a huge difference in our community, contributing valuable research in their professional fields and providing a great model for all.

Finally, a big welcome to the world to our newest Miner, Aria Mariko Ferraro (read below). 

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2013!  

Thenral Mangadu, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences has abstracts selected for three podium and two poster presentations at four conferences in spring 2013. Dr. Mangadu will be presenting at the 2013 Border Learning Conference in El Paso, TX, the 32nd Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience (FYE) in Orlando, FL in February 2013, The Texas Public Health Association Annual Education Conference (TPHA) in San Antonio, TX in March, 2013 and, The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) 64th annual conference in Orlando, FL in April 2013. These interdisciplinary research presentations will address the UTEP priority research areas of health, global enterprise and education for the 21st century demographic. The titles of the presentations are: (1)"Global Learning Communities: Using First-Year Seminars to Traverse Global and Multicultural Borders", (2)"In Their Own Words: Positive Deviance Strategies of Successful High-Risk Students" (3) Planting seeds for social support while growing food: Psychosocial Outcomes from Community Gardens in Texas-Mexico Border Communities., (4) Addressing Regional Barriers to Maternal and Child Health in Texas-Mexico Border Communities: Lessons learned from a Grassroots Interdisciplinary Approach in El Paso, Texas and (5)"Transforming Child, Community and School Health in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region through Participatory Approaches: Best Practices and Lessons Learned from four Pilot Community Garden Projects". The discussions will cover program evaluation research findings related to child and community health outcomes from local community gardens, interdisciplinary approaches to improving TX-MX border perinatal health, positive deviance strategies for college success among high-risk UTEP students and, the role of UTEP global learning communities in transcending multicultural borders to foster learning and global citizenship. Dr. Mangadu will be co-presenting with researchers from the UTEP Entering Student Program and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, El Paso. Sandra Bejarano, a DPHS MPH student will be the co-presenter at the SOPHE 2013 conference. "I am very excited to present the results of the HEAL Community Gardens evaluation with Dr. Mangadu at the SOPHE National Conference" says Bejarano, who explained that working as a research assistant on the project has taught her "important skills that will bring more [professional development] opportunities in the near future".

The Kinesiology department sent two faculty members and nine students to the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Convention in Galveston, Texas. Among the students, Kathryn Jimenez, Tara Kutzman-Flores, Cynthia Coronado, and Yvonne Carrillo presented on partnership events with Lincoln Middle School and Arkansas Tech. Kathy Vasquez was announced as a scholarship award recipient and Martin Arvizuo was elected among his peers as the student representative for TAHPERD. All students, including Gilbert Mena, Isaac Oliva, and Travis Gutierrez, were voting delegates at the representative assembly for TAHPERD, alongside faculty Roina Baquera and Nancy Torres who serve on the College Preparation Committee. This was a great showing for UTEP!

Lincoln Middle School and the UTEP Kinesiology Club is holding their annual Hoops for Heart event on February 27 and 28 in the gymnasium during physical education classes. Students from Lincoln write letters in their physical education class to UTEP Kinesiology students asking for donations for the American Heart Association and cardiovascular research.

The College of Health Sciences Community Affairs Committee, led by Dr. Margie Padilla, wishes to express its deep felt gratitude to all who participated in the holiday blanket drive. Due to your generosity, we were able to gather a total of 94 blankets which were delivered to the Rescue Mission of El Paso. The blankets were donated by faculty and staff from the UTEP College of Health Sciences and School of Nursing.  Next year we hope to collect 150 blankets so keep your warm holiday spirit in your hearts throughout the year and purchase a blanket anytime you can to keep others warm at the end of the year. Thanks again and happy 2013 to all.

Aria Mariko Ferraro was born on January 11, 2013 at 12:13pm. She weighed 7lbs 12.9oz and was 19.7in in length.

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Ferraro, Physical Therapy Clinical Assistant Professor.