ALMA de UCLA
OUR PROGRAM PARTNERS
Madison Park Neighborhood Association (MPNA)-Getting Residents Engaged in Exercise and Nutrition (GREEN)
MPNA was established in 1987 as a grassroot, resident-driven organization that offers health promotion and educational programming to residents in Santa Ana, California. ALMA Science Academy is a joined effort from faculty at UCI School of Medicine, Jose Rea and Frank Zalvidar, PhD, to address the lack of Latinx professionals in Latinx communities. Through enacting a youth educational enrichment pipeline program in Santa Ana, MPNA-GREEN strives to expose scholars to STEM education at an early age and foster a safe and educational environment, in which scholars from underrepresented communities are able to learn and acquire extensive support towards pursuing higher education.
Here at ALMA Science Academy de UCLA, we’re committed to investing our expertise and resources in order to further achieve our cause. Since 2017, we’ve been supporting our community partners in a variety of ways to ensure our service recipients receive quality education. Through applying to funding sources in UCLA, our community service project is able to provide free of charge transportation to our volunteers and mentors for the purpose of inspiring young scholars to achieve academic excellence.
MPNA-GREEN TEAM
Where the Passion Begins
JOSE REA, M.A.
Executive Director
Board of Madison Park Neighborhood
​
Former Administrative Director and Academic Director of UCI PRIME-LC.
FRANK ZALVIDAR, PHD
Science Director
Faculty at University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
Director of Youth Enrichment Program and GREEN Chair
LISA SOLOMON
Madison Elementary Principal
2015 Â National Distinguished Principal of the Year - State of California
2018 Santa Ana Kiwanis Golden Rule Award, Education leader
2019 State of California, 69th District Woman of the Year
LATINXS/CHICANXS FOR COMMUNITY MEDICINE (LCCM) AT UCLA.
ALMA de UCLA is a community service project created and initiated under the organization, Latinxs/Chicanxs for Community Medicine (LCCM). LCCM started in 1970 as an effort to provide moral support and support for Chicanx undergraduates pursuing a career in the health care field. A group of like-minded individuals initiated LCCM with the purpose of changing the health care system to better meet the needs of underrepresented communities.
As an undergraduate Chicanx, Latinxs, pre-health/pre-med organization committed to improving the quality of the health care system available to our communities, our goals are the following:
To recruit and retain Chicanx, Latinx students by providing academic and moral support to those who express an interest in the healthcare professions.
To educate and develop a greater awareness of the healthcare problems and issues existing in critically underserved areas.
To provide health services and education to the Chicana/o/Latina/o communities by conducting various community projects.
To increase health care delivery to the underserved Chicana/o/Latina/o population by returning to our communities and serving our people as trained health professionals.
​
Historically, Chicanxs, Latinxs and other minority groups have carried a disproportionate share of society's problems. Even today, in one of the most technologically advanced societies, we continue to suffer in all areas including inadequate access to health care. Minorities have a higher rate of almost every disease and miss more days of work due to illness and disability than all other groups. Furthermore, Chicanas/os and Latinas/os compose 27% of the U.S population and yet only about 5% are physicians. Besides having to compete for limited health services, Chicanas/os/Latinas/os suffer the added burden of coping with monolingual, monocultural health professionals who are ambivalent to their patient's language and cultural needs. To change this insufficiency we must produce health care professionals committed to serving these communities.