The Bear Ledger

Dr. Amy Amy

Two University of Central Arkansas employees were elected to the Arkansas Coalition for Excellence Board of Directors at the ACE Annual Meeting held at the Clinton Presidential Center.

Dr. Amy H. Amy, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, and Kelly Lyon, director of the Center for Community and Economic Development, were among 11 professionals from across the state elected by the ACE membership.

The Arkansas Coalition for Excellence is Arkansas’ nonprofit association and representative in the National Council of Nonprofits. Since 2003, ACE has worked vigorously to build a stronger, more vibrant nonprofit sector in Arkansas. ACE accomplishes this effort through its advocacy work on public policy issues affecting all nonprofits at the state and national level; access to affordable products and services; education and technical assistance; research and information sharing, and network building.

 

Kelly Lyon

“After working with the inaugural class of UCA’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, I realized how much cross-sector cooperation it will take to strengthen Arkansas,” Amy said. “I work primarily with the nonprofit cognate so partnering with ACE is a natural fit that couldn’t have come at a better time.”

ACE operates statewide in five regions: northeast, northwest, central, southeast and southwest. Its membership consists of 300 nonprofits, foundations, businesses and individuals.

“This appointment will enable us to provide more knowledgeable support for our work with nonprofits in our Community Development Institute and also in our grant funded work with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation,” said Lyon.

 

Tim Atkinson

Dr. Tim Atkinson, an assistant provost and assistant professor at the University of Central Arkansas, has been elected to serve on the Grants Resource Center Advisory Board.

The Grant Resource Center provides comprehensive research and sponsored programs information services to faculty and administrators at member institutions who are pursuing federal and private funding, according to its website. The center’s board is a part of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and functions as an important link for the Washington-based GRC staff and campuses throughout the country. The GRC conferences include advisors facilitating open forum recommendations for GRC programming and resources. The GRC Advisory Board represents over 100 institutions in 44 states.

Atkinson will serve a two-year term.

The GRC includes many high caliber schools from across the country, Atkinson said. Individuals who sit on the Advisory Board are seen as advisors to the organization and act as advisors to other schools.

Atkinson was also recently selected as the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Research Administration of the Society of Research Administrators International. He will replace longtime editor, Dr. Edward Gabriel of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences who is stepping down after seven years at the helm. Atkinson has been an associate editor for the journal for six years as well as an interim chair of the Academic Review Board.

The journal is published by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and is one of only two journals focused on the art, science and scholarship of Research Administration, a subspecialty in the field of Higher Education. It is also the only journal that adheres to a strict four-stage review process. All articles are reviewed by a team of Associate Editors, an academic review board, a manuscript review committee and final editorial review. The journal is distributed all over the world to about 3,000 subscribers in almost 30 countries.

Beauregard J. Theriot, Assistant Coach, Director of Athletics office, July 1.

John A. Newberry, Assistant Coach, Director of Athletics office, July 1.

Ron K. Patterson, Director of Admissions, Admissions department, July 1.

Natasha D. Vincent, Assistant Coach, Director of Athletics office, July 1.

William N. Best, Assistant Coach, Director of Athletics office, July 1.

Steven C. Schoenhut, Ticket Manager, Director of Athletics office, July 1.

Gary L. Sieg, Institutional Services Assistant, Custodial Care department, July 1.

Richard G. Suits, Mail Services Assistant, Post Office, July 1.

Dennis L. Johnson, Skilled Tradesman, General Housing Maintenance department, July 1.

Genevieve Lindsey, Institutional Services Assistant, General Housing Maintenance department, July 1.

Dennis W. Osgood, Skilled Tradesman, General Housing Maintenance department, July 1.

Christopher M. Barnes, Assessment/Accountability Coordinator, ARC ARRA department, July 1.

Lasandra R. Harvey Garner, Institutional Services Assistant, General Housing Maintenance department, July 2.

Lynetta R. Morris, Financial Aid Analyst, Student Financial Aid department, July 2.

Jason H. Davis, Shipping and Receiving Clerk, Warehouse, July 2.

James R. Hillard, HE Institute Program Coordinator, HPER office, July 2.

Shoney L. Killion, Network Support Analyst, Housing office, July 5.

Darshon L. Anderson, Visiting Assistant Professor, Psychology-Counseling department, July 9.

Asher L. Flynn, Institutional Services Assistant, General Housing Maintenance department, July 9.

Beth E. Durff, Registrar, Registrar’s office, July 16.

Jane A. Williams, Assistant Provost and Director, International Programs department, July 16.

Karen A. Dawson, Program Coordinator, Student Financial Aid office, July 16.

Melissa A. Tatman, Assistant Director of Admissions, Admissions department, July 24.

Joshua D. Miller, Administrative Specialist II, Dean-College of Fine Arts, July 31.

Kaitlin M. Davis, Coordinator of Video Marketing, Director of Athletics office, August 1.

Buck McArthur, Project/Program Administrator, Building Maintenance department, August 1.

Samuel J. Wilkins, Clinical Instructor I, Kinesiology and Physical Education department, August 1.

Janet C. Gaughan, Administrative Specialist I, Kinesiology and Physical Education department, August 1.

Kyle J. Moix, Institutional Services Supervisor, Student Center office, August 1.

Phyllis A. Campbell, Administrative Specialist II, Physical Plant Switchboard, August 1.

Tommy R. Vestal, Skilled Tradesman, Building Maintenance department, August 1.

Ryan L. King, Assets Coordinator, Purchasing department, August 6.

Julie A. Calvery-Carman, Clinical Instructor I, Nursing department, August 16.

Amanda M. Martin, Lecturer I, University College, August 16.

Bryce J. Marquis, Assistant Professor, Chemistry department, August 16.

Ellen E. Hostetter, Assistant Professor, Honors College, August 16.

Arijit Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, Biology department, August 16.

Sonia Toudji, Assistant Professor, History department, August 16.

Heather C. Martens, Assistant Professor, Psychology-Counseling department, August 16.

Sunjung Kim, Assistant Professor, Speech Language Pathology department, August 16.

Jennifer R. Talbot, Instructor, Writing department, August 16.

Alicia A. Cotabish, Assistant Professor, Teaching, Learning and Technology department, August 16.

Sarah A. Marshall, Assistant Professor, Health Sciences department, August 16.

Susan R. Barclay, Assistant Professor, Leadership Studies department, August 16.

Jennifer R. Patterson, Clinical Instructor I, Child Study department, August 16.

Skipper H. Pennington, Skilled Trades Supervisor, Building Maintenance department, August 16.

David P. Castleberry, Computer Support Technician, Information Technology department, August 16.

Audra D. Alumbaugh, Clinical Instructor, Teaching, Learning and Technology department, August 16.

Lisa M. McCoy, Instructor, Family and Consumer Science department, August 16.

Mary K. Lamb, Visiting Lecturer, Writing department, August 16.

Sandra A. Waggoner, Visiting Lecturer, Biology department, August 16.

Courtney J. Barr, Visiting Lecturer, World Languages, Literature and Cultures department, August 16.

Daryl C. Spurlock, Instructor, World Languages, Literature and Cultures department, August 16.

Jackie L. Gray, Visiting Assistant Professor, Nursing department, August 16.

Jaimi L. Allen, Instructor, Health Sciences department, August 16.

Johnie D. Barlow, Instructor, Health Sciences department, August 16.

Cicily D. Tubb-Warbington, Instructor, University College, August 16.

Phillip R. Huddleston, Instructor, English department, August 16.

Diana B. Gilpin, Instructor, Art department, August 16.

Tracie D. Rushing, Visiting Lecturer, History department, August 16.

Aaron N. Penn, Instructor, English department, August 16.

Karen D. Webb, Instructor, Physical Therapy department, August 16.

Andrew J. Gray, Visiting Lecturer, Biology department, August 16.

Aaran J. Mattson, Instructor, University College, August 16.

Melanie K. Welch, Instructor, History department, August 16.

Dulce V. Souidi, Instructor, Community Language School, August 16.

Flora G. Salyers, Instructor, University College, August 16.

Ismail M. Saafir, Instructor, Philosophy-Religion department, August 16.

Tansel Halic, Instructor, Computer Science department, August 16.

Holly B. Friedman, Visiting Lecturer, English department, August 16.

Marc A. Sestir, Visiting Assistant Professor, Psychology-Counseling department, August 16.

Zheng Gu, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Qian Zheng, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Rui Wang, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Hui Qu, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Xiaomin Sun, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Qin Hu, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Yi An, Instructor, Han Ban Teacher Project, August 16.

Robert L. Watts, Visiting Assistant Professor, History department, August 16.

Ningjun Ye, Visiting Assistant Professor, Mathematics department, August 16.

Glenn D. Jellenik, Instructor, English department, August 16.

Angela D. Wiser, Visiting Lecturer, Mass Communication and Theater department, August 16.

Ramon M. Escamilla, Visiting Lecturer, Writing department, August 16.

Ronald M. Tangye, Visiting Instructor, Communication department, August 16.

