Graduation ceremony set for "Aging and Medical Science: A Mini Medical School"

A graduation ceremony for the 2006 UC Davis "Mini Medical School," an innovative program aimed at the general public, will be held on Saturday, April 15, at 9 a.m., at locations in Davis and Sacramento.

The ceremony will be conducted in the Sciences Lecture Hall on the UC Davis campus, and broadcast via satellite to the Patient Support Services Building auditorium at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. More than 500 students are enrolled in the program in Davis, while 60 students enrolled in the program in Sacramento.

Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, will deliver the commencement address. The ceremony also will feature an address by a valedictorian selected by the students.

The ceremony will include refreshments and live accordion music performed by Val Brewer, the sister of the late Myron Floren, the accordionist on "The Lawrence Welk Show." Brewer, 82, will play the accordion on Floren's signature song, "Lady of Spain," accompanied by singer Joyce Chambers, 70.

Topics from eye care and physical fitness to hearing, managing pain and osteoporosis were covered during the popular, seven-week program, which is free and open to individuals over the age of 18.

The annual course, derived from the first- and second-year medical school curriculum, offers a dynamic and interactive classroom experience. This year, distinguished UC Davis physicians and specialists addressed a variety of topics, from understanding how and why the human body ages to dispelling common myths about pain, intellectual decline and frailty as it relates to advancing age.

Introduced a decade ago by the National Institutes of Health, the mini medical school concept has grown in popularity throughout the United States. More than a thousand people have attended UC Davis' innovative program on aging since it first began, with "graduates" often taking a more active role in their own medical care and discussions with physicians.

The mini medical school is supported by the UC Davis Center for Healthy Aging and private grants.