Week of July 15

 

For our activity this week, we watched a movie called "The Human Element".  We then worked in groups and shared the emotions that had surfaced as we watched the movie.  These emotions included sadness and a sense of helplessness.  We then discussed thoughts that we would like to share with our colleagues about the subject matter covered by the film.  We shared stories about how important coal is to communities that some of us were raised in and ideas about how we, as individuals, could decrease carbon emissions (like riding our bikes to work).  Finally, we thought about the film and how effective we thought it was.  We thought the movie did a good job of explaining the background, the culture/history of the different areas and why it is so difficult for people to either leave or fixed the problems.  We thought the videos and images were powerful.  We thought it would be better if the movie could have addressed more solutions.

Week of July 8 Environmental Health Literacy and Painting our Projects

 

Stakeholders

(Hoover, 2013)

For the first part of our session, we learned the basics of how to communicate with stakeholders when doing community engagement work with Dr. Anna Hoover.

We then got in touch with our artistic, creative spirits and painted our projects.

Our week of June 21

 

                    For our activity this week, we first learned about lead exposures and how it impacts human health.  We then worked in groups to identify the sites on campus that we would like to obtain soil samples.  After collecting the samples, we then ground and weighed them.  When they were dried, we then took them to Dr. Unrine's laboratory for analysis.

Our week of June 14

 On Monday, the SURES participants met with Dr. Mark Ebbert who told us about his work in neurodegenerative diseases using bioinformatics.  

On Tuesday, the SURES participants chatted with Dr. Kevin Pearson who discussed aspects of mentoring as well as his work in diet, exercise and fetal programing.

On Thursday, we all met with Dr. Wendy Jackson, the Associate Dean for Admission in the UKCOM to learn about applying to medical school and the MD/PhD program.

Theatre Improvisation and more

 This week, the SURF students met with a medical student, Mathew Melton who discussed his first year of medical school and his career journey.  The SURF students met with Dr. Patrick Hannon who discussed his work on phthalates and reproductive dysfunction.

On Thursday, we were joined with the very talented actor, Marianne Miller who led us through a series of theatre improvisation exercises to help us enhance our oral communication skills.

And so it begins... Summer 2021

 On May 24, an outstanding group of students from the University of Kentucky, Michigan State University, Miami University, University of Miami, Centre College, Rochester Institute of Technology and Tulane University came together at the University of Kentucky campus.  During our orientation, we learned about laboratory safety, responsible conduct of research, career planning and good oral communication.  We also explored the campus by participating in a scavenger hunt and prepared for our work in the laboratory by tie-dying our lab coats.  We are ready to go!!

Now accepting applications for Summer 2021!

Our application site is now open and we will be accepting applications until March 5.  You can find out more about the SURES program -here and submit your application  (12 positions are available) here.  Read more about the the SURF program (5 positions are available) here and submit your application here. Students may apply to be considered for both programs.  I am currently working on identifying faculty mentors who will available.