Summer’s here, and the reading’s easy. So stash the dry textbooks, research tomes and heavier literary works that pile up on the nightstand during the academic year. The latest by David Sedaris? Got it right here with the sunscreen. No. 17 in Janet Evanovich’s epic Stephanie Plum series? It’s in the beach bag. (Hey, don’t […]
When four members of the UC Irvine student chapter of Engineers Without Borders headed to Endana, Kenya, last August to see how they could best help the rural community, it proved to be a real-life pass/fail test in leadership. “We didn’t know what we were getting into,” recalls Morgan Bailey, EWB chapter president and a doctoral candidate […]
It’s called emancipation, but for youths in foster care, being released from the child welfare system at age 18 often feels more like abandonment. Without financial resources or emotional support, many struggle to survive. They often wind up homeless or in prison, according to the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. In California, only 54 percent of foster youths […]
Charles Jock uses a simple strategy for running an 800-meter race — start fast and make his competitors chase him. If they can catch up, fine. “Then they deserve to win,” says the junior UC Irvine track star. “But if they do, they’ll experience some pain.” Fortunately for Jock, few people can catch him in his signature […]
Hindsight, unlike many people’s vision, is always 20/20. Laser eye surgery has become so common, it’s easy to forget that just three decades ago a promising new treatment was greeted with skepticism and even fear. “When the ultrashort pulse laser came along, we were excited that it was a more controlled, delicate way of cutting […]
During last month’s spring break, as most college students recovered from finals by lounging in the sun, 14 UC Irvine undergraduates toiled under it at the La Jolla Indian Reservation, in northern San Diego County. They helped the Luiseno tribe plant a community garden, haul trash and pick California white sage for an upcoming Earth […]
UC Irvine psychologist Karen Rook can trace her interest in how loneliness affects the elderly to her childhood, when she saw a much-loved, once-robust grandmother decline markedly after losing her husband. Unable to manage the family farm on her own, her grandmother moved into an apartment. After breaking her hip in a fall, she ended […]
Lourdes Medina had a common problem: relentless back pain and sciatica caused by a herniated disk and an unstable spine. The solution, however, was anything but common. At UC Irvine Medical Center, she underwent the first robot-assisted spinal surgery on the West Coast. Within a day of her March 15 operation, the 32-year-old Los Angeles woman was […]
When she enrolled in UC Irvine’s School of Law, Susan Lewis figured she’d someday become an attorney at a private firm. Then she signed on for the kind of hands-on, pro bono work the law school endorses as part of its commitment to public service, and her career plans changed. Lewis joined the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, […]
When Kristina Smith, a top-ranked tennis recruit from Dana Hills High School, announced in fall 2008 that she would attend UC Irvine, her decision didn’t just please the university’s coaching staff. It was cheered by a large cadre of her relatives. By enrolling in the class of 2013, Smith became the youngest member of an […]