Community Health Expo

TEXAS A&M HEALTH and LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS HOST VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH EXPO

Virtual Event offers useful and understandable health information for communities of the Rio Grande Valley.

MERCEDES, TEXAS: The MENTORS Project, in collaboration with the South Texas High School for Health Professions and Mercedes High School, invite you to the 3^rd annual community Health Expo, on Saturday, August 1 from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm.  The EXPO will be virtual this year, due to COVID-19, and you can join via computer, tablet, or phone at: mentorsproject.org/expo.

The Health Expo offers a chance to discuss steps that anyone can take to reduce risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma and COVID-19. Questions such as “What causes Diabetes?” and “How can I lower my risk of a heart attack?” will be answered, along with others from EXPO visitors.

Students from these local high schools, Mercedes High School and “Med High,” have trained for the past year to serve as Health Ambassadors in their communities, and will provide useful and reliable health information (se habla español). The Health Ambassadors, along with faculty and students from Texas A&M College of Medicine, will provide screening information to enable visitors to understand and reduce their risks for common diseases.

The Hidalgo County Health Department is also partnering with the Health EXPO again this year, and will provide local information on COVID-19 and other public health information.

THE MENTORS PROJECT is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant from the NIGMS/NIH. The program provides research internships for students and teachers, health ambassadorships for students, and an annual statewide professional development conference for K-12 educators (K-12 Summer Institute). Additional support for the project is provided by the Texas A&M Center for Environmental Health Research (NIEHS/NIH) and the PATHS-UP Engineering Resource Center (NSF).

The MENTORS (Model Education Networks to Optimize Rural Science) project is led by Dr. Robin Fuchs-Young, PI, Project Director and Dr. Carolyn Cannon, Co-PI, Director, Health Ambassador program.