Return to Main Menu

Summer enrichment program ‘Building Healthy Community’ by Priyal Gadani College of Nursing The Gamma Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., along with Second Presbyterian Church, Circular Congregational Church, and MUSC College of Nursing REACH 2010, is sponsoring a summer enrichment program for students in grades 4 - 8, especially those living in the Enterprise Community Neighborhoods.  The focus of the program is Building a Healthy Community: Metabolic Syndrome (Hypertension, High Cholesterol, Diabetes, and Overweight).  Students participate in activities such as creative writing, creative arts, computer lab, nutrition, and exercise, and have gone on field trips to learn about healthy lifestyles.  On the first field trip, the students visited the College of Nursing, where Leonard Egede, M.D., Sabra Slaughter, Ph.D., and Carolyn Jenkins, Dr.P.H., spoke to them about metabolic syndrome and tests that can be performed to diagnose the illnesses associated with this syndrome.  Sterrett Hall, on the North Charleston Naval Base, was the location for the second field trip, where the students participated in and learned about the importance of physical activity for preventing and controlling metabolic syndrome.  For the third field trip, students visited Leland Farms on John’s Island where Daisy Leland, a former Ashley Hall schoolteacher and principal, spoke to them about healthy eating and the nutritional value of eating various fruits and vegetables.  The last field trip was at MUSC's College of Medicine, where the students watched as George Tempel, Ph.D., dissected pig hearts in his physiology lab.  Tempel also spoke to the students about how metabolic syndrome affects the body and what they can do to prevent complications from diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity.  On Friday, July 5, the students will have a culminating awards ceremony at the AKA Parenting Center where they will highlight what they have learned about metabolic syndrome from the program. The goal of the program is to teach students about metabolic syndrome with the intent that they will go home and teach their parents what they have learned about these debilitating diseases. South Carolina has one of the highest prevalences of diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the African American population.  This program is one step in helping to build healthy communities in Charleston and Georgetown counties.