Special Seminar this Friday

Special ITEHP Seminar this Friday, June 6th with Christina Bear

 

CMBear
Christina Bear

Richard Di Giulio and the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program will be hosting a seminar on Friday, June 6th from 12-1PM in LSRC A158. The guest speaker will be Christina Bear, a high school student from Golden, Colorado. Christina and her brother, Eric, initiated The Radon Awareness Project (RAP) in 2010 to educate the citizens of Colorado on radon, a radioactive gas that comes from uranium decay in soil. Colorado has unusually high levels of radon. Marching from city councils to county health departments and all the way to the State Capitol, the children helped initiate public policy to increase radon awareness. They developed a rap song, appeared in local newspapers, Time for Kids publication and their local television news. In 2011, they presented at the National Radon Conference and International Radon Symposium in Orlando, FL. Christina and her brother won the President’s Environmental Youth Award in 2012, which led them to speak at a breakout session at The White House Summit on Environmental Education.

Christina joins us to present her model of outreach from a youth perspective on radon gas. She will tell us how youth can provide environmental education for their local communities. A recent CDC webinar on the methods of radon outreach shows that several states are working hard on methods of outreach similar to the RAP.  Collaboration is vital to public education of environmental health hazards, such as radon. Adults and children alike can be empowered with knowledge to promote healthy populations.

Christina is dedicated to her community in other ways, including educational support of orphans from South Sudan and conducting a STEM introduction course for low-income minority third graders this summer. She runs cross country for her school’s varsity team and has a keen interest in computing and technology.

We hope you will join us for this special summer seminar! Any questions can be directed to Richard Di Giulio or Savannah Volkoff. If you would like to meet with Christina on Friday before or after her presentation, please contact savannah.volkoff@duke.edu