Bilingual boost to Latinos in Columbus: Leonard’s career contributions earn high honor from Mexican Consulate

A Columbus health professional who used her bilingual skills to help Spanish-speaking newcomers to community find education and health care services has been honored with one of the highest civilian honors bestowed by the country of Mexico.

Laura Leonard, president of Our Hospice of South Central Indiana in Columbus, received the award at the Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis during a private ceremony in September.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to invite people,” Leonard said of the ceremony. “I wanted to say, ‘I didn’t do this by myself — I did this with a group of volunteers,’ “ she said. “That’s the way the (Columbus) community does things.”

The award, nominated by individual Mexican consulates in the United States and bestowed by the Mexican government, honors outstanding individuals of Mexican heritage living in a foreign country for contributions to their communities.

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The recognition is called the “Ohtli Award,” which in the Nahuatl language means “path,” according to the consulate. The symbolism of the name alludes to the idea of the honoree opening a path for others.

In Leonard’s case, it could be called a path. But in her mind, it was also planting seeds for the future.

Her professional career in Columbus began in 1978 as a nurse’s aide at Columbus Regional Hospital. Leonard, who 20 years later obtained a nursing degree, was around when Columbus began experiencing growth in its Hispanic population. The hospital’s obstetrics department began calling Leonard to help overcome the language barrier when Spanish-speaking patients would arrive to deliver their babies, she said.

“Eventually, I gathered a network of about 15 bilingual people for these pregnant women. We began accompanying them to their doctor appointments and we would get a call from labor and delivery when they were having their babies,” Leonard said.

Her track record reflects four decades of helping people in Columbus better communicate with others who only spoke Spanish, or other non-English languages from around the world.

The culture in Columbus has changed enormously since those days, Leonard said. But without the early volunteers who stepped forward to help Spanish-speaking individuals, the seeds could have never been sown for today’s programming to help integrate them into the Columbus community.

‘Cultural broker’

The Mexican government honored Leonard for becoming a “cultural broker and advocate for the Hispanic community,” working to establish programs for interpretation, translation, cultural awareness training for employees and establishing hospital registration and discharge processes to serve the needs of non-English speakers.

Leonard said she began that process by bringing in every friend she had who was bilingual and going to work on behalf of the Hispanic community.

Initial steps at the hospital included putting in a phone line and hospital mailbox where printed cards directed people needing help with medical services to respond in their native language. The individuals would then be contacted by a bilingual hospital employee who would help direct patients to the needed services.

She also worked with Healthy Communities to develop a network of Spanish-speaking volunteers called the Proyecto Salud Action Team, who would address daily needs of patients such as translating during medical appointments or hospital stays.

“We had to change the registration procedures,” Leonard said of the hospital’s transition to a more multi-cultural process of welcoming patients. “Within the hospital system, we had many educational sessions so employees could understand the Hispanic culture.”

The hospital system developed packets with practical communication guides — visuals that would help non-English speakers be able to communicate what they needed.

The visuals ranged from photos of food for patients to pick out their meals while in the hospital, to photos of happy-to-sad faces for a patient to indicate pain levels. Spanish translations were included in the packets for patients to read, but Leonard said the visuals were necessary as some patients did not have the educational attainment to be able to understand what was being asked or to read complex Spanish phrasing.

As more volunteers were recruited, the program received financial support from the Columbus Regional Hospital Foundation, she said.

She also contributed to the establishment of a free health clinic with Spanish-speaking services in 2000, where she was a volunteer director for 15 years.

The clinic was on Mondays at the former Volunteers in Medicine location, she said. As many as 7,000 Latino families were helped by the clinic before it was eventually absorbed into the VIMCare Clinic at the hospital, which provides medical care to residents who are uninsured or those enrolled in Indiana’s Medicaid coverage plan.

“When all of this got started, it took over my life,” Leonard said, laughing at the memory. “But in a good way.”

In addition to health care, Leonard was active in encouraging the Columbus community to assist Latinos in educational pursuits.

