High Achiever: Christina To teaches children
at St. Vincent School about the dangers of too
much sun as part of Health for Life, a program
she created especially for Latino students.
Photo credit: Phil Channing
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Sun Out? Then Slip, Slap, Slop and Wrap!
Student creates skin-cancer education program for Latino children
By Kirsten Holguin
USC student volunteers Heather Massie and Chris Ellstrom stood in front
of Mr. Fernandez’s third grade class at St. Vincent School and asked
the students to list five things they did over spring break.
Some of the students went to the park, some barbecued with their families and everybody went to the fair.
Then Massie and Ellstrom asked students to list five ways they protected themselves from the sun.
The students shouted out answers: One girl wore a hat, one boy kept his
shirt on even though it was really hot, another girl put on sunscreen.
Still, a few admitted they went out without a hat, a shirt, sunglasses
or sunscreen.
For several weeks, the third graders had been learning about how the
sun’s rays can damage the skin through Health for Life, a new community
outreach effort of the Melanoma Education Program for Latino Children.
Health for Life’s message is urgent and critical: The number of
Hispanics in California diagnosed with melanoma is on the rise,
researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC reported earlier
this year. Myles Cockburn, the study’s lead author and assistant
professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School, recommended
getting the word out about the importance of skin cancer check-ups and
routine screenings, as well as sun avoidance, to the Hispanic
communities.
That inspired USC College student Christina To to create Health for
Life, which she designed to teach children at local elementary schools
about prevention and early detection of melanoma, a potentially deadly
form of skin cancer.
“I had been volunteering at this elementary school through JEP [the
College’s Joint Educational Project] for about two years and I have
also been doing research on the initial stages of skin cancer,” said
To, a chemistry major and sociology minor. “I thought it would be a
great opportunity to tie my research together with my volunteer work,
and I really wanted to do what the article recommended, which was to
educate the population.”
She took her idea to the assistant principal at St. Vincent School,
Cathy Logan, who gave her the green light to start the program at the
school.
To recruit volunteers, To sent out an e-mail to the pre-med listserv at
USC explaining the program. She trained student volunteers and
coordinated schedules for the volunteers and classroom teachers.
Based on resources from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, she created a curriculum focused on prevention and
detection.
Although melanoma is fairly rare among Hispanics, the Keck study showed
its incidence is growing at an alarming rate. Yet preventing melanoma,
children learn, can be as easy as “slip, slap, slop and wrap” — slip on
a shirt, slap on a hat, slop on sunscreen and wrap on sunglasses.
Melanoma has a high survival rate when caught early. To detect skin
cancer, students learned to check their skin and moles, looking at
asymmetry, border, color and diameter — the A, B, C, D’s of skin cancer
detection.
To said that while students are not always following the guidelines
taught in class, they are becoming aware of how and why it is important
to protect their skin from the sun.
“I hope these students go home and talk to their parents and brothers
and sisters. This program will impact their lives and the people around
them in the future,” she said.
In her four years at USC College, To has earned a number of accolades,
among them the $10,000 Renaissance Scholars Prize, the Emma Josephine
Bradley Bovard Award and the Order of Laurel & Palm, the highest
honor bestowed on graduating seniors.
She maintained a 4.0 GPA in the Baccalaureate/M.D. program. She also
received a USC Women in Science and Engineering research grant for her
project on how the sun’s ultraviolet rays damage DNA. Damaged DNA can
ultimately lead to cancer, and, when it occurs in skin cells, to
melanoma and other skin cancers.
To, who begins medical school at UCLA this fall, will continue to work
with JEP and the College to expand Health for Life to all schools
served by JEP, and address more health issues.
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