Susan M. Sobel, Staff Counselor/Psychologist, Counseling Center, August 20.

Anthony K. Fillippino, Health Education Institute Program Coordinator, HPER office, August 27.

Dr. Fletcher Lowry

Dr. Fletcher B. Lowry, a former professor and chairman of the Department of Physical Education at UCA, died Sept. 3. He was 85 years old.

Dr. Lowry’s career spanned from 1953 to 1988, from his being Head Coach at Heratio High School to Professor and Chairman of the Physical Education Department at the University of Central Arkansas. He served two terms as president of the Arkansas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; he was president of Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity at UCA where he was a lifetime member.

In 1996 he was elected Professor Emeritus at UCA; in 2004 he was elected to the Central Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame; in 2008 the entry way to H.P.E.R. was named in his honor, and during this year’s “Bear Bash” at U.C.A. he was recognized for his many years of teaching and coaching.
Those left to mourn his passing are his wife, Jo Nell (Alsip); daughters: Phyllis Ann Hunter and husband Tim of Iowa Park, Texas, Sandra Kay Adkisson of Conway, and Debra Jo Davis and husband B.J., also of Conway; grandchildren, Benjamin Ky Hunter and wife Shani, Justin Lowry Adkisson and wife Danielle, Lindsay Nichole Parker and husband Matt and Christopher James Davis; great-grandchild, Hunter Bowen Parker; a host of nieces, nephews and extended family and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents; and three brothers, John William Lowry, Autus Thaddeus Lowry and LeRoy Martin Lowry. Source: The Log Cabin.

UCA Freshman Honors Scholars Attend Fall Retreat at Winthrop Rockefeller Institute

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College welcomed 63 incoming first-year Honors Scholars during its annual community-building retreat and writing workshop at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain. Paula Morell, executive producer of the syndicated Tales from the South radio show, provided the workshop’s keynote address. The new class also read Thomas Wolfe’s “Look Homeward, Angel ” in preparation for writing their own literary memoirs.

Honors Scholars receive UCA’s most prestigious scholarship package, reside in a living-learning community in Jefferson W. Farris Honors Hall, and participate in a unique interdisciplinary curriculum with ample opportunities for service learning, project-based education, collaborative work, undergraduate research and travel or internship support.

The incoming class has 37 women and 26 men.

The Class of 2012 includes 10 valedictorians, 4 salutatorians and 30 students with an ACT test score of 30 or higher (that set of scores includes the top 3% of test scores in the country). In addition, the records of the entire class include an average high school cumulative GPA of 4.081 and an average ACT test score of 29.3. The class of 2012 includes eight students from out of state, including students from Colorado, Texas, and Missouri. From this class, eight of these Honors students will be participating in music ensembles of band, choir or orchestra and four of these Honors students will be participating in intercollegiate athletics.

Honors students may choose any major they wish from the large variety of possibilities at UCA. The chart below shows the majors that new Honors students plan at the beginning of the fall 2012.

Established in 1982, UCA’s Honors College enrolls 276 students in its four-year undergraduate program. Its five-fold mission is to recruit and retain high-ability students for the University’s major programs, to foster the scholarly arts, to provide opportunities for the development of leadership skills, to produce thoughtful and active citizens and to form a community of engaged students through innovative programming.

The names and high schools of the selected students are as follows:

Katelyn Allison – Northwest High School (Justin, TX)

Jered Bryan – Central Arkansas Christian

Shannon Caldwell – Clarendon High School

Ashton Cheatham – Jonesboro High School

Cal Clifton – Northside High School

Carter Crain – Pleasant Grove High School (Texarkana, TX)

Stephanie Daigle – Mount Saint Mary Academy

Stephanie Dayer – Conway High School

Kat Demaree – Mountain View High School (Loveland, CO)

Jessica Depew – Rogers Heritage High School

Kaylee DeWees – St. Joe High School

Holly Dickson – Conway, AR

Ethan Erwin – Lakeside High School

Jack Evans – Conway High School

Heather Forsythe – North Little Rock High School

Leesia Fugett – Cave City High School

Elizabeth Gambertoglio – Oak Ridge High School (Conroe, TX)

Sarah Gentry – Central Arkansas Christian

Santi Gonzalez – North Little Rock High School

Kelsey Gregory – Gravette High School

Christina Griffin – Benton High School

Natalia Hardgrave – Lamar High School

Mollie Mae Henager – Conway High School

Katie Hill – Lake Hamilton High School

Misti Hollenbaugh – Greenbrier High School

Desstoni Holman – North Little Rock High School

Dylan Housh – Pocahontas High School

Alex Hoyle – Alma High School

Collin Hutson – Paris High School

Ivana Ilic – Lake Hamilton High School

Bradyn Jeffus – Bald Knob HIgh School

Gordon Jensen – Little Rock Christian Academy

Hannah Jones – Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School

Courtney Kordsmeier – Mount Saint Mary Academy

Landon Lee – Benton High School

Jeremy Light – Star City High School

Jessica Lipe – eStem Public Charter High School

Tyler Love – Beebe High School

John Marasco – Russellville High School

Maggie McNeary – Charleston High School (Charleston, MO)

Emily Merrell – Jonesboro High School

Jamie Miller – Lincoln High School

Sierra Moon – Sheridan High School

Hallie Mossman – Batesville High School

Nathan Musso – Rogers High School

Houston Naugher – North Little Rock High School

Jojo Oluokun – Greenbier High School

Courtney O’Brien – Garrett Memorial Christian School

Laken Parker – Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts

Jordan Pfaff – Hallsville High School (Hallsville, TX)

Tyler Ramsey – Little Rock Catholic High School

Amber Rolland – Buffalo Island Central High School

Jacob Rose – Little Rock Central High School

Tanya Savenka – Little Rock Central High School

Madison Sewell – Texas High School (Texarkana, TX)

Daniel Shrum – Mountain Home High School

Maddie Spickard – Little Rock Central High School

Melia Stearns – Little Rock Christian Academy

Kenny Stice – Plano Senior High School (Plano, TX)

Lori Beth Stroderd – Spring Hill High School

Alyson Tyler – Heritage High School

Tanner VanDevender – Bauxite High School

Lee White – Bergman High School

Honors College Graduates and Destinations

Wilson Alobuia – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS Health Sciences
Dulce Armas – major: Sociology; minors: Anthropology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; applied to the Surgical Tech program at Baptist Health
Brett Bailey – major: Economics; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS College of Pharmacy
Lennon Bates – major: Biology; minors: Anthropology; Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Texas State University Anthropology (Biological Anthropology)
Sara Bayles – majors: Political Science, Religious Studies; minors: Gender Studies, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Duke Divinity School
Justin Bird – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Missouri English
Ty Bittle – major: Public Administration; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Community & Economic Development
Lindsey Cason – major: Insurance & Risk Management; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
TsungYen Chen – major: Chemistry; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS College of Medicine
Sarah Clarke – major: Marketing; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Kohl’s management, then UT Austin Market Research
Ayvee Cruz – major: Nursing; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Megan Danielson – majors: Political Science, Philosophy; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UALR Bowen School of Law
Destiny Davis – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UC Davis Plant Pathology
Brittany Edwardes – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Fulbright in Malaysia
David Friesen – majors: Finance, Accounting; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; FDIC Memphis
Jessica Gambill – major: Chemistry; minors: Biology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS College of Medicine
Austin Hall – major: Political Science; minors: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies, Public Administration
Leanne Hampton – major: Music; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Colorado-Boulder Music
Amber Haydar – major: English; minors: Spanish, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Tennessee-Knoxville English
Bryan Head – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS College of Pharmacy
Kathy Hill – major: Sociology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Fulbright in Korea
Mary Beth Hill – major: Marketing; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; J.B. Hunt
Andrew Hoelscher – major: Religious Studies; minors: Sociology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Johnson Intern Program of the Episcopal Service Corps
Cody Hudson – major: Computer Science; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Computer Science
Justin Hughes – majors: International Studies, Economics; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Minnesota Law School
Jenn Hynum – major: Digital Filmmaking; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies;
Stefani Johnson – major: Theatre; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Jordan Karpe – major: Art; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Math Education
Daniel Keil – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Maryland-College Park Biology
Shannon Kelly – majors: International Studies, Spanish; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Teach for America
Eliza Killey – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA English
Doug Knight – major: Creative Writing; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; International Episcopal Service Corps
Jenny Knight – major: Environmental Science; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; International Episcopal Service Corps
Casey Mikula – major: Economics; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Auburn MBA
Shannon Miller – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; professional au pair
Elizabeth Naglak – major: Biology; minors: Chemistry, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS Microbiology & Immunology
Alisha Neblett – majors: English, Modern Languages; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Boston U Teaching English as a Second Language
Lynn Nguyen – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
German Perez – major: Chemistry; minors: Mathematics, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; graduate school in Chemical Engineering
Kenneth Petre – major: Psychology; minors: Art, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Psychology
Kate Pitts – major: English; minors: Anthropology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies;
Kim Risi – major: Digital Filmmaking; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Florida State Film School
Mallory Roberson  – major: Sociology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies;
Nicholas Rogers – major: Modern Languages, International Studies; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; competitive cycling
Renee Ronquillo – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Johnson & Wales Culinary Institute
Patrick Russell – majors: English, Philosophy; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U Nevada Reno Environmental Literature
Cathrine Schwader – major: Sociology; minors: Anthropology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Clinton School of Public Service
Joanna Sence – major: Health Sciences (Physical Therapy); minors: Spanish, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Physical Therapy
Chip Shaw – major: Insurance & Risk Management; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Kat Short – major: History; minors: Anthropology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Rachel Sims – major: Spanish; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UCA Spanish
Gregory Sketas – majors: Biology, Philosophy; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UAMS College of Medicine
Natasha Skiver – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; CNA
Zack Stallings – major: Mathematics; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Jonesboro Engines, Inc. designing John Deere tractors
Sam Tamo – majors: International Studies, Sociology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Skipper Thurman – major: Physics; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; graduate school in Engineering
Naru Tsukuda – major: Political Science; minors: Music, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Bank of Japan
Adrea Walker – major: Economics; minor: Spanish; Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; U.S. Coast Guard
Shalisa Walker – major: Speech-Language Pathology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Ron Walter – major: Digital Filmmaking; minors: Economics, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Lesley Waterson – major: Spanish; minors: English, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Clint White – major: English; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UALR Bowen School of Law
Ben Wold – major: Biology; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; musician
Sarah Wray – major: Nursing; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
Garrett Wright – major: History; minors: Anthropology, Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; UNC Chapel Hill History
Andrew Yu – major: MIS; minor: Honors Interdisciplinary Studies; Acxiom Tester

