“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;”>On Tuesday morning, Jarvis Brown said goodbye to his father at the St. Louis airport and set off to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado for five years.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>There were more tears than words exchanged between him and his father, said Brown, student body president at Gateway Institute of Technology High School last year.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Being in Colorado for just two hours, Brown said in a phone interview with
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The St. Louis American little nervous, but I’m really excited to do it.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Besides leading the student body at Gateway, Brown was also captain of the cross country track team, cadet colonel in the Air Force Junior ROTC program and vice commander of the drill team.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>However, when Brown arrived at Gateway, he was a completely different kid.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Freshman year was nothing,” he said. “I didn’t grow up until my sophomore year. I was the smallest in size and height. I lacked friends. It was a tough year.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The only school activity he was involved in freshman year was ROTC, and it wasn’t by choice.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I didn’t want to be there,” he said. “I had long braids, and I had to cut them up. I was frustrated the whole year.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His grandmother, a retired security guard at Gateway, saw how the program changed students. She told Brown that it was going to help him out. That’s the only reason he stuck with it, he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He had no friends in the ROTC program, he said. Most of the students from his middle school went to Soldan High School.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“None of my friends went to the same high school as me,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Thankfully, Chief Thomas Williams, the program’s head instructor, told him he had potential.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He said, ‘You could join the drill team and track – you are skinny, you can run,’” he said. “He pushed me into everything.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Once he joined activities, he made friends. And things started to fall into place.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At the end of his junior year, he decided to enter the race for student council president, even though the race was well underway.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I decided to run because I didn’t think the candidates running were good enough to run the school,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Brown said that he could either complain about it, or he could challenge himself to offer the school something better.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As president, he enjoyed having a close relationship with the principal Elizabeth Bender and being a voice for 1,200 students.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He’s very respectful,” Bender said. “You talk to Jarvis, and it’s not something that goes in one ear and out the other. He’s mature beyond his years.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Bender was impressed that Jarvis genuinely cared about representing all the students, especially the ones on the fringe.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They respected Jarvis because he didn’t just walk around like a big man,” Bender said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>When Bender’s secretary passed away, Bender said the staff was really tense. She talked with Jarvis and told him to pass word among the students to be mindful and not act up.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It would get through,” she said. “Jarvis was a big part of that. He always came through.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His grandmother, Jackie Rice, said she was happy to see Brown go on to the Air Force Academy.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I feel great because I know he’s going to succeed and not too many city kids do,” she said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Brown dreams of becoming a pilot and an astronaut, he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Back in the day, when I was younger I would look up to the sky and be amazed by what I saw,” he said. “I want to find life on Mars.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His favorite planet is Jupiter. Its mini moons have always captivated him, he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I don’t know if I will step foot on that planet, but I want get as close as possible,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Rice said he has also talked about becoming president of the United States.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“With his determination, I wouldn’t put it past him,” she said. “If he sets his mind on something, he really tries hard.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At Gateway, he learned quite a bit about leadership that he could apply to any situation.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“You have to know your people,” Brown said. “You have to know who is following you and why they are following. You have to have a main goal and do the right thing.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>More oxygen in eyes of African Americans may help explain glaucoma risk
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>Measuring oxygen during eye surgery, investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered a reason that may explain why African-Americans have a higher risk of glaucoma than Caucasians.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>They found that oxygen levels are significantly higher in the eyes of African-Americans with glaucoma than in Caucasians with the disease. The researchers’ findings are in the July issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology. They suspect that more oxygen may damage the drainage system in the eye, resulting in elevated pressure. Higher pressure can damage the optic nerve, causing blindness.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>The study provides the first physiologic clue about the link between race and risk for glaucoma. Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness among African-Americans. Compared to Caucasians, glaucoma is about six times more common in African-Americans, and blindness caused by glaucoma is roughly 16 times more likely in African-Americans.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>“Our findings suggest there may be physiologic differences in oxygen metabolism between African-Americans and Caucasians,” says first author, Dr. Carla J. Siegfried. “In our studies, we were not looking specifically at African-Americans, but the racial difference in oxygen levels was significant, and we believe this observation deserves further study.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>The researchers measured oxygen levels in the eyes of patients who were having surgery for cataracts or glaucoma or both. At the beginning of surgery, they inserted a probe to measure oxygen in five places in the front part of the eye. They took measurements near the center of the cornea; in the middle of the anterior chamber of the eye; and in a section of the eye called the anterior chamber angle, located where the cornea meets the iris. That region is particularly important in glaucoma because that’s where fluid drains from the eye. If fluid can’t drain properly, pressure builds up, causing optic nerve damage and, eventually, vision loss from glaucoma.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>They also measured oxygen in two locations near the lens of the eye in patients having cataract surgery. Oxygen was significantly higher in African-Americans at all five locations.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>Siegfried, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University, says it’s not surprising that oxygen may play a big role in the development of glaucoma because it may be a source of free radicals that damage cells. Like cataracts, glaucoma is a disease associated with aging. Oxidative stress, an imbalance between these free radicals and antioxidants, is linked to the aging process and many other age-related conditions like cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>“We began studying oxygen in the eye after our basic studies showed that it was tightly regulated there, with the lowest levels near the lens,” says David C. Beebe, PhD, the Janet and Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and professor of cell biology and physiology. “Clinical studies with Nancy Holekamp (MD, professor of clinical ophthalmology and visual sciences) and Ying-Bo Shui (MD, PhD, senior scientist) revealed that exposure of the lens to excess oxygen caused the most common kind of cataracts. And our discovery about cataracts led us, somewhat surprisingly, to glaucoma. Dr. Siegfried then joined us, confirming the connection between oxygen and glaucoma, and the link between oxygen and race was yet another surprise.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>All of the patients in this study were having eye surgery, so the researchers did not have a comparison or control group. But the African-American patients having surgery often were younger than Caucasians.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: windowtext;”>“Glaucoma often affects African-Americans at a younger age,” Siegfried says. “And when we used statistical methods to adjust for differences in age, the difference in oxygen levels between African-Americans and Caucasians became more significant. Then, when we controlled for racial differences, we found that increased age became an important indicator of elevated oxygen levels in certain locations in the front part of the eye.”
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are somehow getting more oxygen into their eyes,” Siegfried
explains. “Rather, aging may result in lower oxygen consumption,
leaving higher amounts in the eye. In contrast, African-Americans
may have more efficient oxygen metabolism, with the same result.
The excess oxygen may result in the formation of oxygen byproducts
that cause cellular damage. However, more study is required. When
we understand the underlying reason for elevated oxygen and how it
may damage the eye, we will be in a better position to develop ways
to prevent this disease.”
