La Jollans can learn how to improve their health and well-being at Scripps Wellness Day from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 17. Events will be held simultaneously at Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.
Attendees can get free health screenings, meet physicians, hear presentations on important health topics, enjoy healthy food tastings and participate in family-friendly activities and prize giveaways throughout the morning.
The events are open to the public, and admission is free.
The Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine is at 10820 N. Torrey Pines Road, and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla is at 9888 Genesee Ave.
Free on-site parking is available at both locations.
Shows focus on preparedness
University of California Television (UCTV) and the California Preparedness Education Network (cal-PEN) have developed a four-part video series, "Disaster Preparedness for Health Professionals."
The programs help illustrate how anyone - from a single individual to a complex organization - can be better prepared for a future emergency. Each installment covers a different topic, including natural disasters, chemical and biological agents, pandemic influenza and other emerging infections, and disaster volunteerism.
The series, which started Oct. 5, highlights best practices for preparedness as determined by disaster response experts from throughout California. It can be viewed online at www.uctv.tv/disaster or as audio and video podcast downloads.
The Web site also features broadcast schedules, information about featured experts, and helpful disaster preparedness links and resources for California and the nation.
Food drive under way
Move For Hunger, a nonprofit organization that works with moving companies to pick up unwanted, unopened food during the moving process and deliver it to local food banks, is holding a food drive for Feeding America San Diego.
Collection boxes are at the La Jolla Family YMCA, 8355 Cliffridge Ave.
Residents and YMCA members are encouraged to donate all types of nonperishable food items. The most needed items are canned meat, canned fruits and vegetables, pasta, soup, cereal and nonfood items such as toothpaste and deodorant.
For more information about Move For Hunger, go to www.MoveForHunger.org or contact info@MoveForHunger.org.
SDJA senior named fellow
The Bronfman Youth Fellowship in Israel selected La Jolla Shores resident and San Diego Jewish Academy senior Daniel Penner as one of 26 North American high school students to be Bronfman Fellows.
The fellows participated in an intensive five-week program of study and travel in Israel designed to develop future community leaders committed to Jewish unity. Bronfman Youth Fellows were asked to devise and lead social actions projects upon returning home after the summer.
Two academic areas where Penner excels are writing and music. During his junior year, he assisted in the founding and administration of the SDJA Maimonides Arts Collective, an after-school program for upper school students that pools the talents and passions of arts educators in the fields of dance, music, theater, writing and visual arts. Penner is also the arts page editor for the Lion's Den, SDJA's student paper.
In addition, Penner is a member of the varsity tennis team, a tutor in math for high school students and a founding member of the Hand Up Food Pantry at the San Diego Jewish Family Service.
Funds sought for retreat
UCSD Medical Center has developed its first match challenge for gifts directed to the Bannister Family House on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to $250,000.
The house sits above Mission Valley on the medical center's Hillcrest campus and offers a retreat for families whose loved one is receiving care at the medical center.
It has been 15 years since any major renovations have been made, and with matched gifts, the Bannister Family House will be able to initiate much-needed home improvements, including a new roof, hygienic wood flooring, purchase of new bedding and furnishings, air conditioners and kitchen enhancements.
The goal is to reach $250,000 by June 30.
SIO teams up with schools
As part of a U.S. initiative to improve science education in public schools, graduate students and teachers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD and San Diego Unified School District are partnering to help translate cutting-edge earth science research into new education programs and curriculum for aspiring young scientists.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded Scripps Oceanography a five-year, $2.5 million grant to fund the new program - Scripps Classroom Connection - that pairs nine Scripps earth science graduate students with high school science teachers and their classes. The Scripps student fellows will provide hands-on science training in earth, ocean and environmental sciences.
The program also is aimed at improving communication skills of Scripps graduate students by giving them teaching experience in middle and high school classrooms.
Scholarships available
Coastwise Capital Group LLC announces the launch of its 2009-10 annual scholarship, the Coastwise Prize for Investing Excellence, which seeks to inspire financial education among today's youths.
The Coastwise Prize for Investing Excellence probes students to consider how to invest human and financial capital to succeed as defined by their own objectives.