Graduation Banquet Speech: Skipper Thurman

It’s wonderful to be here with all of you tonight.  I am especially grateful to have been given the opportunity to speak at this banquet, even though the cost of doing so is that I now owe Doug Corbitt my first born son.  I would like to apologize to my wife and mother for this, but that is just how much I desire attention.

For this speech I want to offer you a perspective on life that I have gained through the Honors College.  I can’t generalize what going through the Honors College has meant for all of you, but I want to share with you how it has affected me and perhaps you will find kernels of truth for yourselves.  My perspective comes from the realization that no person is offered a “manual” for how to live.  None of the important decisions or milestones that define our lives come with instructions for how we should proceed.  Please allow me to provide you with some examples from my own life, and get ready because I am going to carry this “manual” metaphor really far.

I have a long history with UCA.  My parents met at the Wesley Foundation on campus while they were students here in 1986.  By August of that year they were married.  I was born one year later, on a glorious day in November.  My mother was still in school at the time and my father was training in battle skills at Camp Robinson for the army, so I was often carried to my mom’s classes.  This means that I attended my first lecture at UCA as an infant, although my dad has pointed out that technically my first lecture would have been attended ‘in utero.’  Either way I have deep roots here.

When my 21-year-old mother left the hospital with me, she was not handed a baby manual on the way out.  I can only sympathize with how daunting it must be to realize that the care and nurturing of a new human depends all on you. I have been told that having children makes you realize what’s truly important to you, because what you really value is what you want to pass on to them. But what can prepare a person for that task?  We seem to look to religion, tradition, society, medicine, and a host of philosophies and ideas to inform us of how to go about it.  Ultimately, my parents used all of these influences, along with a lot of trial and error, to form their own manual for how to raise my brother and me.

Now fast forward to 2009.  Every year the freshmen in the Honors College go on a weekend retreat to Petit Jean.  I was sitting alone at the back of the bus when a girl approached and asked if the seat next to me was taken.  I said no.  I thought that having a beautiful and sweet-smelling girl sitting with me, unsolicited, on the ride was both nerve-wracking and totally awesome.  It may have been the only open seat left on the bus, but I wasn’t complaining.  We discovered that we had been raised in close proximity to each other; I was from Mountain View and she was from Calico Rock, about 20 miles away.  We talked the whole way down and rode back together too.  This was of course Jordan Meinzer, who has since become Jordan Thurman and my precious wife.  A couple months after the retreat, emboldened by the lofty philosophies of Sartre and Kierkegaard I was learning in Doug’s Honors Core I class, I asked her out for hot cocoa and we began dating.  One year later I proposed and on the 28th of this month we’ll celebrate our first wedding anniversary.

Marriage is another example of a decision for which there is no manual.  There is no guarantee of its success, no guidelines that work for every couple, and yet it is a decision which affects your entire life.  How does one go about choosing to dive into such an endeavor?  How can one be comfortable that he or she is making the right choice?  And how does one prepare for dealing with a great unknown?

Questions like these are where I think the Honors College has deeply influenced me.  On the surface, the Honors College would appear to just be teaching us the works of great thinkers and how to be better writers.  But there is something far more profound happening here.  The Honors College has led me to believe two things.  First, that I can write much of my own manual.  I can build a good life for myself and I can change things in this world for the better.  Second, other people have already written parts of my manual for me, but by understanding what was written and who wrote it I can edit my manual and know myself better.  Part of who we are is due to forces we can’t control; like genetics and culture.  The Honors College provides us with tools to help us analyze what shaped who we are today, and perhaps we can use that to shape our future selves.  With that in mind I can take comfort in building a meaningful marriage and a meaningful career because I have the freedom to give these things meaning.

The Honors College has accomplished these things in part by getting us to think critically about a broad range of difficult subjects from multiple disciplines.  I do believe there is value in being interdisciplinary, and it goes far beyond simply having more information.  By showing me how to find connections in knowledge, the Honors College has helped me see the value of my own efforts in physics, but also in the work of my peers.  Whatever it is that has inspired my classmates to have the passion they do for their subjects, the Honors College has provided an atmosphere where this passion may fuel others who love knowledge.  My classmates have given me enormous insight into the worth of their studies.  When Wilson Alobuia talks about medicine, when Kate insinuates that Yeats was great (that’s Kate Pitts), when Jordan Karpe creates such beautiful art, when Justin Hughes draws his weird-looking economics graphs, or when Patrick Russell explains ecology, here I see that all of you have great dedication and understanding for what you do.  My classmates elevate the curriculum by building interdisciplinary thinking into how they connect with one another and when they carry it outside of the University great things will happen.

I think this type of mindset that lends itself to being passionate about scholarship can extend far beyond academics.  We have now spent several years of our lives trying to understand how to analyze literature or how to set up a scientific experiment and we convince ourselves that doing so has a purpose.  That process of validation is what we are doing with much of what is meaningful in our lives.  Nobody gets a phone call with a confirmation saying, “Now you’re a man,” or “Congratulation, now you’re a good girlfriend.” It is up to us to figure out how to make such things realities for ourselves.  And don’t we all want to be passionate about everything we do?  The good professors, I think there are several here right now, are passionate when they go into the classroom with the knowledge that they are helping shape young minds.  The activists among you are passionate when you commit yourselves to helping solve social issues.  All of the parents here tonight, you have clearly done something right because your sons and daughters here are exceptionally intelligent, hard-working and kind.  People in love, trying to form a meaningful bond with each other, have to find passion for their relationship.  There are no manuals available for how to do any of these things, which makes it special when they are accomplished well.  And I hope you see a common thread for success in all of these endeavors.  I think it is an enormous amount of love.  Love for learning, love for humanity and love for all that we live by.  My mom may have fed me sweet tea in my bottle when I was a baby, but she also gave me a great deal of love, and I turned out mostly all right.  I am going to continue putting love into science and mathematics.  I look forward to pouring as much love as I can into my marriage and I fully expect it to be amazing.

The Honors College has offered me a glimpse into a way of living a more full life through examination.  It is certainly not the only way, but I am eager to go out and practice this theory on the world.  It is exciting to think of the potential among the students here as they go their separate ways with conviction for how they want to affect change.  I firmly believe that individuals can shape the world, although I didn’t when I started here.  That lesson alone is worth something.   I am sincerely grateful to have gotten to spend all the time that I have with all of you, thanks for being my friends. I want to wish you all luck in writing your own manuals.  And now I must end on a poem.  For my own instructions on how I think we should proceed from here I offer you “Figs” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-

It gives a lovely light.

Graduation Banquet Speech: Jenny Knight

Four years ago, maybe five for some of us, we were gearing up to graduate high school, probably the biggest milestone in our lives up to that point. We were spending far too much money on prom, diligently studying for AP exams (as all good Honors students do) and looking forward to spending the next four years in the Honors College at UCA with our own private bedroom! Little did we know we were about to embark on a journey that would be just as challenging as it was rewarding.

I guess it all started at I² day. Approximately 1/3 of you will recall, there was torrential downpour on this day. Oh, what’s that, you want to take my picture? So you can identify us in small-group discussion? No problem! (5 months later…) OH NO THEY DIDN’T! How could they? How long does this picture stay up? 2 years?! You’ve got to be kidding me…

And with that, our college career began. We were probably living with people we met at SOAR—a desperate attempt to live with “cool” nerds. We learned how to ride bikes on Petit Jean and met this weird guy who actually knew everybody’s name. I imagine that CORE I was the most interesting and challenging class for us that semester, seeing as we had to get those gen-eds out of the way. What is the “self?” Where do we find it? We explored these questions with the help of our friends Kierkegard and Sarte, Plato, Aristotle, Marx, and who can forget, Neiztche. And we all grasped their philosophies with great ease.

