{"id":5391,"date":"2019-07-12T11:15:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=5391"},"modified":"2025-04-09T14:24:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T18:24:40","slug":"purdue-veterinarian-receives-national-jefferson-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/purdue-veterinarian-receives-national-jefferson-award.php","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Veterinarian Receives National Jefferson Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Sandra San Miguel, PVM associate dean for engagement, received a national Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Employee on June 18 in Washington, D.C. at the national award ceremony for Multiplying Good, the nation\u2019s leading nonprofit focused on fueling personal growth and leadership through public service. (Photo by Paul Morigi\/Getty Images for Multiplying Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What started as a\ndream of becoming a veterinarian led Dr. Sandra San Miguel to pursue a passion\nfor broadening diversity in the veterinary medical profession. And now she\u2019s\nbeing nationally recognized for her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. San Miguel (PU DVM \u201993; PhD \u201997), associate dean for engagement in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, received an Outstanding Public Service Award on June 18 at Multiplying Good’s national Jefferson Awards Gala<\/a> for the creation of an after-school program named This is How We “Role.” The program shows grade school children what veterinary medicine is like to inspire their interest in sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I was a kid and messed up, there was always someone \u2014 a teacher, guidance counselor, coach, physical therapist \u2014 who showed me how to be a better human being instead of giving up on me,” Dr. San Miguel said. “We created This is How We ‘Role’ to serve as a way to continue this type of mentoring.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program was\ndeveloped in conjunction with a longstanding relationship between the College\nand the Hanna Community Center in Lafayette, Ind.  \u201cWe started out by helping Hanna kids with\ntheir homework,\u201d Dr. San Miguel said.  \u201cThen\nwe started giving some veterinary lessons. The kids would get excited about the\nlessons and not want to go home. We didn\u2019t want to go home either because it\nwas so much fun. The idea was to show the kids that they could be anything they\nwanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is How We\n“Role” was launched in 2015 with support from the Science Education\nPartnership Award program of the National Institute of General Medical\nSciences, a part of the National Institutes of Health. The funding allowed the\nPurdue team to develop a science and math curriculum for kids that would be\ndelivered by veterinary student role models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-term\ngoal of This is How We “Role” is to diversify the\nveterinarian-scientist workforce. The program has reached hundreds of children\nand will continue to reach more. Already, This is How We “Role” has\nexpanded across the country as 19 other U.S. veterinary schools and colleges\nhave adopted the program with the support of the SEPA grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program’s\neffects continue to motivate Dr. San Miguel. \n\u201cI see the impact on the kids when they solve problems and talk about\nthings that they learned during vet lessons, months after the lessons\nhappened,\u201d Dr. San Miguel said. “I see the impact on our veterinary\nstudents when they are able to explain complex health concepts in ways the kids\ncan understand. Also, I see our impact in all the smiles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiplying Good<\/a>, formerly known as the Jefferson Awards Foundation, is a national nonprofit dedicated to powering and celebrating public service. Purdue participates in Multiplying Good\u2019s Champions program<\/a>, joining various businesses and educational institutions nationwide who partner with the organization to engage in meaningful public service and celebrate their communities with Jefferson Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to view a video of Dr. San Miguel receiving her award<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started as a dream of becoming a veterinarian led Dr. Sandra San Miguel to pursue a passion for broadening diversity in the veterinary medical profession. And now she\u2019s being nationally recognized for her work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,41,28,29],"tags":[8,56,904,1214,1215,297,556,603,25],"class_list":["post-5391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-faculty-staff","category-our-impact","category-our-people","tag-faculty","tag-homepage","tag-jefferson-award","tag-multiplying-good","tag-outstanding-public-service-by-an-employee","tag-recognition","tag-sandra-san-miguel","tag-this-is-how-we-role","tag-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5391"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29559,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions\/29559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}