YWCA honors local women
Darleene Barrientos
After some soul-searching, Burbank resident Diana Diaz exchanged love
for money when she turned away from corporate law to teach special
education.
Diaz said she always wanted to be a lawyer, but when it came time
to apply for college, the money was not as appealing as it had once
been.
She discovered what she wanted to do while working with special
needs students through a Best Buddies program at John Burroughs High
School, where she is a senior.
Diaz thought it would be a fun club, and that experience led to
volunteering with special needs adults at UC Riverside and working
and volunteering at the Burbank Center for the Retarded, she said.
Diaz said she enjoyed working with children.
“Working with kids was more rewarding,” she said.
The 18-year-old will be honored today at the YWCA of Glendale’s
Legacy Luncheon at La Canada Flintridge Country Club for her
volunteer work with special education students.
The group is awarding Diaz the Jane O’Connor Community Volunteer
Service Award. The award includes a $200 scholarship, which Diaz
plans to use for her first year at Cal State L.A. She will major in
liberal studies as a prelude to pursuing her credentials in special
education instruction.
Service awards will also be given to Glady I. Kabateck, the
coordinator and counselor of the Glendale Community College Adult
Re-Entry Center; Georgia Abelmann, who serves on the boards of the
Glendale Chamber of Commerce, the Salvation Army and the Glendale
Adventist Medical Center; and Lina Harper, president of the Glendale
Unified School District Board of Education. Sonia Bedrassian
Peltekian of Burbank will also be lauded.
“The luncheon is a chance for the YWCA to honor women who give so
much of themselves,” event chairwoman Mary Boger said. “It gives us
an opportunity to recognize women in our community who are actually
building the road for other women to walk upon.
“They’re clearing the rubble and building the bridges for other
women to achieve earlier and more easily.”