JHU joins plan for parents to lock in future tuition costs

Johns Hopkins has joined Tuition Plan Consortium's Independent 529 Plan, which allows parents to lock in tuition rates at less than present levels for their children's future use. It is one of 257 institutions now participating.

The plan was launched in 2003 in a cooperative effort by a national group of private colleges and universities to help families manage the rising cost of higher education. Under the program, individuals can purchase tuition certificates for future redemption at participating institutions. At Hopkins, purchasers will be eligible to use the certificates for their children who are admitted to and enroll as full-time undergraduates in the Krieger or Whiting school.

Ellen Frishberg, director of student financial services at Johns Hopkins, said, "I-529 is an excellent tool for families who know they want a private college or university education for their kids. We are very pleased that those families will now have the opportunity to save tax-free for a future Johns Hopkins education."

Among the other members are Amherst, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Smith and Emory. For more information, go to www.independent529plan.org.

 

NIH grant to ICE professor will fund new wound healing center

Gregg L. Semenza, a professor of vascular cell engineering in the Institute for Cell Engineering, has been awarded an NIH grant for a new wound healing center.

The grant is part of a new initiative of the National Institutes of Health to bring together experts from many fields including microbiologists, engineers, cell biologists, dermatologists and other physicians to integrate current knowledge about how wounds heal and generate new strategies to improve treatment.

Semenza's group will study how endothelial progenitor cells can speed healing and reduce scarring in burn wounds. The cells are produced in bone marrow and are essential to rebuilding blood vessels, which are needed to repair injured tissues. The research team will test ways to promote natural healing by turning on a specific set of genes that recruit endothelial progenitor cells to the wound site.

 

International Reporting Project Fellows begin studies at SAIS

Eight U.S. journalists have been awarded International Reporting Project Fellowships at SAIS for the fall 2006 program, which combines eight weeks of study in Washington, D.C., and five weeks of individual overseas reporting.

The fellowships, aimed at encouraging coverage of international issues by the U.S. news media, begin this week at SAIS. The journalists will focus on stories in China, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and the Republic of Congo.

One fellow, Nazanin Rafsanjani, a New York-based public radio journalist, will receive an additional five weeks of training with National Public Radio as the NPR-Bucksbaum International Fellow. During her NPR training, she will produce a project for one of NPR's newsmagazines.

Two of the fellows, Jennifer Dunn of KTUH-FM in Honolulu and Matthew Ozug of Sound Portraits Productions in New York, are focusing on international health issues, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dunn will focus on China and Ozug on Cambodia.

 

Nominees sought for MLK Jr. Award for Community Service

Nominations are now being accepted for the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service, which recognizes outstanding commitment to volunteer community service in 2006. Faculty, staff, employees, graduate students and retirees of the university and the medical institutions are eligible.

Recipients will be honored at the annual Johns Hopkins Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be held in January on the East Baltimore campus, and will receive an engraved award, certificate of recognition, one paid day off and $200 donated to the nonprofit charity of their choice.

To submit a nomination, go to hrnt.jhu.edu/mlk. For more information, go to www.jhu.edu/outreach/mlk or contact Matt Smith in the Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs at 410-516-6060.

 

JHU graduate student is first NCIS forensic nurse

Shadonna Hawkins, a master's student in the School of Nursing's Forensic Nursing Specialist Program, became the first nurse, as part of a summer internship, to join the U.S. Navy's nationally recognized Naval Criminal Investigative Service and was recently asked to continue her tenure with the unit until she completes her degree in December. Hawkins is assigned to the elite NCIS Death Investigations Unit.

 

Terrorism expert Brian Jenkins to speak today at SAIS

Brian Jenkins, one of the world's leading authorities on terrorism, will speak at SAIS at 5:30 p.m. today, Sept. 11, in the Rome Building auditorium.

Jenkins, a senior adviser to RAND, will discuss "Where Are We in the War on Terror?" at this forum hosted by the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS. He recently published a book titled Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves.

John McLaughlin, Merrill Center senior fellow and former acting director of the CIA, will moderate the discussion.

Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP to cmata@jhu.edu or 202-663-5831.

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