Core II was one of my favorite classes. We turned our focus outward from the self and began looking at the community. What makes up a community? How do individuals selves interact with one another? The course was really quite fitting, because it was around this time that I think we all started to see ourselves as a community. We had new friends join us that semester, but they were welcomed with open arms. And we didn’t just sit with each other at lunch because we didn’t anybody else, we actually enjoyed each other’s company and took advantage of that time to perhaps carry on a discussion from class or not.

Freshmen year was full of adventures, partly thanks to our awesome mentors (Patrick!) for putting on cool events like camp outs! Some of us dove into Greek life, some of us SGA, symphony, biology club…our Honors class pretty much had a fingerprint on all the clubs and organizations on campus. There were most certainly some trials and tribulations that year… a series of late night fire alarms for one, climbing accidents, Honors readings which might as have well been in Latin, and maybe even for some of us, a time of grieving for the loss of close ties with friends and families back home. It’s ok, you can admit it.

Sophomore year brought new respect and responsibility. Some of us were now the mentors offering those cool events like camp outs, we were big brothers and big sisters for the freshmen, we were asked advice, we got to choose our own honors class! Core III was about diversity. How do we see other communities? How are we the same and how are we different? To people outside the honors college, we may just be a bunch of overachieving suck-ups who undeservingly get a private bedroom in our dorm, and to us, they all may just be a bunch of slackers wasting their time and money on half a college education. But I think Core III, (and senior seminar perhaps) has helped us to see that UCA would not be UCA without its Honors College or without every other student, slacker or not. Because the diversity that we bring to our community is what sustains it and keeps it in balance.

Core IV, the search for the arts, was a trying class for me. I think we can all agree that Donna’s film lectures and presentations are probably on our top 5 list of reasons for choosing the Honors College at UCA. So I was super stoked to take her film class. And don’t get me wrong, the class was wonderful, I learned so much about the history of film and got the chance to watch a few classics. But part of the class was actually creating a short film with other students. If there is one person in this room who doesn’t like group work, it’s me. I have a hard time delegating and would often much rather just do the whole thing myself than risk somebody else not doing a good enough job. But I don’t think you can be the actor, director, camera operator, and the producer for a film, so alas alack, a group project it would be. I think we all learned a lot with that experience, and for me, it was really the beginning of a new understanding of community involvement.

We ended sophomore year with sophomore lectures, a short presentation on a topic to essentially prepare us for being a true Honors Scholar. Sophomore lecture, senior thesis, essentially the same right?

We celebrated our achievement with a Rising Scholars Banquet, nice food, fancy dress, and the opportunity to FINALLY update that god-awful picture that’s been hanging in the hallway for 2 years. Junior year was off to a good start. We were on the downhill slope of our undergraduate career and we knew just about everything about everything.

Our junior seminar classes enabled us to get more creative and apply all that we had learned the previous two years in unconventional ways. We gardened, conducted interview research on wineries in Arkansas, read horror stories, knitted and other things seemingly non-related to academia. Some of us served our community by being pedagogical assistants or teaching assistants for freshmen and sophomore courses. We applied for grants that sent us to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Korea, France, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Belgium, Brazil and all over the United States (and I’m sure a left out a few). We began thinking about thesis topics and ways to incorporate travel and research and unique experiences. We took on internships, research opportunities, or really low-paying summer jobs to try and spark an interest in something that we could throw ourselves into for the next year. Some of us succeeded, some of us had to try again, and again and again to nail down that topic.

I know I began senior year with a hop in my step, as I was gearing up for my last year of college and was about to marry my freshmen neighbor and sweetheart, Doug. Doug and Sam were roommates and lived across the hall. I grew up going to school with Sam, playing in orchestra together, on the soccer team, sneaking into high school prom as sophomores, we were close buds. I can still remember move-in day freshmen year, seeing Sam and his family in the room across the hall from mine. We had been in school together since 3^rd grade and were now not just in college together but neighbors. Sam introduced me to Doug, and well, you know the rest. Many of us have met lifelong partners and friends here in this community, but as we’ve been finishing up our classes for our majors and putting the finishing touches on our thesis, I don’t think we’ve had the time to really appreciate each other and how far we have come together.

I mean, do you realize what all we’ve accomplished?

We’ve been given departmental awards for excellence, performed with prestigious musicians, written plays, protested, painted murals, taken graduate level courses—and passed, presented research at national conferences, we’ve stood up for what we believe in against intimidating opposition, traveled the world, created policies, gotten into law school, received Fulbright Awards! And we’ve all done this together.

Parents and family, I want to thank you for supporting us in any capacity that you may have given it. For allowing us to leave the nest and really start a life on our own. I know for me, my parents gave me enough space for me to really feel like I was on my own, but also welcomed me home for dinner any time, and knowing that has been a real blessing.

Faculty and staff, I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you. These past four years have been challenging but rewarding. Thank you for being so intentional about our experience and really putting your heart and soul into our education. It means so much to us to have professors who know us by name, who are interested in carrying on conversations outside the classroom, who seek to facilitate discourse and not just deposit information into the empty bank accounts that are our brains. Sometimes it seems you all are a rare breed, and I hope those of us going into education have taken a note or two on your approach to teaching and can enlighten and motivate others as you have done for us.

Students, I want to thank each and every one of you for being involved and sticking out this journey together. Know that we are all an integral part of this community and have made an impact, whether you realize it or not. If you remember just one thing from this speech or from college in general, I hope it is this: that knowledge and education are the tools with which we move and create in this world, and the best way that we can use those tools is through each other by making connections and seeking to understand one another. Congratulations on your thesis and graduating, and I wish you the best of luck in all your upcoming adventures. Thank you.

Graduation Banquet Speech: Patrick Russell

This is a time of great excitement and relief. Here we go. We are standing at the gates, ready to blast off into our careers, ready to be successful, young professionals, ready to actualize our dreams. We have been prepping for this moment for 22 or more years. Our parents, our friends and family, and our teachers have been grooming us for this pivotal moment–the moment when we step out into the public sphere to give our little spiel, to make our small contribution. But before we all go our separate ways to pursue our dreams and to launch our careers, I ask you to consider that, perhaps, a just as equally rewarding, if not more fulfilling, goal is the maintenance of the relationships you have cultivated with all the people sitting around you tonight.

I am not sure what happens when you die, but I do know this: your last memories will not be about how you made an ‘A’ on an exam, or how you earned a rather high income and drove an awesome car, or how you had fundamentally altered the course of humanity in some profound manner; rather, I am fairly certain that your last memories will be filled with the laughter, joy, trials, hardships, pranks and, ultimately, the love you experienced with those sitting around you tonight–your family and your friends.

So, in a sense, graduation is a time of new beginnings, the opening up of unimaginable possibilities. Let’s make the best of that and celebrate it. However, graduation is also a time of embracing the past, of reflecting upon the beautiful moments of connection we have felt with each other. Our class motto–”Creative spirit, Courageous leadership”–embodies those moments of the past. We were definitely incredibly creative, and not just academically, but also in the way we celebrated life together and pulled pranks on each other. And we were also courageous leaders, in the sense that I saw a few of you here speak out against racial slurs or extend a caring hand to the “uncool” kids on the block. May we carry this motto forward into our personal careers, and may we refer to it as we try to discover the ways and means by which we maintain our relationships with friends and family.

Here’s to the times we comforted a friend because of personal loss and suffering, here’s to the times we felt the joy of learning something new and sharing that knowledge with friends, and here’s to the times we ran across campus in our underwear–may we continue to do all three, especially the last one, for the rest of our lives.

Featured Alumnus: Casey Gambill

Casey Gambill

If you had told me at graduation in 2009 that I would be teaching English to both deaf and hearing students in Spain, my eyebrows would have shot straight up.  At that time I still did not know what I wanted to do with my education, a double-major in Linguistics and Spanish and a minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. A few months after graduation, however, I welcomed the next adventure when I discovered I had been awarded a Fulbright Grant to Spain.

As an English-teaching assistant in Madrid, I spent the 2010-2011 school year working at a bilingual high school where I was warmly received; everyone from the secretary to the cleaning staff greeted me with a hearty “Good morning!” I was tickled to find that my position did not relegate me strictly to the teaching of English grammar—on the contrary; the job required me to co-teach subjects from P.E. to social studies to technology.

I was given the opportunity to share aspects of U.S. culture by preparing lessons on geography, literature, Native American tribes, high school slang and holidays. In keeping with the Fulbright Program’s aim to promote cross-cultural communication, I also organized a pen-pal exchange between my Spanish students and rural Arkansan high schoolers who received Spanish-language education from a distance-learning center.

