Elite Company
Kaylie Rahe, Block 3 student and pre-service teacher, won the Emerging PDS Leader Awardat the National Association for Professional Development Schools conference in Atlanta. Rahe was one of three students nationwide to win this prestigious award and the first ever Emporia State student to win it.
National Competition
Emporia State will be sending two athletes to the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championshipson March 8-9. Brianna Schmitz and Carey McCleod will be among the favorites in their respective events at the Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Community Book Read
ESU’s Center for Great Plains Studiesis collaborating with the Lyon County Historical Society for Sarah Smarsh’s Heartland: A Community Read.
Gaining Notice
ESU alum Jason Forck (BFA 2005) is gaining acclaim for his Penn + Fairmount collection of tableware at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.It was featured in Architectural Digest’s collection of best new launches from two New York design fairs.
Arts & Sciences
Approximately 70 young women from 17 area high schools participated in the 25th annual Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Dayon February 14, 2019, on ESU’s campus. The students were selected to attend by their high school mathematics teachers. Students participated in career sessions and workshops led by women professionals from Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, ESU, Honeywell and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. President Garrett presented B.J. Bayer from Wolf Creek with a plaque recognizing the company for their many years of support for the program during the luncheon; and Dr. Leah Childers, Assistant Professor at Pittsburg State University and ESU mathematics alum, encouraged the students to not shy away from STEM topics with a talk titled “Being First.” The program is co-directed by Dr. Adelaide Akers, Dr. Marvin Harrell and Dr. Betsy Yanik. Dr. Akers and Dr. Connie Schrock led workshops during the program. Harrell and Yanik, as well as Schrock, have been involved with the program for all 25 years.
The 17th Annual K-INBRE Symposium, the largest scientific conference in the state of Kansas, was well-attended by faculty and students from Emporia State University. Twenty-two people (7 faculty and 15 undergraduate students) attended the conference and eight posters were presented. Elizabeth McCuistion (Senior, Nursing) was recognized with an “Honorable Mention” for her poster presentation — Elizabeth McCuistion, Mariah Emily, Sam Pimpl, and Melissa M. Bailey Emporia State University, Department of Biological Sciences: Cannabidiol Oil Does Not Have Adverse Effects on Fetal Development in ICR Mice. This is particularly impressive because only 15 of 173 poster presenters received an award. For other presentations, see below.
ESU students from Dr. Connie Schrock’s Teaching Middle and Secondary Mathematics class challenged EMS students to bring their best game to Math and Science Family Nightat Emporia Middle School on February 11. The evening was enhanced by Dr. Claudia Aguirre-Mendez and ESU students from multiple physical science classes who created the science stations. Around 100 middle school students and their parents made their way through 16 math and 9 science stations created and staffed by more than 100 ESU students. All of the stations’ activities revolved around the night’s theme: “Who’s Got Game? Game the Night Away with Mathematics and Science!” For more information: www.emporia.edu/mathecon/outreach/familynight.
Six students from the Department of Mathematics and Economics became full members or associate members of Kappa Mu Epsilonon February 13, 2019. KME is a mathematics honor society. The organization was founded in 1931 to promote the interest of mathematics among undergraduate students.
Business
Congratulations to our winners of the Elevator Challenge: Lisa Foster, Best Pitch; Tanner Arst, Best Idea; and Kyle Harrison, Judge’s Choice.
Athletics
The Emporia State men's and women's tennisteams continued their strong start to the spring season with a pair of wins at William Jewell on Tuesday afternoon at Clayview Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri. The men are now 3-0, and the women are 2-0.
Emporia State Lady Hornet guards Emily Miller and Addie Lackey earned CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District honors for their work in the classroom and on the basketballcourt. Both are graduate students at Emporia State. Miller is a first-team selection and is now eligible to earn Academic All-America honors while Lackey earned second-team honors.
Student Success
ESU is excited to announce our new chapter of Delta Alpha PiInternational Honor Society. Delta Alpha Pi recognizes academic accomplishments of high-achieving university students with disabilities. For more information, please contact Stephanie Adams (Director of Student Accessibility and Support Services).
Stephanie Adams, director of Student Accessibility and Support Services, earned her certification as an Adobe PDF Accessibility Trainerat the AHEAD Accessing Higher Ground conference last fall in Denver.
The Teachers College
Dr. E. Basil Kessler was recognized by Counselor Education for having the consistently highest student ratingsfor 2018 (4.8 and above).
The Trauma Informed Educators Student Organization(TIES) was approved as a new recognized student organization at the January 24 ASG meeting. Dr. Jennie Long and Melissa Gerleman are the faculty advisors for the organization.
