In the Community
Emporia State nursing students and faculty presented a hydroponic garden tower to Timmerman Elementary fourth-grade students during a health screening day. Students in Kari Hess’ class annually work with Emporia Public Schools to provide health screenings and eye exams in the buildings. This is the first give of a hydroponic tower, but the students hope to present one to each Emporia school.
In Africa
Congratulations to Allison (Eley) Meeth (2017 B.S. Biology, Ecology & Biodiversity concentration), who has accepted a field biologist position with the Bioko Marine Turtle Program and Purdue University on Bioko Island, off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, Africa. Most of her work will be with sea turtles, searching for nesting turtles, tagging hatchlings, and collecting data on weights, measurements, number of eggs/hatchling, etc. Allison will also be conducting research on primates of the island. The native language on Bioko Island is Spanish, so she will put her Spanish minor to good use. She will be in Africa for five months, camping in the jungle, with no electricity or running water.
Arts & Sciences
It was a working trip to Miami, Oklahoma, last week for Dr. Marcia Schulmeister (Professor, Geology) and students. Students Callie and Colin Dallimore, Dr. Qiyang Zhang (Assistant Professor, Chemistry) and Schulmeister studied metal contamination along Tar Creek.
Earth science and chemistry students who traveled to Miami, Oklahoma, met with special guests from the Local Environmental Action Demanded agency.
Dr. Ramiro Miranda on violin and Dr. Martín Cuéllar on piano presented a concert as part of the “New Music of South America Festival”at Irvine Valley College in Irvine, California, on September 9, 2018. Part of the concert includes three of Cuéllar’s compositions and the premiere of Paraguayan composer, Daniel Luzko’s, Sonata for Violin and Piano.
Congratulations to Rocky Robinson (BS Communications, 2015) who is a new Wildlife Outfitting and Operations instructor at Pratt Community College. He also will assist with the community college’s shooting sports team.
The Teachers College
Thank you to State Farm Insurance for 20 years of financial support of the Great Plains Center for the National Teacher Certificationhoused in the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence. We showed our appreciation during a luncheon September 7, The Great Plains Center has the highest pass rate of teacher seeking national board certification in the nation. This public-private partnership has resulted in $170,000 of funding because of State Farm’s generosity.
Congratulations to Dr. Gaelynn P. Wolf Bordonaro, whowas recently elected to the American Art Therapy Association’sNational Nominating Committee.
Alvin Peters, Director of Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification, was recently appointed to the CAEP Standards Review Committeerepresenting the National Council for the Social Studies.
Dr. Carol Russell, Professor of EE/EC/SE, was a featured authorat Ellen Plumb’s City Bookstore for the “After Dark Event” on August 25. Dr. Russell shared readings from “Sandwiched! Tales, Tips, and Tools to Balance Life in the Sandwich Generation” and from her upcoming book, “Integrating Art in the Inclusive Early Childhood Curriculum.” Dr. Russell also shared a children’s book, “I Like Rocks,” co-written with her daughter, Tally Russell, an ESU alumna.
Congratulations to recent art therapy graduates in their new jobs:
- Cory Olson, inpatient art therapist at Prairie Care in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Sammi Brandt and Danielle Naeger are joining fellow art therapy alum Andrea McMahon at Cottonwood Springs in Olathe.
- Taylor Croan, lead art therapist at Ozanam in Kansas City.
- Brie Thill, at Family Service and Guidance center in Topeka.
- Amelia Jenny, inpatient art therapist at Lincoln (Nebraska) Regional Behavioral Health.
- Kasen Keller is with the ADAPT mobile crisis team in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.
On October 19, there will be an opening reception for Children Inspire Glass III. This is the third class of children who have been able to create their own stories and creature characters and see them transformed from thought to clay to glass with the help of Emporia State Early Childhood Professor Dr. Carol Russell and art students. The reception will be from 3 to 5 p.m. in Visser Hall.
Congratulations to alumna Debby Reetz Wedel (BS Elementary Education, 1974; MS, Early Childhood, 1986), who will be inducted into the Tonganoxie High School Hall of Fame on Friday.
Library & Information Management
Dr. Brendan Fay served as a 2018-2019 peer reviewer for the European History listof (RCL) Resources for College Libraries.
Deana Brown (Oregon, 2006) will start next week at the Idaho Commission for Libraries in Boise as their Emerging Trends in Libraries consultant, a brand-new position.
