Drexel medical students arrange community health fair at Hispanic Center in Reading

Steven Henshaw, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·2 min read

May 16—Drexel University medical students, under the guidance of experienced healthcare professionals, provided free health screenings, consultations, and educational resources during a community health fair hosted Thursday morning by the Centro Hispano in Reading.

The event, which was expected to draw more than 100 seniors to the Centro Hispano's senior center at 25. N. Second St., was organized by the Latino Student Association of the Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health campus in West Reading.

Centro Hispano is one of the sites of Drexel's Health Outreach Project, another student organization that provides several health clinics in Berks County throughout the year.

Thursday's event was a collaboration of the two student organizations and Centro Hispano, said Sabastian Trigueros, who co-facilitated the event with another first-year medical student and fellow New Yorker, Jemima Constanza.

They attended the program last year before they began medical school, and were excited to come back as organizers.

"It's so incredible to be able to work with this population, how much need there is, and to be able to help and to be able to just give back," Trigueros said. "To see how appreciative they are was very motivating."

He said the students are applying the basic skills and tasks they've practiced and mastered to provide outreach in the Spanish-speaking community.

"We've helped a lot of people," Trigueros added. "A lot of people come out of this at the end of the physician table—they are in need. They do need eye screenings. They do need to go to check-up with their primary care. We identify things along the way that might not have been identified before."

Those who go through screening aren't left to their own devices to find resources. Free clinics and vendors who could provide information on insurance programs and were set up in the next room, Trigueros said.

— Constanza added that Drexel students under LSA also provide monthly educational talks on different medical topics at the Hispanic Center.