Dr. Letha Mosley, associate professor of occupational therapy, was named one of 100 influential people in occupational therapy by the American Occupational Therapy Association in honor of the Occupation Therapy Centennial celebration.
Read more about her award here!
Dr. Jimmy Ishee, Dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, was named 2017 Distinguished Administrator by the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education.
Ishee’s award ceremony took place Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 in Orlando during the 2017 NAKHE Conference.
“Being presented the 2017 Distinguished Administrator Award by the National Association of Kinesiology in Higher Education is most rewarding. It is always an honor to receive recognition from your peers,” Ishee said. “I have always found being a member of NAKHE a fulfilling experience because it consists of so many academic administrators from around the country who are leading kinesiology-related programs. Their collective wisdom has been most valuable in my career.”
As the oldest academic society in kinesiology, NAKHE focuses on higher education and professional development issues. NAKHE’s mission is to foster leadership in kinesiology administration and policy as it relates to teaching, scholarship and service in higher education.
The Distinguished Administrator award is given each year at the NAKHE annual conference to a contributing member who applied administrative/managerial skills to make significant contributions to the profession or related fields within and beyond higher education.
Ishee was previously inducted as the 15th Fellow during the 2016 NAKHE Conference in San Diego. The purpose of the Fellow designation is to acknowledge kinesiology leaders who have made significant contributions to both NAKHE and the field of kinesiology.
Ishee became dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences in July 2014. The college encompasses the School of Nursing and departments of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Family and Consumer Sciences; Health Sciences; Exercise and Sport Science; Military Science and Leadership; Occupational Therapy; Physical Therapy; and Psychology and Counseling.
Prior to coming to UCA, Ishee served as dean of the College of Health Sciences at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in Denton, Texas. Prior to TWU, Ishee served as dean of the School of Health Science at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. He earned his doctorate from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health, physical education and recreation from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.
The 2017 University of Central Arkansas football signing class was unveiled Wednesday, Feb. 1 at a reception at UCA Downtown.
The reception, featuring UCA head coach Steve Campbell and his staff, was from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and featured video highlights of the newest Bears with commentary from Campbell.
The Bears, coming off a 10-3 season which saw them advance to the second round of the FCS Playoffs, open the 2017 season on Sept. 2 against Big 12 Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.
The UCA Student Government Association and The Pack Shack teamed up during the Feed the Funnel Party to pack more than 10,000 meals to benefit the UCA Bear Essential Food Bank.
The Pack Shack Feed the Funnel Party consisted of everyone putting on hairnets, cranking up some awesome music and creating thousands of meals from dry ingredients in an assembly line process.
The assembly line included funnels (where ingredients are poured into a funnel to fill a bag), scales (where bags are weighed for accuracy), heat sealers (where bags are sealed), and boxes (where the bags are put into cases).
Once packed, the meals were given to the UCA Bear Essentials Food Bank to help those in need in the community.
UCA President Houston Davis donned a hairnet and helped out!
Spontaneous dance parties were also breaking out!
Volunteers even took part in the mannequin challenge!
Everyone rocked the hairnets while combining service with music and fun!
Upward Bound at University of Central Arkansas, one of more than 2800 federal TRiO programs in the country, serves students in grades 9 through 12 from Bigelow, Nemo Vista, Perryville, Mayflower, and Morrilton who are low-income, first generation, and/or students at high-risk for academic failure.
The ultimate goal is college access and post-secondary success for participants. Upward Bound currently has 49 prior participants (cohort year of 2007 and later) who are attending college right now, 30.6% of whom are currently enrolled at UCA.
The program recently submitted its 2015-2016 Annual Performance Report (APR) to the U.S. Department of Education. The annual APR assesses how the program is performing against its assigned objectives. In order to keep the university apprised of the work being done, a summary of the results is provided below.
Funded to Serve: 58
Participants Served: 60 (103%)
2/3 Eligibility Requirement (2/3 of eligible participants must be first-generation AND low-income AND/OR at high-risk for academic failure): 39
2/3 Eligibility Served: 42 (70%)
Objective 1: 60% of participants served during the project year will have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better on a four-point scale at the end of the school year.
Actual Attained Rate: 92%
Statistical Significance: The state average according to ADE in 2015 was 69.5%.
Objective 2: 65% of UB seniors served during the project year will have achieved at the proficient level on state assessments in reading/language arts AND math.
Actual Attained Rate: 67%
Statistical Significance: The state average of proficiency per subject area according to ADE in 2016 for the ACT Aspire was Math (20%), English (55%), Reading (40%), and Writing (50%).
Objective 3: 95% of project participants served during the project year will continue in school for the next academic year, at the next grade level, or will have graduated from secondary school with a regular secondary school diploma.
Actual Attained Rate: 100%
Statistical Significance: The average cohort dropout rate for UB’s target schools in 2015 (according to ADEDATA) was 22.1%.
Objective 4: 75% of all current and prior year UB participants, who at the time of entrance into the project had an expected high school graduation date in the school year, will complete a rigorous secondary school program of study and graduate in that school year with a regular secondary school diploma.
Actual Attained Rate: 85%
Statistical Significance: The average percentage of students graduating with a rigorous curriculum from UB’s target schools was 52.2% (ADE, 2015).
Objective 5: 70% of all current and prior UB participants, who at the time of entrance into the project had an expected high school graduation date in the school year, will enroll in a program of post-secondary education by the fall term immediately following high school graduation or will have received notification, by the fall term immediately following high school, from an institution of higher education, of acceptance but deferred enrollment until the next academic semester (e.g., spring semester).
Actual Attained Rate: 77%
Statistical Significance: The average college-going rate for UB’s target schools was 52.4% (ADE, 2015).
Objective 6: 50% of participants who enrolled in a program of post-secondary education, by the fall term immediately following high school graduation or by the next academic term (e.g., spring term) as a result of acceptance by deferred enrollment, will attain either an associate’s or bachelor’s degree within six years following graduation from high school.
Actual Attained Rate: 50%
Statistical Significance: Only 26.1% of 2009 target school graduates who enrolled in college the following fall completed a two or four-year post-secondary degree within six years (National Student Clearinghouse, 2016). In UB’s target area, only 16% of adults have a bachelor’s degree (2014 Census, American Community Survey).
For more information about federal TRiO programs or our program in particular, call or email the director of Upward Bound, Michelle Hardin, at (501) 450-5858 or mhardin@uca.edu. You can also visit the website for Council for Opportunity in Education at http://www.coenet.org/trio.shtml for a more detailed overview.
