"I Am Not Invisible" women veteran's event at LBCC

Teri Bartlow, Jaya Lapham, and Jasmine Lumpkin pose with Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats, who is in one of the photos of the I Am Not Invisible campaign which was displayed in the LBCC library.

Veteran and Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats has a connection to LBCC besides being featured in the "I Am Not Invisible" photo exhibit that displayed at LBCC in February. 

Gonzalez-Prats is a long time friend of Javier Cervantes, Director of Institutional Equity & Student Engagement at LBCC.  Cervantes came to the Feb. 22 "I Am Not Invisible" meet and greet hosted by the LBCC Library at which Gonzales-Prats and Oregon Women Veterans Coordinator Elizabeth Estabrooks, who is also featured in the exhibit, spoke and answered questions.'

When Gonzalez-Prats first told Cervantes she was joining the military, Cervantes was concerned as a friend, but now, he realizes it was a great decision for her to join and she came back a better person. 

Now the two friends both are in higher education.  Gonzalez-Prats earned her Masters in 2008 with  a her thesis Through a Veteran’s Eyes: The Transition of the Army Leader into the Civilian Workforce and she is now working on a doctoral thesis. 

At the Feb. 22 event, Cervantes asked pointed questions from his armchair seat about Gonzalez-Prat's research for her current thesis, in which she seeks to verify the efficacy of the back to work programs in the military.  Cervantes' questions were intended to encourage audience participation in the research. 

Veteran Jasmine Lumpkin asked Gonzalez-Prat why the research will focus on a particular time-period of disengagement from the military, and Gonzalez-Prat appreciated the question, saying the time frame is to focus on the efficacy of a certain program and when it was introduced.