Medical Student Research Forum Posters

REACH (Reimagining Education to Advance central California Health) was established in 2018 and is a continuation of the former SJV Prime program (established in 2011). This Prime program was created to matriculate students with ties to the Central Valley who will train and return to underserved and underrepresented communities in the Valley. Our cohort is made up of seven natives from the Central Valley, ranging from Stockton to Bakersfield. Although we share the same preclinical curriculum with our class, our clinical training will be based in the Central Valley. Of note, we spent 4 weeks in the Central Valley getting hands-on experience. After finishing our first year, our cohort embarked on clinical, outreach, research, and mentoring efforts in the Modesto and Visalia areas of the Central Valley. This was a student-led effort to create meaningful experiences for us and the communities we met. We want to share our experience in Visalia as we teamed with an Emergency Medicine doctor, Dr. Guzman, and Humana Inc. (a health insurance company) to provide Covid-19 vaccines to a community with a high unvaccinated rate. These efforts are especially noteworthy since we broke down the traveling and language barriers while we provided vaccinations in a Visalia flea market. Our understanding of the needs of the community and our bilingual Spanish skill allowed us to provide community-centered care.