TASFAA Member Focus
D’Mon Peeples of TCU
By Melet Leafgreen, Assistant Director, Loan Programs, Texas Christian University

TASFAA Member from TCU Awarded Research Grant Funding
D’Mon Peeples, TCU’s Loan Assistant and a TASFAA Member since 2002, has been pursuing her bachelor’s degree at TCU since 2005 and expects to complete it sometime in the next 20 years! In December, she was selected to receive an Undergraduate Research & Creativity Activity Initiative (URCAI) Research Grant for 2007-2008. Sponsored by TCU’s Office of Research & Sponsored Projects, the URCAI is awarded to students (and a TCU professor who mentors them) on a competitive basis for work to be done on a creative project that should inspire, inform, or entertain. This grant will fund the production of a fifteen-minute documentary addressing the concerns of children of breast cancer patients.

Titled “Other Views from the Rollercoaster: A Documentary About Breast Cancer and Kids,” the film includes interviews with D’Mon’s three children remembering her own battle with breast cancer several years ago.

“Approximately eleven thousand women under the age of 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year,” says D’Mon. “Because many of these women have children still living at home, teenagers and pre-teen children increasingly face an overwhelming challenge and need tools that will aid their understanding and assist them in dealing with their emotions and fears. By using personal interviews with participants whose parent is at various stages of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer, this documentary will address a variety of concerns and demonstrate the experiences of teenagers who have found a way to cope with the issues that have developed in their lives due to their parent’s illness.”

D’Mon will make an initial prototype presentation during the TCU Festival of Student Scholarship and Creativity in spring 2008, and her film will be part of TCU’s Annual Pink-Out Activities, supporting breast cancer awareness and research, in October 2008. It will also be made available to local cancer treatment facilities as well as the Fort Worth Komen Race for the Cure organization and the American Cancer Society.