The Step Up to Live Well committee has teamed up with Mental Health Services to organize the City College Health and Wellness Expo, a three-day event that focused on personal and environmental health and safety.
April 15 was the first day of the expo, with the Health and Wellness Fair in the Curran Plaza. There were 40 vendors providing information, educational activities and samples of smoothies from the cafeteria.
Some of the vendors taught about meditation, stress reduction, and provided resources for help with mental health disorders.
Veronica Ortega, lead organizer of the Step Up to Live Well explained that the expo was made possible by the collaboration of the Step Up to Live Well committee, Mental Health Services and other faculty/staff members.
“What we’ve done is built on to the health and wellness fair that we hold every year, and we have added to that event an environmental health and safety component,” said Ortega.
The second day of the expo was dedicated to the Environmental Health and Safety Fair, also in the Curran Plaza.
There were approximately 20 vendors there, encouraging sustainability, eco-friendly living and making green lifestyle choices. Among the vendors was Car2Go, The American Red Cross, SDCC Nursing program and more.
The San Diego Police Department had a booth, where they were allowing people to try on the “drunk buster” goggles.
The goggles had different levels, and when someone puts them on it shows them what their vision would be like if they were impaired.
Karla Uroza, 21, psychology major, said she was drawn to the expo because she saw the demonstration for the drunk buster goggles and wanted to try it.
“It was crazy. There are levels from one drink to five drinks. I tried the one drink goggles and I was losing my balance,” said Uroza.
“The expo informs us a lot about things going on in the county that most people don’t even have access to,” said added.
The third and final day of the expo was Mobile Health Day, which brought a 40-foot mobile health clinic and a HIV van to City’s campus to provide students with a variety of health consultations and screenings.
The mobile health clinic from Family Health Centers of San Diego offered physical exams, blood tests and urinalysis, cholesterol screenings, diabetes screenings, pregnancy tests, STD screenings, pap smears and birth control prescriptions and more.
The San Diego County Public Health Mobile HIV testing van provided information and offered confidential HIV screenings. Most services were free to students.
“My favorite part is really seeing the interactions between the students and the new exhibitors. There’s so much new and interesting information here,” said Ortega.
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