Leonard was instrumental in starting the Columbus Regional Hospital Medical Interpreter course, now offered through Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. to high school students.

She also promoted the Institute for Mexicans in the Exterior Becas Scholarship program, which provides Spanish-speaking students with scholarships through IUPUC, and has supported the formation of Spanish-speaking student groups at local post-secondary educational institutions.

Facilitating learning

Luz Elena Michel, Latino education and outreach program manager for the Community Education Coalition, said Leonard has been instrumental in helping Latinos find resources or job opportunities over the years.

“If there was anything anyone needed, she would always know how to help,” Michel said. “She is the kind of person who has a warm personality and tries to help everyone.”

Michel said Leonard helped her with career advice, helping her navigate post-secondary educational opportunities at Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus.

Leonard said her spirit was lifted by watching several hundred Latino students gather at the Columbus Learning Center in September for Exito Latino, a one-day event where the Spanish-speaking high school students learned about networking, finding scholarships for college, overcoming barriers and more.

Students who attended were from Columbus East, Columbus North and CSA-New Tech high schools, along with Shelbyville and Seymour.

The Exito Latino program revolves around having young Latino professionals share their journey in the hopes that high school students will be encouraged to embark on their own with more confidence. “Exito” refers to “success” in Spanish.

Professionals from Cummins, Inc., LHP Engineering and Columbus Regional Hospital met with the students to talk about career opportunities and paths to success.

Leonard is particularly proud of the literacy program sponsored by a multitude of local agencies that provides Spanish-speakers with an educational opportunity to get a degree or progress from an elementary or middle-school education in Mexico.

“Many of these individuals want to be able to help their children with their school work,” she said. “If they did not graduate from elementary or middle school, it’s vital,” she said.

The collaboration to provide the educational services includes community volunteers, IUPUC, Su Casa and more.

The program also helps families learn the type of courses students need to take to achieve their desired career, Leonard said. For example, a student hoping to be an astronaut needs to start thinking about taking higher-level math and science courses in middle school rather than waiting for high school, she said.

While Leonard is pleased to see how Spanish-speaking people are integrating into the community far more seamlessly than decades ago, she still has hopes for more advancement in the future.

“It’s worrisome that the DACA students may not be allowed to integrate into society here,” she said.

DACA refers to children, often called “Dreamers,” who were brought to the United States by their parents, who may or may not have come to America legally.

“These students did not make the decision to come here,” she said. “And they don’t known any different life. I would hope the community would proactively support this group of students.”

She also encouraged the Columbus community to help the members of the Spanish-speaking community who may be living in poverty, saying their lives are fragile and they need opportunities to fully integrate into the community.

Some of the babies she watched being delivered at CRH as she interpreted for their mothers have now graduated from high school and gone on to college.

“They are very successful people,” Leonard said.

“You never know what is planned for you,” Leonard said. “It was about planting all the seeds.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Laura Leonard” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Age: 62

City of residence: Columbus. Born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, arriving in Columbus in 1974 for an academic exchange opportunity.

Occupation: President of Our Hospice of South Central Indiana in Columbus, since November 2013

Education: Studied medicine at the Uniuversity of Guadalajara and returned to Columbus in 1998 to raise a family while attending Indiana University, where she obtained bachelor’s degrees in general studies and nursing.

Family: Married to Doug Leonard; two sons, Jon (wife Jennifer) Hurt and Robert Hurt, and three grandchildren.

Memberships: Bartholomew County Healthy Communities Council, Proyecto Salud Healthy Communities Action Team, Heritage Fund Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, IUPUI Diversity Cabinet and the Hispanic Education & Literacy Partnership Advisory Board.

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Administered by the Mexican government through its Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, the Ohtli Award is given annually by consulates to honor people of Mexican heritage living in a foreign country for their community contributions.

"Ohtli" in the Nahuatl language means "path," alluding to the idea of opening a path for others.

Notable honorees include: Former San Antinio, Texas, mayor Henry Cisneros (2013), actress Eva Longoria (2015) and actor Edward James Olmos (2012).

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