Educational Partnerships

YMCA Summer Youth Camps

BE A SUN-SAFE KID!

OTS joined with the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis in a first-ever sun safety program for children involved in YMCA summer youth camps. More than 6,000 kids ages three to 16 learned about sun safety and the importance of skin protection. OTS created the curriculum for diverse age groups and helped instruct 500 YMCA camp counselors (most were of college age) who taught sun safety to campers. OTS and the YMCA are helping put kids on the road to life-long, sun-safe practices. This program was created to become a national model in youth education.

  Camper showing his "Sun-Safe Kid" certificate.

Indiana University School of Medicine

In a joint program with the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), which educates the second largest medical student body in the U.S., OTS funds a program to enhance the dermatologic training that all IUSM medical students receive. The program consists of a combination of online, clinical, and classroom instruction during each of the students’ four years of medical school. The goal is to ensure that all IUSM graduates, regardless of their specialty, are trained in detecting skin cancer (the number one cancer in the United States.)

Currently medical school students throughout the country receive minimal dermatologic training unless they choose a dermatology specialty. Program funds are provided through the Outrun the Sun, Inc. William Paul Peterson Education Fund, a donor-designated fund.   Once completed in its entirety, this program could become a national teaching model.

Purdue University

In association with the Purdue University Department of Communication, OTS works with students who target three groups for sun safety education: Purdue athletes, female students and male students. Each group’s program raises awareness of skin cancer and melanoma within one of these target groups and encourages sun safe practices among them. This program is particularly important as melanoma is the most common cancer in people ages 20-29.

Salon Stylist Training

Incidence of head and neck melanoma is on the rise. Keeping this in mind, Outrun the Sun is teaching hair salon stylists how to recognize potentially suspicious lesions on their clients’ scalps. While this program is not intended to replace a dermatologic screening, it provides another set of eyes on an area of the body often missed during self skin exams. Salon stylists are instructed to alert their clients if they spot potentially dangerous areas on the scalp.

Former Outrun the Sun Sponsored Programs

• Clarian. Health Partners, Indianapolis, IN: Play it Safe in the Sun: This interactive program was offered during day camps and after-school sessions and focused on the development of skin protection habits. (Target group: grades K-6)
• Burris Laboratory School, Muncie, IN: The Science Behind Melanoma: Focusing on high school students, the program involved science curriculum, which explored the statistics and facts of melanoma in biology, chemistry, and physics. Based on classroom studies, one group produced its own sunscreen.