News and Events
CFS Staff Among Awardees at 2020 USF Virtual Hispanic Heritage Awards Celebration
The Status of Latinos (SoL) Presidential Advisory Committee hosted the 2020 Virtual Hispanic Heritage Awards Celebration on Thursday, October 15th to recognize students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who have significantly contributed to the Hispanic/Latino community in the past year.
Congratulation to CFS awardees Yazmin Castellano and Lourdes Quiñones. Both are members of the ) team, and both have contributed significantly this year to the Hispanic/Latino communities.
Yazmin Castellano, M.A. has been with CARD- since August of 2019. “In the short time Yazmin has worked at CARD-USF, she has been able to make great inroads to increasing how CARD- serves its Spanish speaking families,” said Dr. Beth Boone, CARD-USF Executive Director. “Yazmin has been able to reach out to the Hispanic community by translating information into Spanish for the CARD-USF website, brochures, and trainings on mental health, suicide, anxiety, challenging behaviors, sleep, feeding, and safety on the ."
Yazmin has also begun to raise awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and CARD- services by providing training to Hispanic families and professionals. She is working collaboratively with Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) as a board member of the Health Services Advisory Committee. She has participated in the Family Café Annual Conference as a presenter in English and Spanish. Yazmin is part of the Safety Kids Committee in Polk county where she has started to raise awareness about the importance of having and providing safety information in Spanish. She is also a part of the Diversity Committee at USF (CBCS). Shortly after starting at CARD-USF, Yazmin was able to reach out to Hispanic families via TV doing interviews with Telemundo Tampa, El Parlante Latino and Rumba (iHeart Media). She participates with other Spanish speaking CARD-USF colleagues and a volunteer Constituents' Board member to produce a weekly Facebook Live program called "La Hora del Cafecito". Yazmin is responsible for uploading the program to the CARD-USF YouTube where families and professionals can .
Lourdes Quiñones, P.T., M.A. has also been with CARD- since August of 2019. Many
of the families she works with are also participants in the , an international home-based, early intervention program that helps parents create
experiences for their children that lay the foundation for success in school and later
life. Lourdes was the assigned consultant for CARD-USF’s collaborative work with the
HIPPY grant at USF. Lourdes’ degrees in physical therapy and special education have
given the CARD-USF team a unique level of expertise in training health care and educational
professionals. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Special Education at USF to add
to how she can serve the autism community.
“One of the biggest contributions Lourdes has produced this past year is creating
and directing a weekly Facebook Live program called "La Hora del Cafecito". She is
assisted by other Spanish speaking CARD-USF colleagues and a volunteer Constituents'
Board member,” said Dr. Boone. Through this program, the team brings information related
to issues that affect various aspects of the lives of those living with Autism Spectrum
disorder (ASD), as well as their families and community providers of services. The
team has produced at least 27 episodes that can be .
Lourdes has also been ambitious in connecting CARD-USF constituents through the art
community by offering a virtual “Arts in the Park” event through La Hora del Cafecito,
where she coordinated four Zoom breakout rooms (i.e., virtual “tents”) with more than
sixteen sessions hosted by various local community businesses and artists, offered
in both English and Spanish. She hopes to make this an annual event and eventually
offer it face-to-face.
Lourdes regards one of her personal goals is to disseminate information to the Hispanic
community in regards to access to information related to detection and services in
autism. Due to the lack of information available in Spanish, Hispanics are currently
one of the minority groups under-represented and falling behind in regards to identification
and treatment of ASD. Lourdes and another of her colleagues have been reaching out
to media, agencies and businesses to get the word out about CARD- services. She
has interviewed with Centro Newspaper/The Tribune and Univision Tampa and provided
information to the Hispanic Services Council and the Tampa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
to create more awareness.
Congratulation Yazmin and Lourdes on your well-deserved awards!