Pictured: Hilda Rodriguez, Current NTCC Honors Student with Brenda Godoy (right)
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
At the Greer Farm in Daingerfield in the spring of 2018, Brenda Godoy, first learned that she was one of some 60 students nation-wide to win a $120,000 Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. A Texas A&M degree in biochemistry, and two medical goodwill trips to Guatemala and Thailand later, and Godoy now works with the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) and Titus Regional Medical Center (TRMC) as the “Community Health Worker” of Titus County.
Godoy endeavors to improve a spirit of trust, and awareness of health services. Remarkably, her closest mentor and colleague at UNTHSC is Clara Ramirez, who also was an alumna of Honors Northeast, and a Jack Kent Cooke award winner.
“Clara is a very inspiriting and knowledgeable leader both at the UNTHSC, and in the health field” notes Godoy.
It is a remarkable time to consider new angles to health in this area as well as the nation. Even without COVID-19, the life expectancy in the United States has gone into an unprecedented decline since 2014. Some estimate that the United States wastes one-trillion dollars a year on unnecessary medical procedures, fraud, and other public-health dysfunctions. In Northeast Texas, a 2018 report showed that obesity, infant mortality, heart disease, and cancer are higher in this area than in the rest of Texas, or in the rest of the United States.
In considering the big picture, organizing focus groups to assess common concerns, and compiling proposals with her report, Godoy, has much to consider.
A Mount Pleasant High School salutatorian in 2016, Godoy appreciates the chance to survey her native realm. “A remarkable thing about our region,” notes Godoy, “is that the leaders of the largest public institutions are all willing to meet and discuss ways they might help with public health.”
“Godoy’s work while at NTCC was spectacular and unprecedented,” notes Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox. “An educator would be hard pressed to prove that she was not the top graduate of all American community colleges in 2018!” In addition to winning the Jack Kent Cooke, Godoy was a member of the all-USA team, a most elite-echelon group of twenty, nation-wide in Phi Theta Kappa, a Hites Scholar (a top nationally-ranked group of ten), and a winner of a New Century Award, as the student from the state of Texas with the highest national ranking. No other student in the nation won all four of these bellwether awards in 2018.
While at A&M College Station, Godoy achieved a near-perfect GPA, while widening her sensitivity to health issues both internationally and at home. She was a member of ACHIEVEMates, a first-of-a-kind organization in Texas to help students with disabilities realize their learning potential. She worked in the Health-For-All Free Clinic in College Station. She combined her developing expertise in sign language with an active membership in Deaf Aggies and Friends. As a fluent Spanish speaker with international experience, Godoy has developed a portfolio of diverse experiences to connect with individual needs.
Godoy has also remained active as an NTCC alumna, helping other NTCC students with interests in Biomedical studies and with national awards. She has remarked how “she loves to keep in contact with NTCC and with the Honors program!” Recently, Godoy helped judge the annual McGraw Hill Poster contest at NTCC, and lingered in the lunch following to talk with the honors students.