In a teaching position for the first time, I immediately realized that teaching necessitates learning. I had to research grammar to answer questions the humble title of “native English speaker” had not prepared me for; inquiries about auxiliary verbs and phonological rules kept me on my toes. Reading widely about holiday traditions—Just who is this St. Patrick character?—put me as much in the role of learner as that of educator.

I didn’t think twice about signing up for a second year. Thanks to Spain’s current interest in bilingual education, I able to renew at the same high school. A major change in the current school year, however, has been that I am now working with students who have a low to intermediate level of English. In fact, my high school also has deaf students in these classes and I have had to learn tricks for adapting lessons for a group which has both hearing and hearing-impaired members.

After two years as a teaching assistant, I find the idea of my own classroom quite appealing. This fall I plan to make that a reality as I work toward a Master’s Degree in Bilingual and Multicultural Education through the Franklin Institute at the Universidad de Alcalá, one of Spain’s oldest universities.

There’s no denying that my experiences at UCA propelled me along the path I am on today. Spanish, Linguistics and Honors courses gave me important tools I needed to jump into life in another country. Studying abroad, as well as interacting with international students on the UCA campus, made me eager to encourage the cultural exchange embodied in the pillars of the Fulbright Program. When I came to Spain I was unsure if I was cut out to be a “profe,” as teachers here are affectionately called, but this fall I look forward to pursuing a degree in the teaching field—and to the next big adventure.

Featured Alumna: Beth Ann Estes

Today I finished my second year as a Political Science doctoral student at Vanderbilt University. The last two years have been both challenging and rewarding. I’ve taken a lot of interesting classes, had the opportunity to lead discussion sections for an introductory political philosophy course and have gotten to know several incredible scholars. I’ve also developed my own research interests and will begin a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will allow me to focus exclusively on my research for three years, this June. The research I’m currently working on deals with emotions and intergroup relations. More specifically, I am investigating the way that emotions felt toward one group influences emotions felt toward other groups and thus support for policies affecting those groups. For example, in a pilot experiment I found that asking American respondents to think about a hypothetical, negative encounter with an illegal immigrant (as opposed to a hypothetical, negative encounter with an ambiguous person) increases opposition to gay adoption. Over the next several months/years I hope to uncover other connections that move beyond the conflict between two specific groups. I think this holistic approach to understanding intergroup relations is vital if we truly desire to prevent all types of intergroup hostility and discrimination.

As I think about the last two years and my developing research interests, I cannot help but be amazed at how influential my Honors College education has been for getting me to where I am today. I feel like I had an easier transition to the graduate school environment than my peers from the start; I had experience with discussions in a seminar setting and the opportunity to develop close relationships with my professors as an undergraduate whereas many of my fellow graduate students completed their undergraduate studies at universities where most classes exceeded 200 students and student-faculty relationships were, for the most part, much more hierarchical.

I also give credit to the constant interaction I had with people from a variety of very different majors during my Honors College days for my ability to develop research interests that stretch across multiple disciplines and explain those ideas in an accessible way. This skill was especially useful when I was applying for the NSF fellowship, which evaluates applications heavily on the “broader impact” of the intended project. I would not have been as successful explaining my idea to sociologists (who fall under the social science umbrella and thus were potentially on the review panel) if I had not had ample practice within the Honors College explaining my ideas to everyone from mathematicians to artists on a regular basis. This skill has already proven invaluable, and I think it will continue to help me throughout my career as I attempt to make an impact not only on my discipline but society as a whole.

I would sincerely like to extend my gratitude to all of the Honors College faculty, staff and students for helping me build the skills I need to be successful graduate student and beyond. I cannot thank you enough, and I look forward to what the future holds.

Senior URGE Awards: Jenny Knight – Environmental Science: Planning and Administration

In the summer of 2011, I worked full-time during the summer at the Conway Planning and Development Department (CPDD) as the Special Programs Assistant. I was working to fulfill three  hours of internship credit for my environmental science major. Unfortunately,  the position was not a paying job. The first URGE award, $1060, covered my living expenses while I was working in addition to a small stipend.

The major project that I worked on during my internship was the crafting of an urban agriculture policy. This entailed research of other municipal policies as well as current Conway policies. With this information, I developed a 4-page ordinance amendment that if adopted, would become part of Conway’s official Zoning Ordinance. In addition to working on the urban agriculture policy, I did smaller assignments such as making maps, helping develop an urban agriculture tool-kit and taking pictures to document current agricultural activities within the city.

I returned to the CPDD in the fall of 2011 to begin additional research for my Honors Senior Thesis. With the help of my internship advisor, Wes Craiglow, I came up with the idea to facilitate public input sessions to revise the policy I drafted in the summer. After taking Doug Corbitt’s senior seminar class on democracy, I was eager to apply the philosophy of the democratic process and see it in action. The second URGE award, $800, compensated for the hours I had to cut back at my job in order to work for CPDD. It also covered expenses related to facilitating the meetings such as running off fliers, refreshments, gas, etc.

My work during the fall and spring consisted of holding a total of nine public meetings. These meetings were facilitated by me and throughout all the meetings, about 50 people participated in the process. We would normally meet for about 90 minutes to discuss different aspects of the policy and amend it to more accurately reflect the needs and concerns of the citizens. This process was incredibly enriching because it allowed me to experience firsthand the joys and troubles of democracy. At least one of the meetings makes my list of top five most horrifying experiences of my life; however, the positive feedback that I received from supporters and opponents alike makes my list of top five most rewarding experiences of my life.

After the public meetings were over, I presented the final draft of the policy to City Council (March 27, 2012). This was a chance for me to make a case for the adopting of the policy. There will be a chance for the public to voice their opinions, for or against, at an upcoming meeting when the policy is put on the agenda for a public hearing. But as for me, the hard part is over. It is up to the public to decide whether or not it wants to support the passage of this ordinance and to convince City Council members for a yay or nay vote.

I took this entire experience, the policy creation and following democratic process, and used it as a case study for exploring the stressful yet necessary nature of democracy. My thesis delves into the democratic process, drawing on anecdotes and personal commentary, to enhance my research of centuries of philosophers and their insight into democratic practices. I am very grateful for the financial support from the Honors College and UCA that enabled me to take on my summer internship and thus opened the doors for my thesis research. I was able to incorporate much of internship experience as well as Honors’ curriculum into my final thesis project. Additionally, the field experience working with the planning department has greatly enhanced my qualifications for Masters of Planning graduate programs.

AMC/Fairmont Pledges $100,000 for Dr. John Bratton Endowed Professorship

AMC/Fairmont has pledged $100,000 to become the lead donor and strategic partner in the advancement of the Insurance and Risk Management program by creating the Dr. John Bratton Endowed Professorship at the University of Central Arkansas. The growth and strength of the curriculum of UCA’s program is directly attributable to the leadership of Dr. John Bratton, stated Stephen L. Strange, president of AMC/Fairmont, formerly American Management Corporation (AMC). American Management Corporation was acquired in 2011 by Fairfax Financial Holdings and became part of their Crum & Forster division under the name AMC/Fairmont.

The number of majors has grown from six in 2002 to 87 in 2011. In 2011, Bratton championed the regulatory change allowing UCA graduates to take the claims adjusters license exam without the one year experience or direct supervision requirement.

Bratton, a professor of insurance & risk management, was also instrumental in bringing the University Associate Certified Insurance Counselor (UACIC) designation program to UCA. The program was created to give college students pursuing an insurance and risk management undergraduate degree the opportunity to attain a new level of professionalism through advanced practical education while in college. The earnings from this endowment will be used to provide resources and opportunities for faculty and students that would not otherwise be accessible.

Acxiom Corporation Gives $150,000 to Establish the “Acxiom Professors of MIS.”

Acxiom Corporation® has pledged $150,000 to the University of Central Arkansas to establish the “Acxiom Professors of MIS.” The gift will support five faculty members within the Department of Management Information Systems over the next four years. The gift was announced Tuesday during a press conference at the UCA College of Business.

“We sincerely appreciate this gift from Acxiom. This is just another example of Acxiom’s continued involvement in and generosity to UCA, but more importantly, to its commitment to the education of our students and faculty, and the overall improvement of Arkansas’s economy,” said UCA President Tom Courtway. “These funds will enable us to recruit and retain the highest quality faculty in the Management Information System program and provide our state with tomorrow’s leaders in the field.”

The department plans to use up to $37,500 per year to fulfill needs of faculty who work in close partnership with Acxiom. The funds can be used for research support, technology needs, conference travel, or any approved needs that further the department.

Professors selected for the program are Dr. Ron McGaughey, Dr. Summer Bartczak, Dr. Ken Griffin, Dr. Jim Downey and Dr. Kaye McKinzie.

Dr. McGaughey founded the Acxiom/IT Careers Camp that encourages bright Arkansas high school students to select a path of study in IT or MIS fields. Dr. Bartczak and Dr. Downey currently oversee the program. Dr. McKinzie has partnered with Acxiom in working on a project management course and business analytics. Dr. Griffin has been involved on the administrative aspect of all of these initiatives. Several of the faculty members are working on the Acxiom Task Force that has resulted in MIS curriculum redesign and alignment targeted to develop skill sets in graduates that meet the technology jobs market need, including Acxiom’s.

