Three-day Spring Fair welcomes the public to Homewood campus

This week's upcoming Spring Fair marks the 34th consecutive year in which the Johns Hopkins community has shown off its fun-loving side with an array of carnival rides, inflatable games, entertainment, kids' activities, a photography contest, food and shopping designed for the entire community.

Special events this year include a concert by rapper Talib Kweli (7 p.m., Saturday, April 30, O'Connor Recreation Center); a comedy night featuring Ant from NBC's Last Comic Standing (8 p.m. on Friday, April 29, Shriver Hall); and Hopkins Happy Hour with the Julian Rosenberg Band and Quintus (5 to 8 p.m., Friday, April 29, in the Beer Garden).

Free parking and a shuttle bus are available at Johns Hopkins @ Eastern. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free; ticket prices and other information can be found at www.jhuspringfair.com/2005/2.php3.

 

Center for Summer Learning at JHU honors Denver program

The Summer Scholars program in Denver received the 2005 Summer Learning Award from the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins during the center's national conference held last week in Baltimore.

Over the past 11 years, Summer Scholars has provided summer literacy and recreation programs to more than 11,000 academically struggling students in northeast Denver. As a result of participating, 67 percent of students made gains in reading ability, with students in the early grades showing the greatest improvement. Parents reported a noticeable difference in their child's reading performance and an increase in the amount of time they spent reading with their child.

Building Educated Leaders for Life and Harlem RBI were the two other finalists for the award. BELL provides summertime academic and enrichment activities to struggling students in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland. Harlem RBI is a youth development organization offering a continuum of services, from summer learning to job training and college preparation.

"Making Summer Learning a Priority" was the theme of this year's Center for Summer Learning conference. Participants included summer program providers, researchers, youth development professionals, community-based organizations, policy-makers, teachers, school officials and informal educators.

The conference also featured workshops focusing on effective summer learning program models and strategies; federal, state and local policies to support summer learning; and research and evaluation of summer programs.

 

JHU doc is medical director for race through China desert

Doctors from Johns Hopkins and other institutions across the United States are now in China's Gobi Desert assisting some of the world's running elite in Gobi March 2005, one of the most spectacular races on the planet. The event began April 23 and continues through April 30. Brian Krabak, a sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Johns Hopkins, a veteran of Olympic medical teams and an avid adventure racer himself, was chosen as medical director of the endurance race, which covers 150 miles.

Krabak is working with Hopkins colleague Brandee L. Waite during the race, in which athletes run back-to-back marathons that cover a varied terrain of grassland, rocks, rivers, small mountains and sand dunes. Altitudes change from 154 miles below sea level to 2,000 miles above, and temperatures are expected to drop from 34° C to 0° C.

"We have to be prepared to handle everything from blistered feet, sprained ankles and torn ligaments to concussions and complex musculoskeletal injuries," Krabak said before his departure. "The race organizers made a big effort to put parallel roads during the course of the race so that the athletes can have immediate medical help should an emergency occur, which, of course, nobody wants."

Besides providing medical care, one of the biggest challenges for a physician, he said, is making the tough decision as to whether an injured athlete should continue to compete and risk further injury.

Krabak's daily reports and photographs of the race are posted on the Johns Hopkins International Web site at www.jhintl.net.

 

Some seats still available for talk by Keller of 'New York Times'

In a rare public speaking appearance, William Keller, executive editor of The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will give the Frank R. Kent Memorial Lecture in Journalism this week on the Homewood campus.

Keller's talk is titled "Does the Press Matter Anymore?" and is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, in Shriver Hall Auditorium. It is co-sponsored by the Office of the President and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Some seats are still available. To reserve a place, send an e-mail message to KellerEvent@jhu.edu.

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