U. program plays part on TV show

Kids are crusading to clear the air of second-hand smoke -- and the University is helping them. Last Sunday night, Nickelodeon's children's news program Nick News featured the University's Turner Middle School Program in a special segment on second-hand smoke. The University's Turner Middle School Program is a component of a federal grant awarded to the University in 1992 by the National Cancer Institute. This three-year, $300,000 grant funds an Urban Intergenerational Outreach Education Program, according to School of Social Work Assistant Professor Jane Lowe, the grant's principal investigator. The program is a collaborative effort among three University schools -- the Schools of Social Work, Nursing and Medicine -- which teach Turner Middle School students about cancer prevention. The six-minute Nick News piece focused on how the program teaches children to talk to adults about second-hand smoke in a respectful, yet effective, manner. The story opened with an introduction by the show's host, former NBC anchorwoman Linda Ellerbee, and cut to clips of Turner seventh-graders role-playing with Assistant Nursing Professor Frieda Outlaw in preparation for approaching adults about second-hand smoke. The piece highlighted an emotional confrontation between Turner student Eric Cornitcher and his cigarette-smoking grandfather. Following an open discussion in which Cornitcher expressed how much second-hand smoke bothered him, his grandfather proclaimed that he would try to stop smoking for Cornitcher's sake. Nickelodeon Story Editor Anne-Marie Cunniffe said "the strong focus on the empowerment angle of education" impressed the Nick News staff. "Nick News tries to make empowerment stories a big part of our agenda in a way that is not preachy," she said. "The NCI grant is part of a large scale effort to take state of the art information about cancer prevention from Penn's comprehensive Cancer Center and translate it into the community," said Nursing School Project Director Fran Barg. The urban outreach program is a multi-phased plan to develop a community based model for cancer prevention and detection, said Barg. In the first phase of the program, University faculty and students conducted surveys gauging West Philadelphia residents' health practices and beliefs. The group also designed curricular programs to educate community members of all ages. Two years into the grant, the University has successfully implemented educational programming at Turner Middle School and numerous community centers. The Nick News piece also showcased an animated video, called "Smoking on the Hush Hush Tip," that the Turner students produced last year. The video about peer pressure and smoking was produced with the help of professional artists from Prints in Progress. Complementing the University's health educators, Prints in Progress used "visual arts as a catalyst for the students' learning," said Prints' 1994-95 Program Director Jay Lamancuso. "The program is an extraordinary example of the progress possible when faculty and students collaborate across disciplines and when the University establishes relationships with West Philadelphia public schools in a mutually beneficial way," Center for Community Partnerships Director Ira Harkavy said.