Spring Break
Health Services supplies spring breakers with tips for safe trips
Betsy Cohen
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: News
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The URI Health Services event promoted ways to remain safe while on Spring Break.
"You guys can grab a fish and learn about [sexually transmitted diseases]," Erica Hobson, a third-year pharmacy student said to student onlookers at her informational booth.
"You're supposed to pick one and see which STD you get when you 'hook up,'" Rebecca Melesciuc, also a third-year pharmacy major, said.
For the past two to three weeks, Hobson and Melescuic worked together to research Trichomoniasis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Syphilis, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and genital crabs.
"We're hoping to get people to think about safety before their Spring Break," Melesciuc said. "Hopefully, they'll make good decisions."
As students in URI associate professor Brett Feret's service learning class, Hobson and Melescuic teamed up with Nurse Laurie Johnson from URI Health Education to do this project. This is the second group project students of Feret's class have worked on. The Campaign for Real Bodies was the first project the students directed.
Sophomore Kristen D'Entremonte, representing the Future Health Professionals club, set up a device so students could view facial skin damage caused by UV ray exposure from the sun.
Students wanting to view their own facial sun damage were instructed to duck under a covered machine and peer into a mirror. Inside, a light allowed students to view the concentrations of skin damage invisible to the naked eye.
Erica Manganelli, a sophomore majoring in international business and Spanish, decided to take a look in the mirror.
"I have so much skin damage!" Manganelli said. "I've always worn SPF 50."
She was so shocked at the damage below the surface of her face that she decided to double check and ducked back down behind the covered machine.
