Kim Jackson (right), a respiratory care student, offers pointers to 10th grader Chris Medina as he performs an endotracheal intubation on a mannequin at a previous Allied Health Fair & Science Expo.
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San Antonio (Oct. 1, 2007) – The Allied Health Fair & Science Expo, an interactive, hands-on event designed to interest high school and college students in the allied health professions and careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing and research, will be held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3.

More than 1,000 students attended the event last year, and organizers expect as many to participate this year. The Allied Health Fair & Science Expo is free and open to students, parents, teachers and counselors.

Morning sessions focus on allied health sciences
The morning Allied Health Fair will focus on these allied health disciplines: physical therapy, occupational therapy, clinical laboratory sciences, dental hygiene, dental laboratory technology, emergency health sciences, physician assistant studies, respiratory care, and deaf education and hearing science. The Health Science Center offers rigorous degree programs in each field.

Tenth-graders Laura Rodriguez (left) and Natalia Garza listen as an oral and maxillofacial surgery student talks about the materials used to repair and replace teeth.

Afternoon sessions to explore medical, dental, nursing and biomedical research careers
The afternoon Science Expo will focus on medicine, dentistry, nursing and graduate biomedical research. Representatives of the Health Science Center’s School of Medicine, Dental School, School of Nursing and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences will lead discussions and demonstrations, including allowing students to look at preserved specimens of the human brain.

“You can’t beat this kind of experience to jump-start your interest in a health science career and concentrate your focus, and it’s offered for free,” said Irene C. Chapa, Ph.D., recruitment and science outreach coordinator at the Health Science Center. Dr. Chapa, a native of Laredo, earned her Ph.D. in pharmacology at the Health Science Center, and desires to help other young people do what she did.

Morning sessions will be at the university’s Greehey Academic and Research Campus, 8403 Floyd Curl. Lunch and the afternoon sessions will be held on the central campus, 7703 Floyd Curl. Participants may bring lunches from home or purchase box lunches at the event for $5.99.

For more information or to reserve your spot, call (210) 567-3941 or send a message to chapai@uthscsa.edu.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.