Latino Heritage Month

On Thursday September 29^th the DUCOM LMSA Chapter held the Annual Latino Heritage Month Lecture and Dinner showcasing a documentary on Chagas Disease. Carla Zeballos, 3^rd year Medical Sudent at DUCOM and 2010-11 LMSA Co-president, introduced the film, sharing her experiences with Chagas through her summer volunteer work in Bolivia. Victor Cueto, 4^th year Medical Student at DUCOM, LMSA National Board Parliamentarian and LMSA National Liaison to the regional board, gave an introduction to the LMSA Organization, highlighting the various activities the organization has been involved with.

The event was a huge success and enhanced awareness over a prevalent endemic disease associated with poverty in many Latin American Countries. It is estimated that 15-16 million people in Latin America are infected with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that causes Chagas disease.

We would like to thank restaurants Mexican Post, Chipotle, and Machismo’s for sponsoring and supporting our event.

We would also like to thank Deacon Lile and Priscilla Ku, for organizing a great event.

...a changing of the guard...

It's been a year already since some of us started our roles in LMSA. We've been a very productive student group, I feel. These are a list of our accomplishments this year:

• We continued our successful high school tutoring program at ASPIRA
• We added tutoring for younger kids this year as well
• We hosted high schoolers who came to visit Drexel Med and we gave them some, hopefully useful, tips for college and beyond.
• Our members attended 2 conferences this year
• DUCOM LMSA is officially the BEST LMSA student group in the Northeastern Region
• Carla won an Outstanding Community Service award
• Micah, Claudia and Victor were elected to the LMSA National Board

Yesterday, we handed over responsibility for continuing our great club to the rising 2nd years. Congratulations to the new officers:

• Co-President – Max Oran
• Co-President – Charlie Trujillo
• Treasurer – Kiran Guthikonda
• Secretary – Madie Ramirez
• Membership /Alumni Chair – Isabel Eisner
• Community Outreach Coordinator – Evan Smith
• Spanish Table Coordinator – Dante Marconi

There's a lot to look forward to as we head into the 2011-2012 school year and we welcome the class of 2015. Some things we'll be working on next year include:

• Bringing back a Medical Spanish Class, possibly culminating in a CEAC standardize patient session at the end of the course
• Attracting more Latino medical school applicants by attacking the problem from three fronts,

1. an LMSA member in the admissions committee
2. LMSA presence at college recruitment fairs
3. establishing a broader internet presence for the LMSA blog/website so that applicants can easily find Drexel LMSA and read about our many exploits and how awesome we are!

Of course none of this could have been done without the work of our two Co-presidents, Katie and Carla and the contribution of our excellent members. To cap off the meeting, we had a cake and a picture:

Good work LMSA!

LMSA @Drexel Med wins LMSA Northeast Chapter of the Year!

This past week Mica and Victor represented DUCOM-LMSA at the National Conference at Mount Sinai. As you all know, we applied for a few scholarships/awards that were announced at the conference. We're proud to announce, we were recognized as LMSA-Northeast Chapter of the Year, from among many other prestigious institutes of medical education in the Northeastern United States. In addition, for her volunteer service work in the Philadelphia area Latino community, Carla Zeballos was awarded the 14th Annual Dr. Jaime H. Rivera-Velez Award for Outstanding Community Service!

Congratulations and keep up the great work DUCOM LMSA!