Colorado State University students were given the opportunity to have their hearts screened April 15-16. CSU’s HOSA-Future Health Professionals chapter held two events to do so: one on the Lory Student Center Plaza April 15 and another in the LSC University Ballrooms April 16.

CSU HOSA screened students’ hearts with an electrocardiogram, otherwise known as an ECG or EKG, which scans for the heart’s electrical activity. CSU HOSA’s EKG screenings were noninvasive, painless and took about five minutes to administer. People under the age of 26 could have their EKG screenings read by a cardiologist for the price of $20.

“We’re mainly doing these to bring awareness to cardiac problems and cardiac arrest and get people to get their heart screened,” said Grace McCrady, CSU HOSA president.

McCrady founded CSU’s HOSA chapter and has been working on finding opportunities to have CSU pre-med students collaborate and work on health projects. Although the EKG event was not the first that the chapter has tried to pull off, this was their first successful attempt.

“It’s been a long process,” McCrady said. “We tried to do one in the fall, and it didn’t end up working out; it’s been about a year in the making now. I’m really glad to see it all to come together.”

The screening events were done in partnership with Who We Play For, a nonprofit organization with a mission to eliminate incidence of sudden cardiac arrest in youth. Who We Play For offered to provide a pediatric cardiologist to read the screenings collected by CSU HOSA, which is why the readings were limited to recipients under 26 years old.

“I want to help Who We Play For improve their goals,” McCrady said. “I want to help improve their goals and bring awareness to sudden cardiac arrest in younger populations. If we can make people more conscious about their heart health, that would be awesome.”

Students could either schedule an EKG screening ahead of time or walk to the booth on the screening days. CSU HOSA saw considerable attention from both scheduled screenings and walk-ins.

“It’s been fun,” said Hunter Fredrikson, a CSU HOSA volunteer. “I was here at 8 a.m., and there was barely anyone. Now we’re getting a steady line of students wanting to get EKGs. That’s really exciting.”

The EKG screenings were part of a HOSA program to train students on how to administer EKG screenings. The students doing so did not have to be majoring in a related field, volunteers came from a variety of programs. Fredrikson helped the CSU HOSA chapter administer EKG screenings, despite majoring in anthropology.

“It’s kind of funny because anthropology does not really overlap with medical sciences at all,” Fredrikson said. “I think it’s fun because anthropology is the study of humans, and this applies to that in every way. It’s like a new perspective.”

CSU HOSA and Who We Play For’s mission to make students more conscious about heart health drove the operations of the screenings. The CSU community scheduled screenings to realize those goals.

“A lot of people came in to get their heart screened just because they think it’s a really important cause,” McCrady said. “We’ve already had some people preemptively sign up to get their heart screened in the next couple of days.”

Many students who participated said they appreciated learning more about their heart’s health.

“It’s pretty neat — I hope more people do it and see how healthy they are,” said Nicolas Cerrone, a CSU political science sophomore who received a screening. “I think it’s an experience worth having.”