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The patients sit on folding chairs along the sidewalk in Hollywood, as students unload supplies and medical records from a truck. They are creating a makeshift clinic on the street. The first stage is triage, assessing the needs of poor and homeless at this once-a-week mobile clinic. It is run by students from the University of California, Los Angeles, who operate similar clinics in different communities on other nights. They provide medicine and offer clean socks and reading glasses to those who need them. They bandage injuries and monitor vital signs. Another charity offers nutritious meals to the patients. Students in social work and law also come to offer assistance, getting long-term help from the government or private agencies for those people who qualify.
Patient Charles Brownridge comes here every week, as much for companionship as health care. I like the atmosphere, the food, and they give pretty good service. They are training, sort of like rookies doing an apprenticeship. And it is fun to be around youngsters. It is a nice atmosphere. Physician Walter Coppenrath helped start this street clinic 12 years ago when he was a medical student. He now teaches at UCLA and sees patients at a nearby medical center. He says this mobile care is crucial for this population. Small infections on your foot might be able to be handled by just changing your socks, but when you [are not] able to wash in a bath or change your socks," said Coppenrath. "They can actually lead to limb-threatening infections.
The care is given to those who do not get help in other places, says medical student Steffanie Becerra. They see us as their only point of care within the medical system where they can get their medications filled, a lot of people with hypertension or diabetes who really have no other choice but to come here because they just can not afford the medications elsewhere, she explained.
The mobile clinic helps both patients and students, says undergraduate Kevin Norris, who plans to become a doctor. We really treat them as individuals deserving of respect because so many of the homeless people here in Los Angeles are really just looked down upon and largely ignored by much of the population, Norris stated. He says that once a week these people get the attention and the care they deserve, and the volunteer work helps him understand his future role as a physician.
Source
At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, it is not difficult to spot students from China. They gather regularly for social events, such as this Mid-Autumn festival. Environmental engineering student Sun Wei said he has not met many Americans because there are so many students from his home country. But he said there is a positive side to this. The benefit is when I arrived it doesn't take much adjusting," Wei said. "It's all Chinese.
Opportunity and challenge
But coming to the United States is not easy for many Chinese students. An Rupeng, a doctoral student at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, said that being away from family has been difficult him and his wife. We are the only child in both families. And when your parents get older, they tend to miss you a lot and miss their grandson a lot, said An.
But An said he has enjoyed experiencing a different culture. Ferdinando Guerra, an economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, said Chinese students have helped the local economy by contributing more than $100 million last year. And he said they contributed more than $4.5 billion to the U.S. economy. The number of Chinese students studying in the United States has almost tripled in the past decade, and has almost quadrupled since 1995, said Guerra.
Chinese wealth grows
The main reason for the dramatic increase is the growth of the Chinese economy, said RAND Corporation economist Jim Hosek. There are a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs, businessmen of all sorts business leaders, who are simply wealthier today, and they can afford to send their sons and daughters abroad, said Hosek. Chinese native Li Jing agreed. She received her doctorate in education at the University of Southern California. Li said the way in which Chinese students pay for their tuition abroad has changed since she studied this topic in 2004. The majority of Chinese students received scholarships," Li said. "Now, the majority of Chinese students pay their own way to come here to study.
Influx of Chinese students
