Pathways to Success Wins National Award at UEDA Summit

October 6, 2020

By Lisa Kim

We are thrilled to announce that the  Marilyn Magaram Center’s “Pathways to Success” program was selected as the winner in the Talent + Place category for the University Economic Development Association’s (UEDA) 2020 Awards of Excellence!  Nominations were received from institutions across North America during this highly competitive process and were judged on replicability/scalability, originality, impact, and sustainability. On behalf of CSUN and Los Angeles Mission College, our team presented at the UEDA Digital Summit on September 24th, where the Summit participants voted the “Pathways” program as the national winner in our category.  We are honored to receive this recognition amongst a select group of institutions of higher education from around the country and are proud to celebrate this achievement alongside Dr. Merav Efrat of the CSUN Health Sciences Department and the team at Los Angeles Mission College.  

The CSUN "Pathways to Success" program supports undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups to prepare them for careers in food and nutrition or to become Registered Dietitians by implementing structured student outreach and integrated student support services. The program is a collaborative effort between CSUN's Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics and the Department of Health Sciences, Los Angeles Mission Community College (LAMC), local high schools and several USDA agencies, including the California Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program. "Pathways" is an undergraduate and graduate Fellowship program providing scholarships, proactive advisement, tutoring support, paid research assistantships, peer and faculty mentoring, and a variety of professional development and training opportunities including comprehensive lactation education training, leadership and professional skills workshops, and hands-on learning experiences. Forty students have successfully completed the program and some are currently practicing professionals. Since 2017, outreach has been conducted to almost 4,000 individuals through presentations at local high schools, CSUN and LAMC.