Sarepta Launches Program to Increase Rare Disease Awareness in K-12 Schools

Sarepta Therapeutics said it launched Rare Lessons, a Sarepta-led lesson planning competition intended to promote the development and implementation of educational materials to increase rare disease awareness in the K-12 classroom setting.

The competition is open to educators in grades K-12, based in the United States, and actively teaching in an accredited educational institution. A blinded selection committee will review and select up to four winning lesson plans. Sarepta will grant up to four monetary awards of $2,500 to the authors of the lesson plans and $2,500 to the educational institution with which the authors are affiliated.

“The Rare Lessons competition aims to build awareness of rare diseases at all levels of learning by tapping into the expertise and creativity educators employ when developing materials to teach their students,” said Diane Berry, Sarepta’s senior vice president of global health policy, government, and patient affairs. “Our goal in providing free access to the winning lesson plans is to increase understanding of rare disease, promote more diversity and inclusion in the classroom and broader community, and ultimately alleviate feelings of isolation often experienced by children and families having to navigate living with a rare disease.”

Rare Lessons is accepting submissions from July 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020 and the winning submissions are expected to be announced by December 2020. Lesson plans should introduce the topic of rare diseases, link rare diseases to scientific learning in an age-appropriate way and provide the opportunity for learning about real world applicability.

Submissions should also include an element of diversity and inclusion as disabilities are often present with rare diseases.

Photo: Diane Berry, senior vice president of global health policy, government, and patient affairs for Sarepta Therapeutics

Author: Rare Daily Staff