COLLEGE STATION Marilyn Sebesta, Wharton County Extension agent for family and consumer sciences, has received the 1999-2000 Regents Fellow Service Award.
The award was presented to Sebesta, as well as to six other recipients of the Regents Fellow Service Award and 11 recipients of the Regents Professor Service Award during a Nov. 29-30 meeting of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on the campus of Baylor College of Dentistry, member of the A&M System Health Science Center. The regents service awards honor exemplary service to the university, agency, community, state, nation and world.
To be eligible, a nominee must have at least five years service at an A&M system university or agency, or at the system’s health science center, plus a distinguished record of public service, research, teaching and creative or scholarly activity, recognition in his or her field of expertise, and a commitment to his or her institution.
Sebesta, who first served as assistant county home demonstration agent in Matagorda County from 1971-73, has been a county Extension agent almost 30 years. She worked in Matagorda County until 1984, when she became county Extension agent for family and consumer sciences in Wharton County.
In the past seven years, Sebesta and the county Extension service in Wharton County have designed, developed and conducted several health and wellness programs for residents of the county, she said. These programs, which began in 1994 with a “Wellness at the Worksite” program for the employees of Wharton Independent School District, are funded in large part by grants from Gulf Coast Medical Foundation.
“We wanted to help lower insurance costs for school personnel and show our appreciation of the work they do,” Sebesta said.
The program provided educational information and screenings for such risk factors as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and blood sugar. The first year a $6,000 grant for the program was received from the medical foundation, and 301 school district employees took part.
According to Sebesta, “153 employees (53 percent of those participating) were identified as being at risk in at least one category …” At the end of the program, “Those who had high risk factors made significant changes on three of the four risk factors. The savings to the participants in terms of doctors’ visits and lab work (average of $93 per screening) was $43,000.”
The success of the program that first year led to its expansion. Since then, health and wellness programs developed by Sebesta and the Extension service have been given to employees of El Campo Independent School District, senior adults in the “Feelin’ Fine in Prime Time” program, police officers in the “No Cop Out” Wellness Program, Firefighters’ Wellness Program, “Help Yourself to Good Health” Wellness Program for county employees, wellness programs for local businesses and agencies, and “Keep Check on Your Diabetes” for diabetics and their caregivers.
All in all, Sebesta estimated that these and other health-related programs offered by Wharton County Extension Service have saved about $300,000 in expenses for the 1,300 participants in about 2,000 screenings.
The A&M System has given 37 regents professor service awards and 23 regents fellow service awards since 1996.
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