OT Student Lands Fellowship To Promote Latino Health

Eric Corona, a second-year EWU Master in Occupational Therapy student, was recently awarded a fellowship from the Latino Center for Health (LCH).

Corona, who is 28 years old and from Quincy, Washington, is one of 15 students statewide to be awarded the 2025-2026 Phyllis Gutiérrez-Kenney Graduate Student Scholars Fellowship.

“I always knew that I wanted to work in health care,” Corona says. “I really liked how occupational therapy is about helping clients and patients gain independence. I thought OT was a super cool career, because you can help clients and patients throughout the entire lifespan.”

Based at the University of Washington, LCH is an interdisciplinary health sciences research center that promotes Latino health. Fellows from throughout the state meet four times a year to build meaningful connections with health care professionals in Washington state and to unify the Latinx community and supporters/advocates by empowering one another through scholarship and community.

The $5,000 award includes a $2,500 fellowship, and another $2,500 in matching funds from the EWU College of Health Science and Public Health.

Corona, who was nominated for the fellowship by Dane Vulcan, professor of occupational therapy program, appreciates the support and acknowledgment.

“I’m just super, super grateful,” says Corona, adding that the fellowship validates his hard work and passion for helping the Latinx community, while also providing some financial relief as he embarks on the last semester of his education, which includes six months of full-time clinical rotations. “This is going to alleviate that stress for me and allow me to focus on my national board exams.”

Corona, who is fluent in both English and Spanish, balances classes with a student job working as an occupational therapy program office aide. His skills have been shaped through hard work, dedicated faculty and applied learning opportunities woven throughout his undergraduate and graduate programs.

He earned a degree in health psychology from Eastern in 2021, while working a catering job in his hometown on the weekends and putting in hours as a caregiver for Visiting Angels.

Moving to Cheney from his small hometown was tough, he recalls. He credits, however, his fraternity brothers at the Omega Delta Phi multicultural fraternity with helping him to develop a sense of community.

Corona’s parents immigrated from Mexico many years ago, working hard in the fields. Corona’s dad, in mid-life while working full-time and raising a family, modeled the power of education when he attended trade school to become a certified electrician. Later, Corona’s older brother earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and became a successful professional.

Those family members showed him “what was possible,” Corona recalls.

As an undergraduate at Eastern, Corona was exposed to the potential of occupational therapy as a career when he participated in an internship at Sea Mar clinic, in White Center, Washington, working alongside an occupational therapist who needed help with translating.

“She spoke only English, and about 90 percent of her patients were Spanish speaking, so I got to interpret a lot,” says Corona. “It was a great experience.”

After graduating, Corona worked for nearly three years as a family resource coordinator at Center for Pediatric Therapy, in Spokane. There, he worked with many occupational therapists who graduated from Eastern and spoke highly of the program.

His coworker OTs inspired Corona to dust off his Eagle gear and return to earn a master’s degree in occupational therapy.

Now, Corona is preparing for several rounds of clinical rotations. His first stop will be the Center for Pediatric Therapy, a full-circle moment, before he moves on to field work at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center and finishes up at the Achieve Center for Pediatric Therapy, in Wenatchee.

Although he found it rewarding to work with people who’d experienced strokes, spinal cord, traumatic brain and other injuries while observing at St. Luke’s, Corona hasn’t ruled out working with kids.

“I’ve had a lot of experience with kids and I love kids. Maybe this fieldwork experience will kind of change my trajectory of where I want to go.”