Academic Year Programs and Events

 

 

Throughout the academic year, the UCLA Blum Center hosts a variety of educational events on campus to engage students, faculty, staff, and community members on a wide range of topics related to health, poverty, and Latin American populations. UCLA Blum Center programs have a diverse focus and are designed to engage participants through interactive and collaborative formats. To explore the inter-disciplinary nature of the study of social determinants of health for Latin American populations, the UCLA Blum Centers partners with units across campus, as well as local organizations in Los Angeles.

Past events co-hosted by the UCLA Blum Center have included documentary screenings, panel discussions, informal student networking programs, and innovation contests. The following programs have been put on by the UCLA Blum Center to-date:

 

• Chicanos for Community Medicine Annual Pre-Health Conference
• 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Sharing Knowledge to Build a Culture of Health Conference
• Co-Sponsor of the Los Angeles Global Health Conference
• Co-sponsor of "Demand Solutions: Ideas for Improving Quality of Life" along with the Inter-American Development Bank and the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies. The annual conference, which is held in Washington D.C., brings together some of the most innovative and creative minds in the world to discuss and share innovative solutions that address development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Screening of the Inter-American Development Bank-produced documentary Water Everlasting? The Battle to Secure Haiti's Most Essential Resource followed by a panel discussion about water infrastructure and systems governance in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Co-hosted by the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
• Student networking and engagement nights with the UCLA Office of Residential Life Theme Communities.
• Co-sponsor of the Second Annual UCLA Inventathon, a 24-hour competition to create and pitch the best solution to a health care challenge.
• Screening of the documentary Food Chains, which exposes the exploitation of farmworkers across the US and the fight to improve working conditions. The screening was followed by a panel discussion, facilitated by UCLA Blum Center Director Michael Rodriguez, and was featured as part of the Resnick Program for Food and Law Policy's first inaugural UCLA-Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Conference. 
• "Separating Facts from Fiction: Public Health Implications of Child Migrants from Central America," a panel discussion co-hosted along with the UCLA Latin American Institute that explored the public health issues confronting child migrants from across Central American arriving to the United States.
• The UCLA Workshop on Migration and Health, an annual event co-hosted with the UCLA Program on International Migration that brings together researchers from across borders to discuss groundbreaking research that explores health challenges for migrant communities. 
• Plenary session at 2015 UC Global Health Day "No federal immigration reform? What states can do to improve the health of undocumented workers," a panel discussion that explored the health implications of state's policies toward undocumented immigrants in the United States.