- It’s a busy week on the Emporia State campus as students return. Early arrivals include student-athletes, international students and members of the marching band. New transfer students move into Morse Hall on Thursday and first-year students and their families will arrive at the Towers Complex bright and early Friday.
- Congratulations to alumnus (and former admissions counselor) Jim Deane (BA 2007), who traveled to Greece for the Inspiring Science Education Summer Academy. For more: http://bit.ly/1f5hlTw
- After compliance meetings on Monday, the Emporia State football team took the field that night for the first practice of the season. The Hornets will host a Monday Night Football Hornet Jam for Emporia State students and the public on Aug. 17 in Welch Stadium following the Back to School Block Party in downtown Emporia. Emporia State will hold its annual Football Media Day on Sunday, August 23 in Welch Stadium at 4 p.m. For more: http://bit.ly/1JSGT3a
- Global Hornets! Students have recently returned from two international learning trips as part of the School of Library and Information Management’s Global Program. Associate Professor Andrew Smith led SLIM’s fourth successful trip to investigate libraries and archives in Scotland. Twelve students and the Emporia program Regional Director Kathie Buckman met many library and archive professionals at sites ranging from the Scottish Screen Archive and the Universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews, to Scotland’s oldest public lending library, the Library at Innerpeffray, founded in 1685. Meanwhile, 11 students, led by instructor Nancy Bolt and the Kansas City Regional Director Lindsey Warner travelled to Bulgaria, visiting both libraries and historical sites throughout the country, from Sofia, the capital city all the way to Varna on the Black Sea coast. Preparations are currently under way for fall semester, when two trips are planned: one to Serbia and the other to South Africa. SLIM’s Global Program is supported by the Office of International Education and by the Martha Kruse Furbur Scholarship Fund.
- For two weeks, area educators attended a summer institute at ESU aimed at increasing kindergarten through eighth-grade classroom teachers’ math content knowledge. The instruction is part of a three-year, $450,000 grant from the Kansas State Department of Education designed for teachers in rural school districts. The teachers involved are from Burlingame, USD 454; Burlington, USD 244; Lyndon, USD 421; North Lyon County, USD 251; Osage City, USD 420; and Santa Fe Trail, USD 434.
- Dr. Jim Persinger, director of the school psychology graduate program and current university Roe R. Cross distinguished professor, is the interim chair of the Department of Psychology for the 2015-16 academic year. Jim is an ESU alum and has been with the university since 2000.
- Lady Hornet Kathryn Flott recently spent a week in Brazil playing for the USA Sports Events D2 Select. Flott is part of group of MIAA basketball players selected for the series of games in South America. For more: http://bit.ly/1J1pd4E
- The ESU Beta Alpha Psi chapter, an honor organization for financial information students, has been recognized as a Superior Chapter by the national office. This achievement is the result of members participating in a variety of both professional and community service activities.
- Emporia State University alumni, friends, and families gathered at Sporting Kansas City on August 1 for a pre-game tailgate, game, and post-game picture on the field. Special guests from the university included Dr. Jackie Vietti. Over the past three years, Emporia State University has been and continues to be the largest group of college alumni and friends that Sporting KC’s group sales department works with!
- Dawn Moews, director of conferences & workshops for the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence in The Teachers College, is president of the Kansas Reading Association this year. She hosted the KRA Summer Leadership meeting at JIEE on August 3.
- Emporia State football held an exciting VIP Recruiting event on August 2. The invited guest recruits were given treatment just as new potential student-athletes would experience. A behind-the-scenes tour of the football program, weight room, President’s Suite overlooking Jones Field and the locker room where the guests could try on equipment was followed by a player and coach panel where questions could be asked by the guest recruits. For photos from the event, check out this Flickr album: http://bit.ly/1ElfGQq
- Congratulations to Dr. Brenda Koerner (Associate Professor, Biology)! Brenda’s grant proposal “The Impact of Fuel Load, Burn Season, and Fire Frequency on the Control of an Invasive Legume, Sericea Lespedeza” was selected for funding through the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) program. The award is $199,717 over 3 years. It was one of 11 proposals selected from a pool of 159 pre-proposals.
- Alvin Peters, director of the Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification at Emporia State, hosted a “Jump Start” workshop with KNEA on July 28 in Hays to encourage involvement by educators in western Kansas. Five teachers attended the session to learn about the process of becoming National Board Certified Teachers. Kansas State Rep. Sue Boldra, who is an NBCT, visited the workshop.
- Another football note: The Emporia State football team has been slotted for seventh in both the MIAA Coaches and Media Preseason Polls released last week. Emporia State has exceeded the preseason poll expectations in four of the last five years. For more: http://bit.ly/1ElhYir
- Congratulations to Eric Wilson (M.S. Biology Student; Thesis Advisor=Dr. Bill Jensen) on his recent poster presentation at the Joint Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the Cooper Ornithological Society, July 25 through August 2 at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Both Eric and Bill attended the conference. In addition to Eric’s poster presentation, Eric and Bill attended a workshop on program R at the meeting. They also met with ESU biology alumna, Dr. Ashley Long, who is doing well in her new position at Texas A&M.
- Dr. Beth Dobler (Professor, Elementary Education, Early Childhood and Special Education) recently had a new textbook released titled “Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet Inquiry” by Elizabeth Dobler and Maya Eagleton, published by Guilford.
- For the ninth time in head coach Bing Xu's 11 years, the Emporia State University volleyball team earned the Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. It is the 11th time in the last 13 years the Hornets have been honored. For more: http://bit.ly/1Tpvusg
- More attention for forensics… Dr. Melissa Bailey was featured in two newspapers talking about the new master of science in forensic science program. The Topeka Capital Journal: http://bit.ly/1IJlgOr and Kansas City Star’s Johnson County edition: http://bit.ly/1TrG5CV each ran articles.