Between August 2011 and September 2012, UCA provided 34 interns and 18 full-time hires for Acxiom. Twenty four interns transitioned to a full-time role.

 Voss Awarded the Jack Meredith Award from the Journal of Operations Management for the Best Paper Published

Dr. Doug Voss

Doug Voss and  co-authors from Michigan State University received  the Jack Meredith Award from the Journal of Operations Management (JOM) for the best paper published in the Journal in 2011. JOM is debatably the top supply chain/operations research journal in the world.  According to Thomson Reuters, it has the number 1 impact factor of any Operations Research & Management Science journal ( http://www.elsevier.com/authored_subject_sections/S03/misc/ORMS.pdf ). It is one of 40 academic journals used by Financial Times to compile their annual business school research ranking, and is included in both their Global MBA and EMBA rankings ( http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-operations-management/journal-news/financial-times-research-rank/ ).

Voss’s winning paper is entitled, “Global Supply Chain Design Considerations: Mitigating Product Safety and Security Risks.” The article can be view here: Global Supply Chain Design Considerations.

There were three other manuscripts considered for the award, authored by faculty representing the following universities: The University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, University of Virginia, Arizona State University, Texas A&M University and Northeastern University.

Trucking Industry Defense Association Awards  $5,000 Grant to UCA

Joe Pappalardo, TIDA’s General Counsel, and Dr. David Voss

The Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA) has selected UCA as one of four recipients of its fifth annual Endowment Fund Grants in the amount of $5,000. The grant will help fund scholarships and research for the university’s Center for Logistics Education, Advancement, and Research (CLEAR), a program designed to prepare students for careers in the transportation industry.

The grant was presented to Dr. Douglas Voss, director of the CLEAR program for the University of Central Arkansas, at a ceremony on Sept. 20.

“On behalf of the University of Central Arkansas’ transportation and logistics students and faculty, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to TIDA for choosing our University and CLEAR as a beneficiary of its annual endowment program,” said Voss.

“Arkansas is home to many large trucking companies and our mission is to educate the motor carrier workforce of tomorrow. TIDA’s annual endowment grant allows us to reward deserving students with scholarships, fund faculty and student motor carrier research projects, and recruit the best students and employers to our program. The grant has a direct impact on the trucking industry as we work together to improve motor carrier safety and productivity,” said Voss.

Other recipients of TIDA’s 2012 Endowment Fund Grant were the University of Memphis, the University of North Texas and Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio.

Phi Beta Lambda Attends Annual National Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)-Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) National Leadership Conference

In early July, Phi Beta Lambda student officers attended the annual National Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)-Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) National Leadership Conference in San Antonio. They competed in business-related events against students across the nation.

The following students placed in the competitions: Roderick Wells — 3rd place in Website Design — awarded $250;  Nick Williams — 4th in Hospitality Management; Amber Rowlett & Alex Harbuck — 8th in Accounting Analysis & Decision Making; and James Calvert & Charlie Passmore — 5th in Marketing Analysis & Decision Making

UCA Ranks Among Top 50 in National Board Certified Teachers

The University of Central Arkansas was ranked 28th among the top 50 institutions of higher education to produce National Board Certified Teachers, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

UCA produced 33 National Board Certified Teachers in 2011. Three other Arkansas universities also ranked among the top 50.

National Board Certification requires classroom teachers to pass rigorous assessments and produce exemplary teaching materials and learning outcomes to earn the distinction of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher. National Board Certified Teachers are considered among the best in the teaching profession.

“I am pleased to see UCA hold a national ranking in the production of National Board Certified Teachers. This is a strong contribution to the education profession,” said Dr. Diana Pounder, dean of the College of Education. “I think as our recently revised Advanced Studies in Teacher Leadership program becomes even larger, we will see UCA’s place in these national rankings go even higher.”

Arkansas has more than 2,000 National Board Certified Teachers out of 97,000 nationally.

UCA participates in a National Board Certification training program supported by federal and state funds to prepare teachers for National Board assessment. The program also helps support candidates to defray some of their application and assessment costs. For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Williams at carolynw@uca.edu or visit www.arkansased.org/educators/recognition/nbct.html.

UCA’s Department of Teaching and Learning offers a master’s degree program whose core courses help prepare educators for National Board Certification. The ASTL program also offers students a variety of specialization options including coursework in specific content or teaching assignment areas and other endorsement credentials to supplement their initial teaching license. For more information, call Dr. Jeff Whittingham at jeffw@uca.edu or visit uca.edu/tlt/astlprogram.php.

Arkansas Educators Travel to China

UCA’s Confucius Institute, along with East China Normal University, sponsored eight Arkansas educators in a trip to China for a week in June to provide exchanges with educators in Shanghai and Hangzhou. The Confucius Institute’s Chinese Bridge for Arkansas Schools program seeks to start and strengthen Chinese language programs and partnerships in the state. The focus of the trip was to collect knowledge about China’s culture, society and educational system.

The Arkansas delegation spent a day at the Confucius Institute at East China Normal University in Shanghai where the visitors were provided Chinese language lessons and cultural experiences to broaden their understanding of Chinese culture. In addition, the delegation visited Changzheng High School, Gongchenqiao Primary School, Wenlan Middle School in Hangzhou and Ganquan Foreign Languages Middle School in Shanghai. Each of these schools provided insights for Arkansas educators into the educational system in China. Debbie Barnes, UCA College of Education, reports, “One of the highlights of our trip involved our conversations with primary age students speaking English and telling us about their school, favorite musicians, school subjects they liked  best and what profession they are most interested in pursuing. Students begin to learn English at the age of seven in China.”

Despite language and cultural differences, the educational systems are very similar. Both countries emphasize content subjects – mathematics, science, language, history while also providing students experiences with technology, art, music, sports, etc. One of the major differences for teachers is that in the United States, K-12 teachers teach six to seven class periods a day. In China, teachers may teach two to three class periods but they are also expected to research and write in their field of study. The Chinese educators reported that they did not have discipline problems in the schools because parents and students value education as a means to a better life.

In addition to sharing experiences with Chinese educators, the delegation was able to visit cultural sites in Shanghai and Hangzhou, including a tea farm, a Buddhist monastery, a countryside village, the Shanghai museum and other attractions.

Arkansas educators making the trip included: Daniel Daniels, assistant principal, and Brent Bogy, principal, representing Batesville Junior High School; Memorie Freyaldenhoven, sixth grade mathematics teacher, and Jamie Bird, Spanish teacher, representing Conway Public Schools; Tom Arnhart, Spanish teacher, and Bill Rowan, band director, representing Rogers Public Schools; Kim Rowan, Spanish teacher, representing Bentonville Public Schools; Debbie Barnes, Assistant Dean in the College of Education, and Guo-ou Zhuang, Director of the Confucius Institute, representing UCA.

ASTL Program Graduates Demonstrate Teacher Leadership Knowledge and Skills

On April 19, five Advanced Studies in Teacher Leadership (ASTL) candidates presented their exit portfolios. All five teachers spoke positively about the growth they had experienced in becoming teacher leaders while pursuing their graduate program. Each teacher has had fewer than five years of teaching experience.

The Department of Teaching and Learning is proud of these graduates who will now make an even more positive impact in their school districts and classrooms. For more information about the program, please contact Dr. Jeff Whittingham at jeffw@uca.edu or 501-450-5445.

Bearswrite: From Pencils to Pixels

The UCA Department of Teaching and Learning and Department of Writing hosted the first Bearswrite Writing Camp for local middle school students. The camp was held June 25-June 29 and included 36 middle school writers.

The Bearswrite camp was designed for aspiring authors entering grades 4 to 6. Bearswriters were involved in five action-packed days of writing using both traditional methods and writing with technology. Campers studied how to use voice, setting, word choice, character traits, point-of-view, journaling and poetry. Campers also learned how to blog, how to create a prezi or glogster and how to work with voki and blabberize.

Campers were inspired to write through fieldtrips on campus and a one day field trip to the Arkansas Arts Center where they viewed the exhibit “The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft.” Campers also interacted with published author Carla McClafferty who held a writing workshop and a book signing.

Campers created individual, digital portfolios of their best work, and a camp digital anthology was assembled. A final authors’ reception and closing ceremony was held on  June 29in Mashburn Hall. Campers shared their work in public performance with parents and community members.

In addition to Stephanie Vanderslice, Donna Wake and Jeff Whittingham of the UCA Department of Writing and the UCA Department of Teaching and Learning respectively, Janie Brown and Elizabeth Rollans of the Conway Public Schools and Vickie Rogers from the Vilonia Public Schools participated as teachers in this camp. Faculty were teacher consultants for the National Writing Project (NWP). Classroom writing assistants included current undergraduate and graduate teacher education candidates.

