Frontera de Salud student members and faculty adviser, Dr. Norma Pérez, recently returned from their second mission trip to Presidio County in West Texas, a rural area that lies in the Chihuahuan desert and is adjacent to Mexico. Working with the area hospital district and the Presidio-Brewster County Indigent Healthcare Program, the students helped organize a health fair.

The fair, which attracted about 50 residents, included diabetes and BMI screenings, as well as information about immunizations and the Zika virus. Pérez also provided information and advice for area high school and undergraduate students who are considering a career in health care. The arid region makes growing fruits and vegetables difficult, so the students built five hydroponic gardens that will grow broccoli, cabbage and spinach.

Renovations for a more direct route

You won’t need Google Maps much longer to get from one part of the Galveston campus to another. The first phase of renovations to the R. Waverley Smith Pavilion will create a more direct, indoor route between Jennie Sealy Hospital and John Sealy Hospital. The project, expected to be completed in October, also will make it easier to reach other facilities such as the hospital parking garage and the cafeteria. Go to UTMB’s Facebook page to see pictures of the renovation www.facebook.com/UTMB.edu

Free mammograms in Galveston County

UTMB and the Ruth Kempner Endowment for Breast Cancer Screening are providing free screening mammograms for women in Galveston County who are uninsured. Participants must register in advance and meet a list of criteria, including being a legal resident of Galveston County and not be older than 40.

The first free screenings will begin Sunday at the Greater St. Matthew’s Baptist Church, 6333 state Highway 6, in Hitchcock. The second free mammograms event will begin Aug. 20 at the Avenue L Missionary Baptist Church, 2612 Ave. L, in Galveston.

For more information about all eligibility requirements and how to apply, call Ida Hernandez, 832-505-1721. Applications also can be picked up at the churches, the UTMB Breast Imaging Department on the Galveston campus and the Breast Health Center on the League City campus.

Did you know?

The first woman to earn a medical degree at the medical branch was Dr. Marie Delalondre, just six years after the school’s opening in 1891. Six years later, Dr. Minnie Cunningham — a future champion of women’s suffrage and the first woman to run for the Texas Senate — became the first woman to earn a graduate degree (in pharmacy) from UTMB. Marie Schaefer, a 1900 medical school graduate, was the first woman on the school’s faculty and the first to head one of UTMB’s academic departments (Embryology and Histology).