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Cancer in Appalachia - A Collection of Youth Told Stories · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, and thank you for tuning in to Cancer Conversations
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  on Talking FACS, a podcast collaboration between the University of Kentucky
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  Markey Cancer Center and the UK Martin Gatton College of Agriculture,
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  Food, and Environment's Cooperative Extension Service.
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  We will share with you the latest developments in cancer prevention,
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  diagnosis, treatment, and research from the experts at Markey Cancer Center,
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  Kentucky's only National Cancer Institute Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
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  Talking FACS is hosted by the UK Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Extension Director for Family and Consumer Sciences.
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  Today, I'm pleased to be be joined by Dr. Nathan Vanderford, the Director of
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  the ACTION, or Appalachian Career Training in Oncology program at the University
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  of Kentucky. Welcome, Nathan.
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  It's great to be here. So Nathan, in addition to having you join us today on
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  the podcast, you have brought a roundtable team to join us today.
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  And I would like to kick off with providing each individual the opportunity
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  to introduce themselves and we will start with Holly.
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  Hi, I'm Holly Burke and I'm the program coordinator of the ACTION Program.
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  Thank you, Holly. We're also thrilled to be joined by two University of Kentucky
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  students today. Next, we have Abigail.
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  Hi, my name is Abby Knoy. I'm a senior neuroscience major with Appalachian
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  Studies and Pharmacology Minor and I'm from I'm Green County, Kentucky.
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  And we are also pleased to be joined by Kaylee today.
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  Hi, I'm Caylee Caudill. I'm an Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology major with
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  an Appalachian Studies minor and I'm a freshman.
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  Wonderful. Well, welcome all and thank you again for joining us.
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  Today, we're going to talk in general about cancer in Kentucky,
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  learn more about the ACTION Program at UK, but then also focus on a new book
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  that has just been released titled Cancer in Appalachia, a Collection of Youth-told Stories.
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  But Nathan, I first want to start with you, and can you provide us an overview of cancer in Kentucky?
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  Absolutely. Just very briefly, Kentucky has a major cancer problem.
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  Kentucky ranks first in the nation in overall incidence and mortality rates,
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  so no other state in the U.S.
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  Has a cancer problem that's worse than ours. So that's bad.
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  And then what's worse is that the rates of cancer are significantly higher in Eastern Kentucky.
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  So the 54 counties in Eastern Kentucky that are in the Appalachian region have
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  very high cancer rates, incidence and mortality rates.
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  And those are driven by a number of different things, including health behaviors,
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  poor health behaviors, and inequities and social determinants of health,
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  like poverty, education, access to care, and those kinds of things.
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  Thank you. Now I want to transition into the ACTION program.
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  And we've had the opportunity to talk about this program on our podcast before.
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  And I think it's such a unique opportunity that is available at the University of Kentucky.
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  So Holly, again, ACTION stands for Appalachian Career Training in Oncology Program.
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  Can you explain to our listeners a little bit more about the program?
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  Sure. So we have two parts of our program. We have the Undergraduate Action Program,
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  which serves our students at the University of Kentucky who are hopefully going
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  to be going into the medical field, specifically doing cancer research.
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  So our program helps those students get involved in cancer research labs,
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  and then we provide them with a lot of different outreach opportunities,
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  like the book we're going to be talking about today.
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  And then we have a high school program. In the high school program,
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  we are targeting students from the Appalachian regions of Kentucky and training
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  those students up and teaching them about the medical field.
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  So, our students get access to a summer program where they get to live on campus
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  and participate in those cancer research labs as well.
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  So, Abigail and Kaylee, both of you all have had the opportunity to participate in the ACTION program.
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  Let's first start with Abby. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with ACTION?
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  Yes. So it's a two-year program. So I'm going into my second year now.
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  I'll graduate and then be out of the program from that way.
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  But when I came to college, it was right in the middle of COVID.
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  So I didn't have a lot of in-person opportunities to meet that many people,
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  to have a mentor and stuff like that.
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  So when I heard about the Action Program, I was most excited for the community
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  that would come along with it.
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  I knew that there was going to be students that had like-minded interest in cancer like I did.
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  And then also great mentors came along with that as well. And so that's what really recruited me.
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  And Kaylee, I'm going to give you the same question. Can you tell us a little
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  bit about your experience with ACTION?
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  I was actually part of the two-year high school program. And then now I'm in
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  the undergraduate program.
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  And for me, I think it was one of the biggest opportunities I got in high school.
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  And it just fell in my lap randomly. and I decided to apply.
