Page A7
August 3, 2005
Diverse Students Explore Medicine at OHSU
Program gives
youth new
opportunities
Angel Ajtum-Sanchez slowly, carefully
injects green fluorescent protein into ze
bra fish embryos in the David Ransom Lab
at Oregon Health & Science University.
Later he examines the embryos under a
microscope to see if the em bryos' devel
opment has been affected.
Ajtum-Sanchez, 18, looks like a typical
teenager: short with spiked, black hair,
thin, jeans, sweatshirt and running shoes.
But two years ago, he couldn’t speak
Engl ish. And he had never looked through
a microscope.
Ajtum-Sanchez came to this country
two years ago from Guatemala. His father,
Daniel Ajtum, a farm worker, wanted his
son to be educated in the United States.
Ajtum Sanchez was sent to live with his
cousins in north Portland. He will be se
nior at Roosevelt High School this fall.
He learned about different opportuni
ties for high schoolers during an OHSU
educational tour last school year. He also
met Pam Racansky, M.A., program coordi
nator for the Center for Diversity and
Multicultural Affairs that day. Ajtum-
Sanchez applied to be part of the OHSU
CURL
Project, a joint program of the OHSU
Cancer Institute and CeDMA. He and
seven other diverse and academically
successful students were accepted. They
will be working in OHSU labs through
Student Angel Ajtum-Sanchez (striped shirt, center) poses with his summer classmates learning about health careers
at Oregon Health and Science University.
Aug. 19. The students are paid, which
helps Ajtum-Sanchez because he has to
support himself.
“ I am so excited to work in this lab. It is
so wonderful. I am also so excited to be
working with my peers because they help
me so much. They are magnificent people.
1 am glad and proud to part of the CURE
project. I am learning a lot about cloning
RN AandDNA. My dad is so proud of me.
He said he didn't know how I would do
here. Now he says I am doing a great job.
One thing that helped me so much has
been my desire to study.”
Allstate Names Latest Local Representative
W endy Lee-K ano is am ong an
elite group o f A llstate insurance
agents who recently earned the
"Personal Financial Representa
tive" title. Lee-Kanno will now be
able to offer her custom ers vari
able annuity and variable life and
mutual fund products, in addi
tion to auto, hom eow ner and tra
ditional life insurance products.
L ee-K ano received the Per
sonal Financial Representative
title after passing the NASD Se-
Wendy Lee-Kano
ries 6 and Series 63 securities
license exam s and com pleting an
extensive A llstate training cu r
riculum . She is appointed with
the r e g is te re d b r o k e r - d e a le r
A llstate Financial Services, LLC.
"Planning for the future is just
as im portant as protecting your
self against a loss, which insur
ance is designed to do,” Lee-
Kanno said.
To reach Lee-K ano, call 503-
620-1616.
“We have a lot of hard-working stu
dents that we come in contact w ith during
the year. But we noticed that Angel has
this presence about him from the first time
we met him. H e'sal ways sincerely inter
ested and always desires to learn more to
further his career interests. Besides be
ing one o f the nicest people I know,
Angel is one of the most hard working
and dedicated. I know he is going to be
successful in his life and career and bring
that experience and knowledge back to
his com m unity,” Racansky said.
Ajtum-Sanchez wants to becom e a
physician to help people suffering from
disease here and in his native country.
Like a lot o f teens he wears different
colored elastic wristbands. The purple
one signifies Hope for Cancer: “ I hope
someday som eone will find a cure for
cancer because I know there are many
people who suffer from it.”
The black wristband he wears just be
cause he likes it, he said.
The CURE Project is a sum m er pro
gram designed to offer research experi
ence to a selected group of Oregon high
school juniors from socially and eco
nom ically disadvantaged populations
from the Portland-metropolitan area. The
long-term goal o f this program is to in
crease participation of underserved and
minority students in biomedical research
and other health-related programs. Stu
dents will work in research laboratories
under the guidance o f an OHSU scien
tists conducting cancer research for a
minimum o f eight weeks. They are ex
pected to create two formal reports, one
on their mentors work and another on
their own research.
In addition to their own lab work, stu
dents will attend weekly seminars on a
range of scientific and ethical issues in
various areas of biomedical research.
There are about 150 students in vari
ous programs or just working with an
OHSU mentor.
Minority Ph.D Support Shrinking
According to a new study by
the Woodrow Wilson National
F ellow ship F oundation, only
seven percent of Ph.D. recipients
in 2003 were black or Hispanic,
while nearly a third of all Ameri
cans in the age group typically
awarded the degrees were.
Diversity.com report s that study
suggests that increasing diversity
on faculties will become all the more
difficult because financial support
for minority students in Ph.D. pro
grams is shrinking.
“The Ph.D.’s who lead the way
of the world of thought and discov
eries are far more monochromatic
than the population, said Robert
Weisbuch, the foundations presi
dent.
Weisburch said roughly one in
four Americans are black or His
panic, but only one out of nine
earned a Ph.D.
“The fact remains that doctoral
programs have made significantly
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Benefiting
4 S p e c ia l O ly m p ic s
C elebrating O
regon ’ s
FO O D, BEVERAGE N
Portland City Grill
Harry & David
Pine Tavern
Hurley's
Stetson's House of Prime
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Mo's Restaurant
Tamástslikt's Kinship Café
less progress in diversifying than
have business and government,”
he said.
The report also noted another
problem. Too many black and His
panic stu d e n ts w ho do earn
Ph.D.’s tend to specialized in ar
eas like education. For example,
while blacks make up 6.6 percent
of all Americans awarded Ph. D.’s,
they make up 14 percent of all stu
dents who received Ph.D .’s in
education.
B est
M U S IC
$5
A d m ission
Bell Buoy of Seaside
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Bluefish Bistro
Huber's Restaurant
Portland Steak & Chophouse
Jackie's Ribs
Salty's on the Columbia
Lark's at Ashland Springs Hotel
S M a n y M o re lli
on 4
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Little Richard
*CT s
Saturday August 13
Columbia Distributing
John K a y & S tep p en w o lf
Sunday August 14
supports diversity
V io len t Femmes
Friday August 12
in the workplace
throughout the
Portland Community.
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