UCSD will focus on border health issues
The U.S. Office of Minority Health (OMH) and the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools recently awarded a grant that will support four six-month training internships for qualified Hispanic students to the Division of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), 9500 Gilman Drive.
“They issued a call for proposals that would focus on border health and training,” said Steffanie Strathdee, professor and Harold Simon Chair Chief for the division at UCSD. “We have already developed some training programs and knew that we would be able to provide these students with an education focusing on HIV at the border as well as other related health problems like STDs.”
Each of the students selected with be teamed up with a mentor, receive a stipend of $1,600 and have the opportunity to train with researchers who have renowned expertise in these areas.
“One of the things that we have started seeing is that HIV, in particular, as well as tuberculosis and other diseases, are really very high and moving in the wrong direction in the border region,” Strathdee said. “What we are trying to do is train the next generation of researchers to respond to that need, and that would include Hispanic researchers, because they have an understanding of the cultural realities.”
For more information, see www.ucsd.edu.

Elementary schools study Gaslamp history
Downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation has been given a “Save Our History” grant from the History Channel. With $10,000, a project called “Building on History: A Child’s View of the Architecture of the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego” will take flight.
The Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation is one of only 27 history organizations that received these community preservation grants.
This money goes toward funding education projects that aim to bring communities together, engage children in the preservation of their local history and convey the importance of preserving this history for the future.
The historical foundation will partner with the San Diego School District so that all students in grades two through five can study the Gaslamp Quarter. Through in-depth tours, site visits, research and in-class activities, students will be introduced to concepts such as architectural creativity and its relationship to historical eras.
Students will then design models of significant buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter that will be on display at the William Heath Davis House, 410 Island Ave., in the Gaslamp Quarter.
For more information, visit www.saveourhistory.com.