Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonia Tovar.
Sonia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came from Peru at the age of 13 lived with mother, my two brothers and sister in a small studio in Lennox, an unincorporated area in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. I went to Lennox Middle school and Hawthorne high school. After few years my parents bought a house in Rancho Cucamonga, I transferred in my last year of high school, as I begin high school with so many units already obtained to graduate and my high GPA I was able to attend college as well, I also had a great opportunity to work in a law office in my last year of high school to help pay for college and help my parents at home.
Once I graduated went to Chaffey community college with some small scholarships and grants from the government, I was accepted at Loma Linda University to do my bachelor’s degree qualifying to do the fast track that allowed me to get my bachelors in Nursing in only 3 years, then I was accepted at Harbor-UCLA in Torrance, for the Nurse Practitioner program I specialized in women’s Health. I went back to work in a medical Clinic in East Los Angeles, and a year later decided there was a need to return to school to be able to see the children I helped delivered, I was accepted at Harbor-ULA to become a Family Nurse Practitioner at the same time I also applied to Cal state Long Beach to obtain my Masters in Nursing graduating at the age of 25, at the end of my Master program Few years later, I become board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner, I also went back to school to specialized on cervical biopsy and treatment for abnormal Pap smears to prevent cervical cancer.
Since I was running my office and had not much experience in managing and business I registered myself at Fullerton college and took business and administration classes, which helped me to guide me to growth my office.
My mother and I decided to open my current practice Health Clinic Salud y Familia in August 2002 I had being blessed and grateful to have my office now for 14 years, and kindly accepted as part of the community in Pomona, CA.
I being greatly rewarded with kindness and appreciation by my patients and amazing medical community that I currently network. It was not easy at the beginning, I was a young Hispanic female with still my South American accent, and felt I had to prove myself most of the time. I achieved many goals and dreams through this wonderful adventure of life, now married for sixteen years with my high school sweetheart and have two kind amazing girls, Nicole she 13 and Sophia age 10. I try to be a good sample for my girls to be strong, compassionate kind and giving people for the world that needs so much love to humanity, compassion and kindness. In the past year I had a wonderful opportunity to be part of a missionary trip to Nigeria Africa through Chime Medical Mission, which had change my life. I traveled to Nigeria in December 2016 for three weeks to provide medical assistance to the habitants of Abazu village in Imo state Nigeria, I was glad to had the opportunity to donate medication and my time for medical consultation and treatments to many adults and children in the village. I returned on July 2017 to help two orphanages in Imo state, providing monetary assistance and got involve with the churches helping and supporting these orphans. After I return from Nigeria I become part of a nonprofit corporation that my dear friend Christine Anaisi, a Family Nurse practitioner decided to open to continue to provide medical assistance to this needed area. This year on December 2017 we will return to the village and orphanages in Nigeria to continue our medical care and assistance taking medications and supplies for the village. Currently, I went back to school and I am studying Functional Medicine specialization to care for my patients in a more complete Natural and holistic way, I had excellent outcomes when I combine western medicine and holistic medicine in my patients’ care, assisting my patients psychological, physiological, spiritual and environmental instead of simply treating the disease or symptom in isolation. I simply love what I do and feel that I had found my purpose in life, the gift of giving.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As an immigrant the first challenge was the language, as I learned English I felt that I could learn many other things, as I love culture I decided to also learn French, Portuguese and now I am learning Igbo to facilitate my communication in Nigeria during my Missionary trips.
Being a young female in the Medical field opening my own practice and become independent was not easy as well, with that come the fact that I have an accent and I am a minority.
Other challenges including being accepted in the community and be accepted by other medical providers in the area my networking.
Please tell us about Health Clinic Salud y Familia .
Health Clinic Salud y Familia provides medical attention to all ages, specializing in women’s health, prenatal care and preventive cervical cancer treatments, our mission is to assess, diagnoses and treat diseases in a wholeness taking care of the body, mind and spirit, emphasizing preventive medicine as well as educating the patients on their own health by trying to created s healthy mindset and lifestyle.
I combine conventional and Holistic Natural Medicine to address and treat my patients’ diseases. We had a great reputation and were greatly accepted patients on how we practice Medicine. And most of my patients will come for women’s health services and we had being praised for our friendly and warm staff and service.
We also provide the following governmental programs free of charge for patients who qualify: prevention and treatment of sexual transmitted diseases, Family planning counseling, birth control methods, children physical assessment and vaccines, prenatal care, prenatal ultrasounds, mammograms, cervical biopsy, cryotherapy treatments.
We have a laboratory in house, social worker to help apply for medical insurance, WIC ( Women Infant and Children program) to help patients with basic nutritional needs, and parents education for children up to age 5.
We are open Monday to Saturday to better serve our community.
All staff is bilingual, and we have a Medical Provider, who speaks Chinese. We have a large network of different specialists around of area including many mental health, rehab organizations.
I feel proud and what it set us apart is our wonderful staff and the culture of my office. We tried our best to place a smile in all my patients.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love Pomona for their hard working people that are appreciated of our work and service to the community. Medical network including the hospitals in our area are great.
Unfortunately, Pomona has a high rate of crime, When looking at violent crimes, Pomona, CA has 12% higher than violent crime rate than California average, while remaining 29% higher than the national average, based on statistics at Neighborhood Scout.
Contact Info:
- Address: Health Clinic Salud y Familia
1019 E Holt Ave
Pomona ca 91767 - Website: www.clinicafamilia.com
- Phone: 909 623-7799
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soniaytovar/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoniaTovarClinic
- Twitter: @soniaytovar
- Yelp: (http://www.yelp.com/biz/clinica-salud-and-familia-pomona-2)
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