Dr. Alicia Cotabish to Receive National Gifted Education Award

Dr. Alicia Cotabish

Dr. Alicia Cotabish, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in UCA’s College of Education, has been selected to receive the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Early Leader Award. The Early Leader Award is given to “an individual who has exhibited the highest and most consistent degree of leadership in the gifted education field since receiving his or her doctorate.” The award will be presented to Dr. Cotabish at the NAGC national conference in Denver in November.

“It is such an honor to be recognized by the National Association for Gifted Children,” said Cotabish. “The talent in the field is top-notch, and is supported by strong leaders. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be recognized by the national organization and the field.”

Before working in higher education, Dr. Cotabish taught eight years in the public school system as an elementary and middle school science teacher, a gifted and talented teacher and an award-winning, district-level, gifted program administrator. “As a former middle school science and K-12 gifted education teacher, I had the opportunity to inspire students to be creative and to embrace scientific habits of mind,” she said. “With a pressing need to produce more Science, Technology, Engineerning, and Mathematics (STEM) talent in the U.S., the cross mix of science and gifted education was a good fit for me.”

Prior to joining UCA, Dr. Cotabish was the Associate Director of the Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and served as one of two Principal Investigators of STEM Starters, a federally-funded Javits project. In addition, Dr. Cotabish coordinated the Arkansas Evaluation Initiative in Gifted Education, a federally-funded, state-wide school program evaluation initiative. She has delivered more than 100 professional development workshops and presentations focused on STEM and gifted education at local, state, national and international venues.

Dr. Cotabish received the 2012 Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education Challenger Award for her work in STEM and gifted education and was the recipient of the Educator Award from the organization in 2007. In 2006, the National Association for Gifted Children awarded her the Doctoral Student Award for potential leadership and early scholarship in the field of gifted education. She was honored with the Texas A&M University – Texarkana Distinguished Alumna Award in 2008.

Dr. Cotabish is the currently the president-elect of the Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators (AAGEA), a constituent arm of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. In addition, she is the legislative co-chair of Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education and serves on a dozen other committees for education organizations.

She serves on six editorial review boards including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Administrative Issues Journal, TEMPO, Gifted Child Quarterly and Teaching for High Potential. Her recent work has focused on STEM education, school administration and low-income promising learners.

Dr. Cotabish received her doctoral degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2007, where she majored in Administration and Supervision with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented Administration.

 Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) Awards Chapter Grant to April Martin

President Starla Ritter awarding grant to April Martin.

April Martin was awarded the KDP Chapter Grant at the last meeting of the year. April is an education major pursuing a career as a secondary mathematics teacher. She is an active member of the Pi Beta Chapter, holding the offices of historian and vice-president. She has volunteered to help in various chapter functions, including decorations for the bulletin board and the teacher appreciation event in the college. She is active in other college activities as well. She was recognized for her dedication to sports and grades by being on the Southland Commission Academic Honor Roll in 2010 and 2011. April stated that she “wants to be able to reach all students even if that means she has to stay after school to help.” In addition, she “wants every student who comes through her classroom door to know she cares about them and wants them to be very successful in life.”

Kappa Delta Pi is an international honor society for educators. The Pi Beta Chapter at UCA is led by co-counselors Mara Cawein and Nancy Gallavan.

Art Education Student to Present at National Conference

Robyn Blaylock, who completed her K-12 art teaching license in May, was recently accepted to present at the National Art Education Association’s annual convention  in Ft Worth. The convention is scheduled for March 7-10, 2013. Robyn’s  session, “What a Student Teacher Learns… priceless,” consists of dramatic readings of her journal entries while student teaching in an inner-city high school. Excerpts include candid and personal reflections on issues such as motivating students, classroom management, contacting parents, and developing curricular units. NAEA received a record number of presentation proposals this year and relied upon a scoring rubric for the peer review and assessment process. The caliber of this year’s presentations was excellent—making the acceptance of just over 1,000 sessions (approximately 44%) highly competitive.

Drs. Jeff Young and Deborah Kuster will also be presenting at the conference. Their session, “The Making of an Art Teacher,” describes the results of a longitudinal study describing how six art teachers’ perceived identities and their roles change during their journey from their first year through their fourth year of teaching.

Hu Among Few Scholars Selected for NSF-sponsored Early Career Symposium

Haihong (Helen) Hu

Haihong (Helen) Hu, an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership Studies, was recently selected to attend the Association of Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) Early Career Symposium sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Nine early career faculty applicants from the U. S. were selected through a competitive application process to attend the symposium to receive mentoring on building a research agenda, pursuing funding, and building collaborations, developing a community of researchers interested in ways technology can transform teaching and learning. AECT is an international professional association dedicated to providing leadership in educational communications and technology by linking professionals holding a common interest in the use of technology and its application to the learning process.  Dr. Hu has since made multiple local, regional and national presentations and publications on her work in asynchronous distance education and other technology-aided instructional approaches.

Feng’s Literacy Expertise Tapped by UCA’s STEM Institute and Confucius Institute

Shoudong Feng

Shoudong Feng,  an associate professor in the College of Education’s Reading Graduate program, has been busy bringing his expertise on literacy to other units on UCA’s campus. Specifically, during Summer 2012 he collaborated with the STEM Institute to help approximately 40 struggling readers from 23 Arkansas high schools to improve their reading comprehension and reading skills. Additionally, his summer included a presentation to new Chinese language teachers assigned to teach in Arkansas K-12 schools, a collaborative program between the Confucius Institute and the Arkansas Department of Education.

College of Education Faculty Focus on School Improvement Publications

Dr. Shelly Albritton

Dr. Angela Webster-Smith

Dr. Patricia Kohler-Evans

Professors Angela Webster-Smith, Shelly Albritton and Patty Kohler-Evans co-authored a recently published book entitled Meaningful Conversations:  The Way to Comprehensive and Transformative School Improvement, Rowman-Littlefield Publishers (2012).  They also have published a related chapter, Coaching to transform the heart, head, and hands of teaching and learning, in a book edited by McGill and Kippers entitled Pathways to Transformation:  Learning in Relationship, Information Age Publishing (2012).  These publications are influenced by their current and prior school improvement work, and their investment in promoting effective communication and school improvement strategies to enhance school outcomes for students and teachers.

Patty Phelps’ Book Inspires University Teaching Faculty

Like so many things in life, it happens slowly and almost imperceptibly. But, eventually your teaching career, something you once looked at as “a calling,” begins to feel like nothing more than a job. You’ve gotten off track and fallen deep into a teaching rut.

Patty H. Phelps, EdD knows what it’s like. A few years ago, she says, her teaching life had reached what felt like a dead end. She was “going through the motions” and had definitely lost her joy of teaching.

Today Phelps, a professor in UCA’s College of Education, has her joy back. In Journey of Joy: Teaching Tips for Reflection, Rejuvenation and Renewal she shares her experiences and offers advice to guide others to more joyful teaching. From building connections with students to celebrating even minor victories, this new ebook is loaded with practical tips for getting and staying engaged, enthused and excited about teaching. The  first week the book was available, there were over 25,000 downloads.

For the past three years Phelps has led a standing-room-only plenary session on joy in teaching at the annual Teaching Professor Conference.

Dr. Ryan Fisher

Dr. Ryan Fisher, an assistant professor, and Dr. Paige Rose, an associate professor of music education, have collaborated on several projects and events over the past few months. Together with recent UCA music education graduate, Sally Shewmaker, they published their research article, “Effects of manual/pedal movement, tempo, and gender on accuracy of steady beat in kindergarten students,” in Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education.

Rose then presented the results of a new follow-up study at the National Association for Music Education Conference held in St. Louis in March. Her research was funded by a research grant from the University Research Council. Dr. Fisher also attended the conference, presenting, “Impact of the male voice change on singing self-efficacy.”

This past spring, both professors attended the Texas Music Educators Association Conference, one of the largest music conferences in the nation with 28,000 attendees. Dr. Fisher combined with Southern Methodist University colleague, Dr. Julie Scott, to present “The effects of vocal register use and age on the vocal health of male elementary music teachers.” Dr. Rose presented “Leaving Chalkboards in the Dust,” an interactive interest session on using SMART boards in the music classroom

Dr. Paige Rose

Interactive white boards were also the topic of summer professional development provided by both professors. Rose presented a six-hour SMART board session in DeQueen. Both Fisher and Rose then combined to present a basic SMART board session and an advanced SMART board and iPad session for music educators.

Drs. Fisher and Rose also serve as directors of the Central Arkansas Children’s Choir, who traveled to Chicago in late June. The group had several Conway rehearsals in preparation for their trip to the Windy City Youth Choral Festival, where they combined with other choirs from across the world. The entire ensemble of 250 children rehearsed for two days together before their concert at the famed Orchestra Hall, home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Rose also spent part of the summer in Washington D.C. at the 2012 NAfME Music Education Week.  There she participated in division and national assembly meetings, as well as music advocacy and education policy talks with senators on Capitol Hill.

Following these back-to-back trips, Dr. Rose and Dr. Fisher hosted UCA’s fourth summer of Orff Schulwerk training, which was offered to music teachers from around the entire country. This two-week training was funded in part by a UCA Foundation Grant that the pair obtained. This marks the fourth consecutive summer of the program.

