ON CAMPUS AT UC IRVINE:Student leads national melanoma awareness effort

Joel Myres was a second-year UC Irvine medical student when, in 2001, he discovered a lump in his abdomen. The same doctors who were his teachers made the devastating diagnosis: malignant melanoma, a recurrence of the deadly skin cancer that first appeared as a mole on Joel’s neck when he was 16.

Myres died a year later, leaving a wife, the promise of a brilliant medical career and a legacy: He inspired other medical students at UCI to educate youths about melanoma — and save lives. In 2004, they started the Joel Myres Melanoma Awareness Project, developing a curriculum and giving presentations on sun safety and skin cancer detection to Orange County middle and high school students. Today, the program has expanded into the National Melanoma Awareness Project, and 22 medical schools nationwide have adopted the course materials to start the project in their own communities.

“We’re trying to spread awareness of melanoma through medical students,” said Jeanette Waller, a fourth-year medical student at UCI and the national project’s founder and director. “Melanoma is preventable, and if it’s caught early and treated quickly, the chances of survival are high. We can make an impact.”

The UCI project, led by board members Waller, William Rietkerk, Jason Phillips and Ken Lam, includes 70 volunteer medical students, undergraduates and faculty mentors. In 2005-06, they delivered their “spot a spot, save a life” message to about 5,000 local students.

They teach teens to recognize suspicious moles by learning their ABCDs: asymmetry, border irregularity, color variation or change, and diameter — any mole larger than a pencil top eraser. They also share disturbing statistics: Melanoma is the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths in women ages 20 to 30. It kills one person an hour in the United States.

Several teens who attended the presentations have contacted the project to say they identified melanoma on loved ones.

“One of our teens e-mailed me and said she noticed a funny spot on her sister, and it turned out to be an early case of melanoma,” Waller says.

Waller learned about melanoma at an early age; her father was a dermatologist. She did a science fair project on skin cancer in the eighth grade. Her interest in the disease became personal when a college-aged friend — who had long complained of an unsightly mole on her neck — died of melanoma.

In 2005, Waller received the national Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society’s Medical Student Service Project Award for her work on the melanoma project. She’s applying for a dermatology residency next year in the hope that, as a doctor, she’ll help people prevent and fight melanoma.

“This cause is close to my heart,” she says.

For more information, visit www.spotaspot.org.

Proposition 1D would benefit Orange County public schoolsA measure on today’s ballot would direct nearly $1.4 billion to improve public school, college and university facilities in Orange County.

Proposition 1D — the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 — would provide about $1.2 billion for construction, modernization and seismic safety at K-12 schools; $16.7 million to build and equip a consumer and health sciences building at Orange Coast College, and $14.9 million to California State University, Fullerton, for a business/economics building, a new nursing laboratory and renovation of aging facilities.

At UC Irvine, the bond will provide $157 million to construct four new academic buildings, equip two buildings currently in development, seismically upgrade another academic building and make electrical infrastructure improvements to accommodate growth. Funds provided by Proposition 1D will support about 26,000 new local jobs, $2.3 billion in wages and $2.3 billion in additional economic impact for our region.

Don’t forget to vote.

Leaders, thinkers, scientists headline chancellor’s seriesThe Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series brings renowned scholars and non-academics to campus to share their experience and expertise with the UCI community.

Speakers and topics for November include Dr. David Hamburg, psychiatrist and president emeritus of the Carnegie Corp. of New York discussing “Never Again: Practical Steps Toward Prevention of Genocide,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Beckman Center Auditorium; and Carlos Fuentes, author, statesman and scholar, speaking about “Immigration: Challenges on Both Sides of the Border,” 8 p.m. Mon., Nov. 13, at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

All presentations are free, with seating available on a first-come basis. For more information, call (949) 824-6503 or visit www.chancellor.uci. edu/cdfs.shtml.

UCI libraries fall exhibitionStephen Tabor, distinguished curator of early printed books for the Huntington Library, will speak at the opening of the UCI Libraries’ fall exhibition, “Picture This: Five Centuries of Book Illustration,” at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Langson Library.

The exhibit examines the history of book illustration through a colorful overview of the evolution of various printing processes from the 15th century to the present. Works displayed reflect the traditional methods of earlier centuries as well as the more experimental approaches of contemporary illustrators and book artists, each illustrated by specimens from the UCI Special Collections and Archives.

A reception and exhibition viewing follow Tabor’s presentation. The talk is free and open to the public. Self parking is $7 in the parking structure at West Peltason and Pereira drives. R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, Nov. 8. For more information, call (949) 824-5300 or visit partners@lib.uci.edu.

Brain Imaging Center needs docentsThe UCI Brain Imaging Center needs volunteer docents to conduct tours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Responsibilities include learning about the center and its advanced imaging techniques and equipment, such as the High Resolution Research PET Scanner — one of only 13 in the world offering the highest resolution of functional brain imaging available. For more information, call Sharon Pfister at (949) 240-6067.

is assistant vice chancellor of communications at UC Irvine. She can be reached at smenning@uci.edu