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  But through the high school program, I've just met so many people that I'm still
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  friends with after like five years almost now.
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  And we go to college here and we have all these wonderful opportunities like
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  getting chances to work in the research labs and meet new people.
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  And it's just been a great experience.
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  So a question back to Nathan and Holly.
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  Can you share how often do we see the transition from a student going from the
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  high school program to the undergraduate program?
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  The second cohort that Caylee was in, I think we had the most students in the
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  high school program come to UK and join the actual program.
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  Our third cohort right now, we have quite a few students who have applied to
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  UK and And being on campus during the summer really helps them decide where
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  they want to go to school.
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  A lot of students decide to come to UK because they've got this experience.
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  It's interesting because we, or at least me, I didn't design the program to
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  be sort of a recruitment tool for, you know, students coming to UK.
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  But I do think that students come here and they realize what outstanding opportunities
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  are here at UK versus other institutions. And I tell students all the time,
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  you know, all the other institutions that they could possibly go to are outstanding.
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  But here they have such an amazing opportunity to get a great education while
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  also participating in world-class research and shadowing and all these things
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  all on one campus that they may not have an opportunity to do in other places.
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  I think that's a really neat continuum of experience to be able to transition
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  from the high school program to the undergraduate program.
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  And certainly one of those things that we want to focus on is an outcome of
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  that program is the new book that has just been released.
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  And again, that's Cancer in Appalachia, a collection of youth told stories.
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  And Abby and Caylee are both authors in the new book. So we will start with Abby.
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  Can you tell us about your contribution to the book?
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  Yes. So we were told that we were going to write a book. I was really excited.
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  And then Dr. Vanderford was like, we're going to do fiction this time.
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  And I was like, oh, no, I'm not creative.
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  I'm a STEM major. And so it took a lot of work for me to figure out how to do this type of thing.
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  I'm used to writing the research papers and having the facts all presented. in it.
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  And so one day I started writing a poem just randomly because I was trying to form a fictional story.
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  It was really hard for me, but I sat down and wrote it and then ended up like
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  finishing the whole thing and sent it to them and they read it and was like, actually, this is good.
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  And I was like, oh, wow.
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  Okay. And so we went from there. It was definitely a really unique unique experience
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  and also really needed because it kind of showed me how I can be creative in a way as well.
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  It's excellent that you can recognize that growth in yourself of being stretched
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  to try something new and different and being able to succeed.
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  Kaylee, can you tell us a little bit about your contribution?
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  Yeah, I was kind of in the same boat a little bit.
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  I'm really used to writing like argumentative writing or
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  informative writing but not so much fiction so when I started I was like kind
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  of nervous but at a certain point you just gotta make yourself like write words
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  on a page even if it sounds horrible so by the end of writing the book it actually
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  was pretty good and my main goal with it was just to make it shocking and I
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  think I've achieved that goal so.
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  Well, I am certain that it's probably more than pretty good because I have had
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  the opportunity to read previous releases of the book.
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  So as we mentioned, this is the third book that has been released through the Action Program.
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  And so I look forward to having that opportunity.
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  If one of our listeners would be interested in attaining a copy of the book, how can it be located?
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  In two ways that I can think of off the top of my head. So our publisher,
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  Butler Books, if folks just Google Butler Books, it's available from their website
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  or it's also available on Amazon.
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  So if you go to Amazon and you could search the title of the book or my name
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  and it would come up that way.
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  We are also having a book event in Ashland, Kentucky at the Highlands Museum, April 13th from 1 to 4.
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  Students will be there reading sections of their stories and poems,
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  and we'll be handing out copies there as well. Yeah. Open to the public.
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  For free. We'll bring copies and we'll distribute free copies there if people come and want a copy.
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  That is very exciting. So for our listeners, we will put the details in the show notes.
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  So if you're interested in following up for more information,
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  in addition to including links about the action program and contacts,
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  tax, if that's something that a student may be interested in following up on.
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  Nathan, Holly, Abby, and Caylee, thank you so much for joining us today and
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  sharing more about the ACTION Program and the exciting news about the release of the new book.
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  Absolutely. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you all.
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  Thank you for listening to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  Our goal is to connect you with the latest advances in cancer research in the Commonwealth.
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  If you enjoyed today's podcast and have a suggestion for a future show topic,
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  please message us on the UK Markey Cancer Center Facebook page at facebook.com
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  forward slash UK Markey or visit our website at markey.uky.edu for more information.
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  You can find University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension programs
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  at your local extension office or online at fcs.uky.edu.
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  Building strong families. Building Kentucky. It starts with us.
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  Music.