Meet Our 2023 Scholarship Recipients!
This year, Breastfeed LA: The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles offered over $83,500 in scholarships and free training to women of color working towards becoming lactation educators and international board certified lactation consultants. Those who did not receive scholarships, still pay about 50% of the costs of traditional programs.
Women of color can change systems when they are a part of them.
As part of our mission to enhance the health and well-being of infants and families through education, outreach, and advocacy for the promotion and support of breastfeeding/chestfeeding, we are pleased to announce that we have awarded monetary scholarship funds to 8 applicants to assist them in their journey toward becoming International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs).
These funds will play a crucial role in supporting Certified Lactation Consultant (CLT) students by covering various expenses, including exam costs, exam preparation materials, CLT program tuition, scrubs, clinical placement fees, and even childcare during clinical placement. Many students received the necessary funding required to undertake the IBCLC examination. This flexible support is instrumental in overcoming barriers that can be faced by students pursuing IBCLC credentialing, such as financial barriers, microaggressions, self-doubt, and difficulties accessing clinical placements.
All applicants, who were exclusively from BIPOC communities by coincidence, received some form of award. Additionally, some applicants were pleasantly surprised with amounts exceeding their initial requests, with awards ranging from $935 to $1,385.50.
BreastfeedLA extends our heartfelt gratitude to our community sponsors and donors who have made these awards possible. Your contributions play a pivotal role in transforming lives, providing the much-needed momentum for students to complete their journey and addressing gaps in resources that are often left unattended.
To contribute to and support opportunities like this, we welcome your donations.
Briana Oceguera
“Going through the education program and working two jobs was not easy for me but BFLA’s schedule, amazing cohort, and knowledgeable instructors was reassuring that I could succeed in this field.”
Melissa Tsoi Cheng
“BreastfeedLA’s mission statement, their dedication towards realizing infant feeding equity and commitment towards advocacy work grounded in equity, inclusion, and diversity, really spoke to the core of what I wanted to achieve through my own work… I have had an amazing education through BreastfeedLA, and strive to work towards a shared vision of the infant feeding landscape and lactation profession.”
Shari Lynn Poindexter
“I am so grateful that BreastfeedLA offers this clinical lactation training program to afford lactation educators this opportunity.. Beyond just the desire to increase nursing dyads, I want to use all my skills, knowledge and passion to help eradicate maternal and infant mortality within the first year of life.. I support families transition through joys challenges that new or expanded parenthood brings, and help them nurse their babies for as long as they desire.”
Jasmin Castillo
“BreastfeedLA has opened the path for me to become an IBCLC. They have sparked my passion in Lactation and have facilitated a road for me to reach my professional goals.”
Joi Willis-Faulkner, M.A. OTR/L, CLES
“My aspiration is to serve marginalized families, not only as a lactation consultant but also as a dedicated Occupational Therapist. This journey has become more than a career path; it is a calling, and I am excited to embrace it with an open heart and open arms.”
Mercedez Johnson, doula
“I see myself as a perpetual student and educator, with lactation at the core of my career. This focus drives me, propelling me to navigate and work towards supporting more birthers who resonate with my approach and energy…”
Jessica Dawodu, BSPH, CLES
“I thank BreastfeedLA for changing my life and setting me on the path of becoming a IBCLC Lactation Consultant… Through their Lactation Mentorship program I have been able to accrue valuable clinical training in the hospital, an outpatient clinic and now their very own community clinic known as the Liberation Lounge.”
Alejandra Geonetta, CLES, LCE
“As an Chicana and Indigenous mother, breastfeeding was not only a deep connection to my child, but to generations before and after me, to traditional culture and ways of being. It was deeply empowering and healing. I wanted others in my community displaced by colonization and separated from family to have access to this essential avenue of connection and cultural strength. “