It might have seemed strange to hear a male voice
– that of senior Fred Papali – promoting the
Women's Health Fair through a campus-wide voice mail last week.
Papali and fellow senior Bobby Ndu, also a male,
saw an important need: to promote the health programs
available to women on- and off-campus.
So, the pre-meds who are also Obenzinger
Scholars, decided to organize the fair that may have drawn as
many as 250 participants by Papali's estimate.
“We were really surprised at the level of interest,”
said Papali, who intends to go to medical school next
year toward a career in public health. He will graduate with
a major in political science and minors in biology and
chemistry.
Ndu, a biology major, has just been accepted at
Yale Medical School.
Each year, recipients of the Ronald M. Obenzinger
'61 Memorial Premedical Scholarship are encouraged
to organize programs that serve public health awareness.
Among the organizations represented were Get
Aware, Safe Space, Union health services, YWCA,
Planned Parenthood, St. Clare's Hospital and First
Teachers Credit Union.
Ndu and Papali organized a diabetes screening last fall.
“The only weird part was dealing with people's
reactions to us as we – two males – told them the idea we had
and tried to get them involved,” said Ndu. “They seemed
a little suspicious,” he quipped, “but that is to be expected.”