Library & Information Management
On Jan 5, Dean Wooseob Jeong welcomed the newest KC SLIM Cohort at orientation. A part of the day’s activities included a panel of librarians who gave the incoming cohort a taste of the variety of jobs available in the profession. Dean Jeong also presented Robin Westphal, Missouri State Librarian, with the 2018 SLIM Distinguished Alumni Award.
Congratulations to Dr. Emily Vardell, whose co-written article "Advancing the conversation: Next steps for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) health sciences librarianship" was selected to receive the Medical Library Association's Ida and George Eliot Prizefor a work published in the preceding calendar year that has been judged most effective in furthering medical librarianship.
KC SLIM’s 2019 cohortstarted the semester off with lots of activities designed to get them immersed in the library world. Dr. Emily Vardell’s & Dr. Sandra Valenti’s classes toured the Truman Library for the Foundations of Library and Information Science. Dr. Brendan Fay took his class on a tour of the Midwest Geneaology Center to see how genealogy reference works. Dr. Jinxuan Ma hosted a panel of currently library professionals to discuss the variety of ways reference service plays out in various setting.
Presentations
Mr. Cade Amend presented to the CE 830 class: Group Processes in Counseling graduate class. Cade graduated from the Mental Health Counseling graduate program in 2014 and is a therapist at Prairie View in Newton, Kansas. This is the third time he has spoken to this class and shared his expertise and commitment to those in need of mental health services.
Dr. Dennis Kear, Executive Director of the Kansas Masonic Literacy Center, presented “Building Better Brains in Young Children” at the Kansas Association of Independent and Religious Schools Administrators’ Conferencein Topeka, KS, February 12, 2019. He also discussed Kansas Masonic Literacy Center Resources available to their member schools, teachers and 35.000 students.
Dr. Jennie Long and Stephanie Metzger, both from Elementary/Early Childhood/Special Education, presented “The Spin on Student Contracts: Creating a Positive Culture of Learning” at the National Association of Professional Development Schools National Conference2019 in Atlanta on February 14.
Dr. Jennie Long and Melissa Gerleman, both from Elementary/Early Childhood/Special Education, presented “Classroom Management, Behaviors, and Preservice Teachers: Are We Providing Enough?” at the National Association of Professional Development Schools National Conference2019 in Atlanta on February 15.
Presented during the 17th Annual K-INBRE Symposium:
- Savannah Bender, Tim Burnett Department of Biological Sciences, Emporia State University:Studying the role of Treg cells in mucosal tolerance using the DEREG transgenic mouse model
- Alireza J. Nasrazadani, Myranda Q. Soifua, Emily L. Torrey, Hernan A. Hernandez, Matthew P. Thompson, Nathan C. Gianneschi , and Andrea J. Luthi Department of Chemistry, Emporia State University; 2 Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University: Peptide-polymer Amphiphiles with Different Properties for Studying Biological Interactions
- Mariah Emily, Ryan W. Mentzer , Elizabeth McCuistion , Tim G. Burnett , and Melissa M. Bailey Department of Biological Sciences, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas 66801:Changes in Cyp2b10 Gene Expression During Cyclophosphamide Exposure and Maternal Restraint Stress
- Ana Perez-Lebron and Stephen Fields Department of Biological Sciences, Emporia State University: Microbiome of a kleptoplastic dinoflagellate
- Callie Dallimore, Colin Dallimore, Marcia Schulmeister, Qiyang Zhang Department of Physical Sciences, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS: Heavy metals threatening aquatic ecosystems and human health in sediments in the Tri-State Mining District
- Rachel Diebold and Stephen Fields Department of Biological Sciences, Emporia State University: Motorless myosin V transcripts expressed in mouse brain
- Alec McDaniel, Qiyang Zhang Department of Physical Sciences, Emporia State University:Optimization of Custom-built Capillary Electrophoresis Coupled with Laser-induced Fluorescence Detection
On Feb. 18, Dr. Derek Yonai, director of the Koch Center for Leadership & Ethics, conducted professional development training for World History, World Geography, and World Cultures teachers in the Northwest ISD, outside Fort Worth. Approximately 35 teachers were trained on “Culture and Trade” as part of the Teaching Free Enterprise to Texas Teachersproject operated by the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University.
Conference
Dr. Annie Opat, trainer and director of Reading Recovery at Emporia State, attended the Reading Recovery Council of North Americaconference February 9-12, 2019, in Columbus, Ohio, with several Kansas K-12 Reading Recovery teacher leaders. Opat serves as chair of RRCNA’s national development committee, promoting the organization during the national conference.
Publication
Dr. Sonja Ezell, associate professor in elementary education / early childhood / special education, wrote “Combating Marginalization Through Diversity-Based Book Clubs” published in Emporia State Research Studies, Volume 52, No. 1.