{"id":64553,"date":"2021-12-06T10:20:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T17:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=64553"},"modified":"2021-12-06T10:20:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T17:20:58","slug":"az-lottery-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/az-lottery-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU PA student receives $40,000 scholarship from Arizona Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ArizonaThe Arizona Lottery awarded NAU physician assistant student Angela Sotelo<\/strong> with a $40,000 scholarship through its \u201cGives Back\u201d program\u2014a program that uses marketing dollars to help explain the lottery\u2019s mission to Arizonans while doing good in the community.<\/p>\n

Ranked in the bottom six states for number of active primary care providers, Arizona is in dire \u00a0need of health care workers, including physician assistants. This is one reason why the Arizona Lottery joined in a Gives Back sponsorship with NAU\u2019s PA program.<\/p>\n

NAU\u2019s Physician Assistant (PA) Studies Program at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus is Arizona\u2019s only PA program at a public university. This program teaches through evidence-based clinical, didactic and community-based training activities that prepare students for work in Arizona communities by providing critical skills and knowledge required to provide high-quality care to the most vulnerable community members.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a life-changing scholarship for Sotelo, who is a first-generation student and is from an underrepresented population. She\u2019s grateful to have the worry of paying for school removed so she can focus on her patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly believe that the NAU PA program does a wonderful job at accepting PA students that are well-rounded, diverse individuals who strive to work in underserved, rural communities, and when this is recognized, it shines a light on the importance of finding passionate, future providers who will fill the much-needed roles in these communities,\u201d she said. \u201cI have always dreamed of being one of these providers and now, this award helps me get one step closer to achieving my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graduates from the PA program represent an extraordinarily high number of individuals from disadvantaged populations, and most of them go on to practice and serve in the state. This aligns with the Arizona Lottery\u2019s mission to support programs that support underserved people all over the state, especially through the program\u2019s clinical placements on the Hopi and Navajo reservations, Kingman, Bullhead City and other rural areas that lack adequate primary care services.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysician assistants play vital roles in primary care access,\u201d said Elias Villarreal<\/strong>, the department chair and program director. \u201cThe PA program trains students with evidence-based clinical, didactic and community-based training activities that both prepare NAU\u2019s students for work in Arizona communities and provide them critical skills and knowledge required to provide high-quality care to the state of Arizona\u2019s most vulnerable community members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partnerships such as this help us further our common goals between NAU and the AZ Lottery. The funds provided support students with a focus on Arizona communities in need first. Student debt is at an all time high. These funds go a long way to help offset the costs of a quality education in health care.<\/p>\n

This donation supports the Arizona Lottery\u2019s key area of higher education, along with health and human services, environmental conservation and economic and business development. More information on the \u201cGives Back\u201d program can be found on their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Agency funds for this Gives Back sponsorship are in addition and apart from monies to be transferred by Lottery to Lottery beneficiaries under its statutory obligations and are the result of increased ticket sales<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arizona Lottery awarded NAU physician assistant student Angela Sotelo with a $40,000 scholarship through its \u201cGives Back\u201d program\u2014a program that uses marketing dollars to help explain the lottery\u2019s mission to Arizonans while doing good in the community. Ranked in the bottom six states for number of active primary care providers, Arizona is in dire…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1814],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nau-announcements"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}