Antonio Moya
Meet Antonio Moya
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine
Medical Student, Year Two
Representing Mabuhay Health Center
Mabuhay Health Center
Clinic location:
1010 Mission Street, Suite B
San Francisco, CA 94103
Mailing Address:
500 Parnassus Ave, Box 0376
Millberry Union, Room 108 West
San Francisco, CA 94143-0376
info [at] mabuhayhealthcenter.org
Phone: (415) 633-MHC1 (633-6421)
Website: http://mabuhayhealthcenter.org
The Mabuhay Health Center is a free student-run community health clinic that aims to reduce health disparities existing within the South of Market (SoMa) district of San Francisco. Under the supervision of UCSF faculty, students participate in services in partnership with the Bayanihan Community Center. Together, we hope to provide health screenings, medication therapy management, and health education to SoMa residents, while providing an environment where preceptors, students, and patients can teach and learn from each other to provide sensitive, accessible, and high quality care. We also aim to evaluate health disparities within the Filipino American community and assess the effectiveness of our program through ongoing research studies.
How are you Mr. Hyphen material?
Mr. Hyphen to me represents a confident leader in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community who breaks the typical Asian male stereotype of being the “guy in the background” (i.e. quiet, passive and unopinionated). He advocates for the underserved by voicing out their struggles to those who can positively affect that community. I know that I can be the next Mr. Hyphen because I have the resources to share with others what health care challenges face the underserved Filipino community. I want to bring more attention to the health rights of Asians in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in San Francisco as 25% of this neighborhood’s Filipino residents live below the poverty line. Most of these residents are medically uninsured.
Since I moved to the U.S. from the Philippines as a baby, I grew up seeing how my family struggled to assimilate into American culture. My family thought of themselves as inferior to people born in the U.S. as well. I remember that my dad often told me that the reason he couldn’t pass the California bar exam was because law school training in America was so much better than law school training in the Philippines. My brothers, sister and I were considered “fobs” at school and it was even worse that being an Asian fob was the equivalent of being nerdy, clueless to American culture and voiceless when it came to making decisions. I made it a point early on in school and work to demonstrate that Asians who moved to the U.S were not just students who are assumed to do well at math but are people who have substance in their ideas, drawing on creativity, emotion and soul to express their feelings. I find that my artistic outlet is to improvise music on sax, piano and guitar in jam sessions as I did in various jazz groups throughout high school and college. I’m not satisfied with being pigeon-holed into the stereotype that Asians lack interest in culture or community.
My main focus now as a medical student is to help build up the Mabuhay Health Center, a recently-opened student-run clinic for the underserved Filipino community of SoMa. I know that as Mr. Hyphen, I can give people a fresh new look as to what it means to be an Asian American man in this country. I will continue to be vocal about my community’s needs and draw on innovative ideas and talents to improve health care in the SoMa neighborhood.