Congratulations to current student, Rachel Perry, who will be moving to Oregon this month to begin a new job in October as Youth Services Librarian at the Eugene Public Library.
Dr. Jim Walther, Assistant Professor of the School of Library and Information Management has been appointed to three committee assignments within the American Library Association. Those appointments are: a member of the Library Organization/Management Theory Committee, member of the Project Management Team and member of the ALA’s committee to pan the upcoming government documents roundtable conference activities in Seattle, Washington, and Washington, D.C., during 2019.
Business
Dr. Ed Bashaw and Dr. Mark Dalytraveled to Chinarecently. Their visits included Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua, Zhejiang; Jiangsu University of Science & Technology in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu; and South China Normal University in Guangzhou, Guangdong. They met with alumni in Shanghai. They are excited about their partnerships to bring more students to ESU as well as send American students to Chinia next May for study abroad.
Alumni Brad and Craig Clark presented the first of their Executive Hour2018-2019 Series to another packed room. They discussed Resume Tips from a CEO.
The Governance, Law, and Economics Lecture Series kicked off on September 18. Dr. Jayme Lemke, Senior Fellow and Director of Academic and Student Programs at the Mercatus Center, talked to students and faculty at ESU about the evolution and progression of women's economic rightsand why that matters for us today.
The Koch Center hosted a viewing of Black Panther on September 10. Afterward, discussion ranged from issues of cultural appropriation, finding win-win solutions to social issues rather than perpetuating the win-lose status quo and how individuals can reinvest in their community to help address social injustices.
Information Technology
Information Technology and The Teachers College are piloting a new way for faculty and students to wirelessly share digital contentin the classroom. Using Mersive’s Solstice, students can share an unlimited number of images, videos, documents and more — even from the same device at the same time, putting the content at the center of the learning space experience.
Athletics
The ESU women’s soccer team has broken its record for the best start in team history. And they are playing their matches on a new secured, on-campus venue.
University Support Staff
Judy Conway, Administrative Assistant and Print Manager of the Marketing and Media Relations Department, won the cost-saving contestwith her idea to consolidate large marketing resources to a centralized location to identify cost savings and maximize marketing resources. She won two large snack trays for her department employees courtesy of President Garrett.
Congratulations to Ivan Torres, BSE-Modern Languages major, recipient of the University Support Staff Dependent/Child scholarship. Ivan is the son of Sylvestre Torres, University Facilities – Building Services/Support. Ivan received a scholarship award of $2,570. Ivan plans to teach Spanish while earning his master’s degree in education administration. He plans to be a high school principal.
Conference
Dr. Joyce Zhou was a session chair for the Marketing Management Association’s23rd Annual Fall Educators Conference held Sept. 19 through 21 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Presentations
On September 14, Dr. Derek Yonai presented the keynote address at the Building University CentersRegional Directors Summit co-hosted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Lindenwood University. His discussion included a presentation on strategically developing a center and a presentation on developing a robust student engagement program. The attendees were current center directors and aspiring center directors.
KU librarian and SLIM alum Lars Leon presented “Data: Let’s Get It, Work with It, and Impact Decisions” at the Northwest Interlibrary Loan Conference.
SLIM alum Linda Frederiksen (Oregon, 1997), gave a Lightening Talk at the Northwest Interlibrary Loan Conference on “Creating a Copyright Community of Practice in the Pacific Northwest.”
Publications
Dr. Cate Crosby, Associate Professor and Director of TESOL Programs, had an article published, “Engaging, enriching, and empowering immigrant communities with service-learning and digital reading-writing” in September 2018 edition ofThe Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal.
Dr. Dabae Lee and Dr. Yeol Huh, both in Instructional Design & Technology, co-wrote “Technology functions for personalized learning in learner-centered schools” published in the October 2018 edition of Educational Technology Research and Development.
Dr. Kevin Rabas (chair, English, Modern Languages and Journalism) wrote “Like Buddha-Calm Bird,” a collection of poemspublished by Meadowlark Books. Rabas is Kanas Poet Laureate 2017-19.
Dr. Bill Jenson (Professor, Biological Sciences) co-wrote “Resistance is futile: prohibitive costs of egg ejection in an obligate avian brood parasite host,” which was published in Animal Behaviourfor the the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour in collaboration with the Animal Behavior Society