Latino Student Groups Offer Support and Services

Every year, National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the generations of Hispanic Americans that have contributed so much to the United States and positively enriched our society. In honor of this past month, the Hispanic-affiliated organizations at UCSF wanted to share details of their respective missions and their upcoming events.

Dental

The Hispanic Student Dental Association (HSDA) is a student-run organization at UCSF dedicated to serve as the leading voice for Hispanics’ oral health. Our mission encompasses a myriad of community outreach opportunities, including providing service, education, advocacy and leadership for the elimination of the disparities in oral health in underserved communities, specifically amongst the Hispanic population.  

We welcome into the organization anyone who would like to share their time and knowledge to better the local Hispanic community. To minimize the language barrier, we offer interactive and engaging Spanish classes throughout each quarter to help teach dental students basic conversational Spanish so they can better communicate with their prospective patients.  

In addition, we advocate for and support policies that benefit Hispanic patients at the UCSF Dental Clinic. To view and learn more about what we do, please join our HSDA Chapter on the UCSF Page on Facebook: facebook.com/HispanicStudentDentalAssociationhsdaChapterAtUcsf

Medicine

The Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) is a nationally-recognized non-profit organization dedicated to representing, supporting, educating and bringing together Latino(a) medical students.  

LMSA is devoted to the cause of diversity in medical education through the strengthening of ties between Latino communities and the professional schools, as well as the improvement of Latino health at an individual and community-wide basis.

At the local, regional, and national levels, LMSA offers Latino students, as well as those students dedicated to the Latino community, an opportunity to expresses their creativity and develop their leadership.

At UCSF, members of LMSA are active participants in Clinica Martín-Baró, a student-run clinic dedicated to serving day-laborers in San Francisco’s Mission District. Members also serve as student advocates in admissions committees, organize outreach panels for high school students as well as students from the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley, and assist in the activities of the newly opened Multicultural Resource Center at UCSF.

Finally, LMSA students work to promote inclusivity on campus by hosting culturally themed events, including the Dia de los Muertos at UCSF. 

Pharmacy

The Latino Association of Pharmacy Students (LAPS) is a culturally diverse group of students devoted to providing health care services, education and outreach to the under-served.  

Our mission is twofold: we are committed to serving the Latinos in our local communities and to provide valuable health education and services.  LAPS also strives to broaden students' understanding of and exposure to diversity, by teaching students about the Spanish language and Latino cultures and offering interactive experiences in local communities.  

Every quarter, we organize a variety of cultural and community outreach events.  For example, this quarter we have planned a Salsa & Salsa night in November, combining a salsa- making competition with a salsa dancing lesson. We also hold  lunch talks to teach students basic vocabulary and phrases in Spanish related to diabetes and acid reflux diseases; and a health fair in the Mission District in December, among other events.

As one of the organizations under the Chicanos/Latinos in Health Education (CHE) umbrella, we also offer interprofessional events throughout the year.  For more information about our upcoming events, feel free to contact us at LAPS@ucsf.edu.
 
Nursing

As Voces Latinas, we aim to represent our Hispanic heritage on campus, reach out to the community, and support each other throughout our academic journey. We invite any nursing students on campus to join us for our meetings. We will be having a mixer on November 14 for anyone who is interested.