Eligible applicants are sophomores, juniors and seniors attending La Jolla High School, La Jolla Country Day, SCY High, The Bishop's School or The Preuss School. Applicants are asked to submit a 1,000-word essay on the designated topic, which can be found on the scholarship Web site, www.coastwiseprize.com.
This year, more than $10,000 will be awarded to the winning writers. They will receive their monetary prize in the form of a 529 college fund used specifically for college expenses and will be invited to the Coastwise Prize Awards Ceremony in February.
Nguyen wraps up training
Air Force Airman Bianca T. Nguyen graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio.
She is the daughter of Holly Nguyen of La Jolla and a 2006 graduate of the University of San Diego High School.
Nguyen completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Jackson joins Burnham team
Michael R. Jackson, Ph.D., has been named to the newly created position of vice president for drug discovery and development at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
Jackson will oversee the chemical biology and drug discovery efforts of the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (CPCCG) at Burnham's La Jolla and Orlando, Fla., campuses. He will lead Burnham's efforts to identify drug candidates, developing promising chemical compounds into new medicines and creating partnerships for preclinical and clinical drug development.
Before joining Burnham, Jackson spent 15 years with Johnson & Johnson and established the company's PRD drug discovery research site in La Jolla, where he was most recently chief scientific officer.
Jackson received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Dundee in Scotland and completed his post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). He was a faculty member at TSRI before joining Johnson & Johnson.
UCSD adds arts Ph.D.
UCSD's Department of Visual Arts welcomes the inaugural class for the Ph.D. concentration in art practice, one of the first doctoral programs in the country designed for practicing artists.
Incoming students will have a wide range of resources on campus, including Departments of Music, Theater and Dance, CALIT2 (a center for new computing technology) and the extensive collections of the libraries. Grant Kester is chairman of the Visual Arts Department.
The art practice concentration is housed within the Ph.D. program in art history theory and criticism.
Like the other Ph.D. concentrations, art practice requires 2 1/2 to three years for course work and one to three years to complete the dissertation.
Mulligan on dean's list
Matthew Mulligan of La Jolla was named to the dean's list for the spring 2009 semester at Johns Hopkins University. To be selected for this honor, a student must earn a grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale with a minimum of 14 credit hours.
He is the son of Michael and Barbara Mulligan and attended La Jolla Country Day School.
Matthew Mulligan, who is majoring in economics, is expected to graduate in May 2011.
Research team wins award
A three-woman research team from Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Vista Community Clinic and San Diego State University is the recipient of the Faith Fancher Research Award.
Georgia Robins Sadler, Ph.D., MBA, clinical professor of surgery at the UCSD School of Medicine and an associate director of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, along with Natasha Riley of the Vista Community Clinic and Vanessa Malcarne of San Diego State University, share the award for their community collaborative project, Breast Cancer Clinical Trials Education Program. The overall goal of this project is to find ways to increase the participation of African-American and Latin American women in cancer research studies so that scientific advances will benefit them as well as others.
Local teacher on AP panel
Julie Zedalis, Advanced Placement (AP) biology teacher at The Bishop's School, was one of six high school teachers and six college professors named to assist the College Board and the National Science Foundation in redesigning the curriculum for AP biology.
She will chair the Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee. For two years and as an original member of the committee, Zedalis oversaw the implementation of the new program, including test development and professional development for teachers.
Zedalis will work directly under the guidance of Trevor Packer, vice
president of the College Board.
Houston named college provost
Alan Houston, a professor of political science and an internationally recognized scholar of early-modern British and American political thought, has been appointed provost of Eleanor Roosevelt College at UCSD.
Houston's prize-winning scholarly work uses archival research to establish new interpretations and advance scholarly methods in liberal, democratic and republican theory. He has written and edited four books.
Houston joined the UCSD faculty in 1989; before that, he taught at Columbia University and Harvard University. He received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and his master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Houston's wife, Barbara Edwards, works at CREATE on the UCSD campus. She is executive director of Math for America, a consortium of three local universities that works to increase the number and quality of mathematics teachers in public schools. They have two children, Kelsey, 19, and Ben, 15.
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