Elizabeth Bloemen Wins Campus Leader of the Year

April 2, 2012

Elizabeth Bloemen, a Biochemistry and Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology major, was recently awarded the Presidents Leadership Class’ Campus Leader of the Year award and subsequently, nominated for the Boettcher Foundation's Student Leader of the Year. The annual award was awarded to Elizabeth for her work with dementia patients and creation of a non-profit organization called Millie’s Kids.

“It was a big honor to be selected out of all the PLCers because everyone is doing amazing things and are so talented in their own fields”, said Elizabeth. “It’s humbling to be selected among this group of people.”

This annual award is given to one PLC student. Past winners include Ani Reddy and Mark Arnoldy. This year, Program Director, Tiffany Anderson, and Board Member, Teresa Valerio Parrot, interviewed the candidates and ultimately selected Elizabeth.

Ms. Bloemen is part of the PLC Class of 2009. She is currently a Class Advisor for PLC’s Mulii-level Issues in Leadership and is enrolled in the program's Capstone course. Elizabeth will graduate a year early this spring and is going to graduate school at Columbia University. In graduate school she will pursue a Masters in Public Health in their Sociomedical Sciences Department, which looks at health from a cultural, historical and social background with an emphasis in aging.

Elizabeth’s organization, Millie’s Kids, will be used in her graduate studies. She developed the idea and the organization during her time at the University of Colorado. Millie’s Kids is named after her grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s and passed away when Elizabeth was 14 years old. The organization is a dementia advocacy group that supports patients and helps families learn to advocate for their loved one.

According to Elizabeth, the biggest need for dementia patients is advocacy. “Currently most patients have their rights taken away and are incapable of advocating for themselves,” she said. “No one can currently advocate for them so no one is going in to make sure that they have a good quality of life.”

PLC has been a major support system for Elizabeth during her work with dementia. She has been able to make connections, bounce ideas around and find a system that helps her evolve with her work.

“I try really hard to make a difference in people’s lives, whether I’m successful in that, I’m not sure,” she said. “I appreciate PLC allowing me to pursue something that is not supported in any other field. Having a support group like PLC has been amazing.  Angela Thieman Dino is one of my favorite people and has inspired me throughout my time at CU.”