Planting a SEED

By Jo McCulty Chemistry Professor David Hart, left, discusses an experiment with high school student Bridgett Coleman, center, and postdoctoral fellow Angela Wells. Coleman, a student at South High School Urban Academy, spent the summer as a Project SEED participant. Project SEED, sponsored in part by the American Chemical Society, the Department of Chemistry and the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, offers high school students an opportunity to spend their summer conducting real experiments with scientists in a laboratory. Four participating students at Ohio State spent eight weeks in labs on campus and received stipends of $1,700.

U.S. surgeon general to speak at summer commencement

David Satcher, surgeon general of the United States and assistant secretary for health, will be the speaker at Ohio State's summer commencement exercises on Aug. 30.

Approximately 1,400 graduates will receive degrees during the ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Jerome Schottenstein Center. Satcher also will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from the University.

This is the first commencement to be held at the Schottenstein Center. Summer quarter ceremonies are usually held in St. John Arena, which is not air-conditioned and can be uncomfortable in late August. Scheduling conflicts at the arena have made it impossible to use the air-conditioned facility for previous summer ceremonies.

David Satcher, surgeon general of the United States and assistant secretary for health, will be the speaker at Ohio State's summer commencement exercises on Aug. 30.

This is not Satcher's first visit to Ohio State. He spoke to medical students and toured the OSU Medical Center's Women's Health Center in April 1999.

Satcher was sworn in as the 16th surgeon general of the United States on Feb. 13, 1998. His four-year term expires in February 2002. He is only the second person in history to simultaneously hold the positions of surgeon general and assistant secretary for health.

Satcher has been a champion of promoting healthy lifestyles. He has led the Department of Health's efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health, an initiative that was incorporated as one of the two major goals of Healthy People 2010, the nation's health agenda for the next 10 years. He also released Surgeon General reports on tobacco and health; women and smoking; mental health, which was followed by a supplement on children's mental health; suicide prevention; oral health; and youth violence prevention.

A native of Anniston, Ala., Satcher is a 1963 graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970.

The recipient of more than two dozen honorary degrees and distinguished honors, Satcher has been recognized for excellence by the National Medical Association, the American Medical Association and other medical and scientific academies. He also is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Physicians.

Satcher has taught at the Morehouse School of Medicine and at the University of California, Los Angeles. While at UCLA, he directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center for six years. He also served as president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville.

From 1993 to 1998, Satcher served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Funderburke gift establishes scholarships

Lawrence Funderburke, forward with the Sacramento Kings basketball team, has established a $100,000 scholarship endowment at Ohio State.

The endowment, coming from the Lawrence Funderburke Youth Organization Inc., will provide $50,000 in undergraduate scholarship support for disadvantaged youth from Columbus to attend the Fisher College of Business and $50,000 for those attending other Ohio State undergraduate programs.

Funderburke received his undergraduate degree in financial management from Fisher College.

About 25 potential recipients of the scholarship were on hand to watch July 31 as Funderburke presented an oversized check to Fisher College Dean Joseph A. Alutto. Before the presentation, the 9- to 13-year-olds had participated in a mini-college experience, including a chance to create a simple Web page, a lesson on the stock market and a mini-taste test. They also discussed career opportunities, including construction, architecture and engineering, as well as a diversity of options in business.

The campus experience reinforced the basic financial principles and personal career goals-setting lessons that the youngsters have been learning at a summer program that Funderburke leads at the Boys Club and Girls Club on Columbus' West Side.

The summer program,"Are you a positive one or a negative zero?" was developed by Funderburke to encourage children to think about investing in their own futures. Funderburke said he hoped that providing a taste of a college environment would encourage the pre-teens to set their sights on higher education.

"In an investment portfolio, you have to diversify to protect yourself against fluctuations in the market," Funderburke said."In the same way, you have to line up a few options in case one career goal doesn't work out."

Understanding this is especially important because so many of the children see sports or music as their only career options. Funderburke said he wants them to consider a college education as an investment that can open the door to other opportunities. He established the scholarship fund to help those students who might otherwise consider a college education to be out of reach.

"We are very pleased that Lawrence has taken this step and look forward to welcoming the students who accept his challenge when they are ready to come to Fisher College or other colleges at Ohio State," Alutto said.

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