Sept./Oct. | 2009
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Pediatric NeuroRehabilitation Program gives to Pennies for Peace

The Pediatric NeuroRehabilitation Program participates in an outreach activity each summer as an opportunity for children receiving therapies to give to others in need. The summer 2009 activity was collecting pennies for Pennies for Peace. The children and staff raised $411.16 to help villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan provide educational support to its families.

Pennies for Peace is a program of Central Asia Institute, founded by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Founded in 1996, CAI has built nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,000 students.

The Pennies for Peace Program's goal is to encourage children, our future leaders, to understand how supporting education can contribute to a peaceful world.

AMA Foundation presents $10,000 scholarship to promising Medical School student

The American Medical Association Foundation awarded a Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship to Andrew Yew, a fourth year medical student at the UMMS. In total, ten medical students were awarded scholarships. Recipients were nominated by their medical schools and chosen by a selection committee based upon their academic standing and financial status, as well as community involvement, letters of recommendation and personal statement. Each student receives a $10,000 scholarship to help defray medical school expenses.

Yew is a leader in the United Asian American Medical Student Association, writing funding proposals, mentoring pre-medical students and promoting Asian American health issues through health fairs and lectures. He is also an active participant in the American Medical Student Association and organized health fairs that promoted awareness of glaucoma and provided free eye screening exams.  His research includes a retrospective analysis describing the natural history of clinically diagnosed pediatric arachnoid cysts.

Schaller selected for pulmonary research fellowship

Matthew Schaller, Ph.D., graduate program of Immunology, was selected as a Parker B. Francis Fellow. The PBF Fellowship Program is sponsored by the Francis Family Foundation in Kansas City, MO. 2009 fellows receive $156,000 over three-years.

"Having visited labs at other universities I can say that Michigan really is a cutting-edge place,” Schaller says. “There is a lot of good science going on here, much collaboration and a lot of new technology. If you are looking to work in a specific area, it’s likely someone here has the expertise to help you. Michigan really is a great place to do research."

In 1951, Parker B. Francis, founder of the Puritan-Bennett Company, established a foundation bearing his name in Kansas City, Mo. Since Puritan-Bennett was a leading manufacturer of respiratory equipment and medical gases, the primary emphasis of the Foundation was related to pulmonary research. Since 1976, the Foundation has contributed more than $50 million to the fellowship program in support of more than 750 fellows.

U-M Depression Center has new plaza honoring Noble

On July 31 the University of Michigan’s Depression Center’s new Noble Plaza was dedicated at the Rachel Upjohn Building. The Depression Center received a generous gift from The Donald and Alice Noble Foundation to landscape and furnish the plaza on the south side of the Upjohn Building, home of the Depression Center and Ambulatory Psychiatry Programs. In his honor, the University has named this outdoor space in memory of Richard Scott Noble who was a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy.

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