Que Pasa? : PEOPLE

Linda Martinez was only 4 years old when she first learned to play the piano. Linda, now 16, recently took first place and won a $5,000 scholarship in the jazz instrumental category of the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards for young performers. “I express myself through my music,” said Martinez, a junior at Whittier’s California High. She says she enjoys playing “down and dirty blues” gigs in coffeehouses with a group. Besides playing classical and modern jazz, Linda composes songs and hopes to study film scoring at the USC School of Music. Although she wants to make it in film, she said, “I have so much fun playing jazz piano, I would never want to give it up.”

Dr. Elena Rios, a UCLA fellow in internal medicine and Chicano/Latino Medical Assn. of California president, describes herself as an “organization person.” A UCLA medical graduate, Rios also chairs the steering committee for the new National Stanford Chicano/Latino Alumni Club. “I’ve been a catalyst to bring people together through organizations,” she said. Rios, 36, became interested in Latino networks while at Stanford, where she began Project Motivation, a recruitment program for Bay Area minority high school students. The alumni and medical groups share “a strong dedication to service, to helping out those behind us,” she said. “What matters is not just watching the world go by, but changing it and making an impact.”