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The Far West Athletic Trainers’ Association is pleased to announce the Spring Quarter 2020 winner of the Excellence in Athletic Training Award. This award is a unique and prestigious accolade, which recognizes a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association who displays an exceptional commitment to mentoring, professional development, and enhancing the quality of health care, as well as, demonstrates the highest level of service, professionalism, and competence.

This quarter’s winner is Jasmine Velasquez ATC, CTE. Jasmine is in her fourth academic year serving as an athletic trainer at Lawndale High School in California. Jasmine founded Lawndale High School’s Sports Medicine pathway with the Biomedical Careers Academy. She designed and implemented the curriculum taught by multiple teachers to prepare students for a career in sports medicine. She also works tirelessly to get guest speakers, field trips, and other opportunities for her students.

In regards to receiving the Excellence in Athletic Training Award, here is what Velasquez has to  say: “Hesci Vn hocēfetv Jasmine v’nē purse-tate. Erv ’.tteyv Mvskoke. Nakvftécetv vníckv púnakē estv’lkē” (Hello my name is Jasmine I am from the Muskogee nation).

“I am honored to be receiving this award that I was nominated for by my students and colleagues at Lawndale High School. I started my athletic training journey wanting to restore hope in my injured and hurt athletes, but I quickly noticed my job required something more. I work in a school full of students who have been systematically oppressed and, as an indigenous woman, I feel it is my duty to inspire my students and student-athletes to help create an uprising of difference makers. I am more than just an Athletic Trainer and they are more than just students and athletes. Together we have built a collaborative and thriving community. I make sure that every athlete I treat, every student I meet, knows they are valued and they matter,” said Velasquez.

Velasquez continued, “We created the sports medicine team, made up of 10-12th grade students, to help cultivate this community and ideology that we must expect greatness in our treatment and care of others and we must expect more from ourselves. My sports medicine team and my students and athletes gave me a new purpose and I owe them my gratitude. They are facing difficult times of continued oppression, hurt and anger. It is our job to use our athletic training skills of compassion and care to fight social injustice not just for ourselves but for the future of our athletes and students- because they matter, because Black Lives Matter.”

Centinela Valley Union High School District’s Pathway Connections Specialist, Angie Engelbert nominated Jasmine for the Excellence in Athletic Training Award. Angie says “Velasquez’s tenacity, work ethic, and vision for her schools sports medicine program is unmatched by any school professional” she has ever seen. “Her students have been inducted into the National Honor Society of Sports Medicine…she also volunteers for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles where she takes students to earn clinical hours and learn the value of giving back to the community,” says Engelbert.

Jasmine Velasquez won Lawndale High School’s Above and Beyond Award in 2020 and received the CIF Champion of Character Award in 2019 as well as helped the Cardinals win CIF State Championship in Football in 2018. She is also an active member in the CATA’s Secondary Schools Committee. Jasmine is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University’s last cohort in the Bachelor’s of Athletic Training Program with a minor in Psychology.

From her students:

“Jasmine inspires me to do great things in life.”
– Janae Wallace

“Everything she does impacts every single one of us to the core.”
– Joy Nieves

“Jasmine is inspiring. She has helped me realize what I want to do and has shown me what path to take, and it all started with her program.”
– Joshua Jordan

 

 

 

Courtesy of the Public Relations Committee