Type in "HIV and AIDS" into an Internet search engine and you get more than 8 million hits.

Information on the life-threatening condition is prevalent, but that doesn't mean people are reading it, absorbing it or learning from it, said Daiysha Smith.

Smith, a senior at Pinecrest High School, hopes to do something about that.

For her senior project, Smith is organizing a public health forum for teens and their parents to discuss HIV and AIDS. The forum will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in Monroe Auditorium at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital. Admission is free.

Smith, who has a fascination with infectious diseases and a desire to help others, has enlisted the help of Dr. Paul Jawanda, who specializes in infectious disease at Moore Regional Hospital, and Patty Kempton, a communicable diseases nurse with the Moore County Health Department.

"She's learning that putting together a workshop like this is more work than you thought," said Jayne Lee, infection control/patient safety director at Moore Regional Hospital.

Lee is advising Smith on the project. The two have become friends since Smith shadowed Lee last summer.

Smith has attended numerous seminars and camps in hopes of fulfilling her dream of a career in the field of public health. She attended a camp at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Smith pretty much made up her mind in sixth grade that she wanted to have a career in public health after she watched a daytime television show about AIDS.

Smith views her senior project as a way to fuel that passion and more importantly educate others.

"I've learned how to teach people and how to be a leader," Smith said.

The goal of the seminar is to provide teens and their parents with information about HIV and AIDS. The challenge, Smith said, is to disseminate that information in a way that sticks with members of the audience.

"We've made it as blunt as possible," Smith said. "So you get the information. You get the point."

Audience members will be asked to answer questions before and after the seminar to see if they learn anything.

Smith has already written a paper entitled, "How HIV/AIDS Affects Society." She received a perfect grade on the paper. To complete her senior project she must also present a product -- the seminar -- and then make a presentation for a panel of judges.

In addition to Lee, Stewart Shore, a Pinecrest High School mathematics teacher, is serving as an adviser. Kris Bevo is overseeing the senior projects for the high school.

Smith says she looks forward to the event.

"I want to organize and lead," she said, "but I also want to sit and listen to the speakers and be able to learn something too."

Contact Tom Embrey at 693-2473 or by e-mail at tembrey@ thepilot.com.