Team HBV Wins Emerging Student Group Award
June 10, 2008
What started out as a handful of students armed with handmade jade ribbons, signs, and an idealistic desire to save the world from hepatitis B (HBV) has in two years grown into an established and well-respected student organization on the UC Berkeley campus.
Team HBV, a collaborating partner of the S.F. Hep B Free campaign, was recently selected as the winner of the 2008 Oski Award for emerging student organization, given by the university to rapidly growing and successful campus groups. The group is currently the only student-run collegiate nonprofit organization in the nation that addresses the high incidence of hepatitis B and liver cancer in the Asian and Pacific Islander community.
Team HBV has even helped to establish five self-sustaining chapters at other universities, Harvard and UC Davis being the latest.
The UC Berkeley chapter alone has outreached to over 10,000 people from around the Bay Area, and facilitates a university-sponsored course teaching basic transmission, treatment, and considerations for vaccination and screening for chronic hepatitis B, according to Team HBV co-founder Denis Lam.
“It was a big surprise to be honored, and had we not won, we still know that the cause we’re working for is important,” said Denis’ brother Patrick, the group’s co-president.
Team HBV has organized various community outreach projects, including documentary screenings, tabling at events and creating video public service announcements. They have also worked with Berkeley’s Tang Center to educate students, helped City College of San Francisco establish a hepatitis B initiative, and hosted fund-raisers like the first annual “Rock the Jade” fashion show.
Members also organized a letter-writing campaign for national HBV bills currently in Congress.
Patrick has also emphasized hepatitis B awareness as an important topic in his fraternity, Pi Alpha Phi, which has made the jade ribbon campaign their philanthropy project.
Based on S.F. Hep B Free’s model, Patrick said the goal of Team HBV in the fall will be to kick off a Cal Hep B Free to screen and vaccinate students as well as raise awareness of the disease.
For more information on Team HBV: jrc.berkeley.edu. For more about the S.F. Hep B Free campaign: sfhepbfree.org.
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