{"id":11709,"date":"2025-03-21T21:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/?p=11709"},"modified":"2025-03-21T21:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:03:01","slug":"special-olympics-minnesota-honors-augsburg-with-health-leadership-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/21\/special-olympics-minnesota-honors-augsburg-with-health-leadership-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Olympics Minnesota Honors Augsburg With Health Leadership Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11710 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"Members of Augsburg's Physicians Assistant Program receive the Golisano Health Leadership Award from Special Olympics Minnesota.\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2-1024x689.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/03\/award-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>At a special presentation earlier this month, the Augsburg University Physician Assistant Studies Program received the Golisano Health Leadership Award from Special Olympics Minnesota.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For more than three years, Augsburg has proudly partnered with Special Olympics to integrate an inclusive curriculum for more than 100 PA students and faculty. What started as a classroom lecture has evolved into a multifaceted partnership, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Panel presentations by Special Olympics Ambassadors, where students gain firsthand insights from athletes into the principle of &#8220;Nothing about me, without me!&#8221; in patient care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Immersive experiences, such as healthy athlete annual physical exam screenings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Hands-on training sessions with athletes during simulated clinic visits.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">More than 250 hours of Special Olympics volunteer work at the Community Health Fair, Polar Plunge, and sporting events.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThese initiatives not only enrich our students\u2019 education but also prepare them to meet the evolving needs of our communities,\u201d said Vanessa Bester, associate professor of PA studies and director of Augsburg\u2019s School of Health. \u201cWe are deeply honored to be recognized for this partnership and the impactful work we continue to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Golisano Award recognizes health champions\u2014leaders and organizations\u2014that are making a significant contribution to equal access to health, fitness, or wellness for people with intellectual disabilities. It is the highest Special Olympics honor for health partners and serves to promote awareness of the progress and extraordinary efforts toward fulfilling the goals, values, and mission of Special Olympics Health work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s really reassuring to know that the future generation of PAs are going to be more comfortable working with our athletes and they feel comfortable going to you,\u201d said Jeff Prendergast, senior health programs manager at Special Olympics Minnesota, who presented the award. \u201cI know that if I have an athlete or family looking for care and I find someone that has been educated and trained at Augsburg, I feel very comfortable referring them to you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/pa\/\">Learn more about Augsburg\u2019s Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a special presentation earlier this month, the Augsburg University Physician Assistant Studies Program received the Golisano Health Leadership Award from Special Olympics Minnesota.\u00a0 For more than three years, Augsburg has proudly partnered with Special Olympics to integrate an inclusive curriculum for more than 100 PA students and faculty. What started as a classroom lecture &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":11710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3228],"tags":[2211,2290],"class_list":["post-11709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kudos","tag-pa","tag-physician-assistant-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11709"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11712,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11709\/revisions\/11712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}