Immediately following this training, Fisher and Rose traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece for the International Society of Music Education Biennial Conference. Dr. Fisher presented research entitled, “Effects of male voice change, grade level, and experience on singing self-efficacy of emerging adolescent males.” Rose combined with former UCA alumnus, Karyna Johnson, to present research entitled, “The effects of music activity sessions on a child with autism: A case study.” This was the first time for this research to be presented internationally. Johnson, who has been honored as a “Mile High Teacher of the Year” for the state of Colorado, was a music education and Honors College graduate. A portion of Rose’s travel expenses was funded by a UCA Faculty Development Grant.

Both Fisher and Rose teach full time graduate summer courses in the newly revised and growing masters of music in music education program.

Mark Spitzer

Mark Spitzer, associate professor of creative writing, had the following works accepted for publication over the summer: the poem “Lake Conway Monster / The Evolution of” in Xavier Review, thepoem “Arkasquatch” in Gambling the Aisle, the poem “Invasive Species” in HouseOrgan, and the essay “Back to France: An American Punk in Paris Bids Adieuto an Iconic Biblio-Visionary” in ChamberFour. He was also the featured speaker at the 58th Southwestern EnergyArkansas State Science & Engineering Fair held at UCA, and his upcomingbook Monstropocalypse Opus IV was afinalist in the 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Novel Contest in NewOrleans. UCA’s Toad Suck Review,which Spitzer manages and edits, received an international award from Library Journal for being one of the tenbest literary journals of 2012. Spitzer’s recent article on creative writing pedagogy and theory,was published in The Chronicle by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

John Vanderslice

John Vanderslice, associate professor of writing, published the short story “My Word” in a special Father’s Day edition of the journal Literary Mama. The story has since been optioned by English actress and movie producer Louise Dylan for the purposes of making a short film.  A feature film is also possible in the future.  Dr. Vanderslice will serve as co-producer of the short film and will contribute to the writing of the screenplay. 

Garry Craig Powell

Garry Craig Powell, an associate professor in the Writing Department, has just published his first novel, Stoning the Devil (Skylight Press, August 2012). Set in the United Arab Emirates, where Powell used to live, the book details the troubled love lives of cast of characters of Arabs and expats. The female characters all struggle for freedom and independence in different ways. According to the illustrious Arab-American author, Naomi Shihab Nye, “Stoning the Devil is a mesmerizing read. Garry Craig Powell has an astonishing ability to create characters with swift and haunting power. His intricately linked stories travel to the dark side of human behavior without losing essential tenderness or desire for meaning and connection. They are unpredictable and wild. Is this book upsetting? Will it make some people mad? Possibly. But you will not be able to put it down.”

David Bailin

David Bailin, an instructor in the Department of Art, took part in the following exhibitions 2012 Arkansas Contemporary: Selected Fellows from the Arkansas Arts Council, August – November at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock and the 2012 Between Truth and Fiction: Pictorial Narratives, September – October in Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles.  Bailin’s publications include “Sign & Symbol, The 22 Magazine,” Vol2 II, pp. 38-56 or print version and ‘Who’s Who in American Art, 33rd Edition,’ Marquis Who’s Who, LLC, New Providence, RI. He will also participate in the third annual ALAartShow – A juried Exhibition scheduled for Oct. 12, 2012 to Jan. 26, 2013.

Anthony McMullen

 The  Department of Communication has selected Anthony McMullen as Director of Forensics. McMullen will coach the University’s award winning debate team and other competitive speaking activities. UCA competes under the auspices of the International Public Debate Association, continuing a century-long tradition of successful intercollegiate forensics competition.

Dr. Barbara Williams

Barbara G. Williams, RN, PhD, board member, Conway Regional Medical Center and chairperson of the Department of Nursing at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, has been elected as a Regional Trustee alternate delegate to the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board 7 for a term effective Jan. 1, 2013 and expiring Dec. 31, 2015. Dr. Williams is president-elect of the Arkansas Association of Hospital Trustees and will join the Arkansas Hospital Association board of directors in November.

Dr. Mary Harlan

Dr. Mary Harlan, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, recently received the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) Leaders Award. This prestigious national award was presented to Mary at the 2012 AAFCS Pacesetter Dinner held in conjunction with the annual conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Leaders Award was established to identify and honor family and consumer sciences professionals who have made significant contributions to the field through their involvement with AAFCS. Dr. Harlan was nominated by the Arkansas Affiliate of AAFCS and received the state award in 2011.

Dr. Letha Mosley Completed Term as  Chair of Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education

Dr. Letha Mosley from UCA has completed her three-year term as chairperson of the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE).

Dr. Letha Mosley

Mosley applied to be on the Roster of Accreditation Evaluators (RAE) in 1996, and before the end of her first full year she was invited to serve on the Council. She served for six years on the council and decided, after being away from accreditation for a few years, to run for a chair position. She was elected to the chair of ACOTE in 2008 and has served since.

Her duties as chairperson were to make sure that the accreditation processes were effective and efficient by preparing meeting agendas and presiding over the Council meetings, keeping accreditation trends up to date as related to occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant education, approving budget, appointing new members to ACOTE and RAE, coordinating and/or delegating internal orientation and educational programs, representing ACOTE at national meetings, serving as Organizational Advisor to the AOTA Board and working in collaboration with staff report as required to the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Mosley said that she was pleased with what she helped get accomplished during her time as chairperson.

“During my tenure we made several enhancements in policies and procedures; strengthened the education and training that occurs for ACOTE, RAE and constituents; started the transition into e-Accreditation; increased the diversity of the Council and RAE; reviewed, modified and adopted a new set of standards; was awarded full recognition by the USDE; and enhanced communication between the agency and key stakeholders,” she said. “One of the most important aspects of my term was trying to facilitate a spirit of enhancement that ultimately improves the quality of the programs and the education that OT and OTA students receive.”

UCA Kinesiology Graduate Honored with Most Outstanding Teacher Award

Reginald Summerville, a 2009 Graduate of the PETE program, was selected Health Physical Education Lifetime Wellness (HPELW) Most Outstanding Teacher of the Year for the Memphis City School District.

Memphis City School has four different regions and in those regions are different elementary, middle schools and high schools. Principals from the four regions nominate their HPELW teachers to be recognized as the Physical Educator of the Year. Each individual that was nominated by their principal received an award but there was only one award given for the Most Outstanding Physical Educator of the year.

Reginald has been at the Knight Road Elementary school since the 2009-10 school year. During the past several years, he has implemented The FITT Club that is designed to increase the amount of physical education time for these children while focusing on the overall health and wellness/physical fitness of the students. Additionally, he has founded a football team (The Crosscheck Cardinals) that has been an awesome community building opportunity for the local community. This past year he started a running club as an after school activity. These programs have all facilitated a deeper sense of accountability within the students because if conduct and grades are not in line, participation is not permitted.

Dr. Yvette Williams, principal,  has these words about Reginald:  “He is one of a kind. He is genuine and authentic with his words and gestures. He is respected by his students, peers and the community. His enthusiasm and spirit contribute to an overall culture of striving for excellence and maintaining high expectations for the students he serves.”

Upon receiving the award, Mr. Summerville stated: “I would like to thank the PETE department for being instrumental in getting me to this point and for the rigorous standards set by the program. I could not have attained this without the support of the faculty and staff in the Kinesiology department at the University of Central Arkansas that made sure we were prepared physical educators upon leaving the program.”

He currently is seeking his master’s degree from the University of South Florida and will complete that in the spring of 2013. His future plans are to continue to be an advocate for physical education by steering youth away from sedentary lifestyles.

Athletic Trainers and Students make an impact at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Clinical Symposia

Steve Tucker

Led by Steve Tucker, PhD, ATC, UCA athletic trainers were very evident at this year’s annual meeting held in St. Louis. Dr. Tucker,  who is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, presented a mini-course entitled “Closing the Chain on Shoulder Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention.” He also presented a research study entitled “A Comparison of Scapular Upward Rotation between Overhead Athletes, Non-Overhead Athletes and Non-Athletes.” Co-authors were former undergraduate students Lyndsey Ingram, ATC and Yuka Shimozawa, ATC.

Lyndsey Ingram, ATC,  also presented her research entitled “The Influence of Athletic Participation on the Degree of Change of Scapular Upward Rotation” Co-authors on the study were former undergraduate student, Yuka Shimozawa, ATC and  Tucker.

Meghann Brewer, a 2012 graduate amd ATC,  was a finalist for an undergraduate research award at the Clinical Symposia. Her research was entitled “Bilateral Comparison of Shoulder Kinematics in Collegiate Volleyball Players” and was co-authored by Tucker.

To round out a memorable week, current Head Athletic Trainer, David Strickland MS, LAT/ATC, was honored with an NATA Service Award at the Honors and Awards banquet. Past UCA ATEP Program Director Lorna Strong, MS, ATC, was honored with an NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Training Award.

These athletic trainers and students not only provide medical care to the athletes at UCA, but they are providing new research and making an impact in the profession of athletic training at the national level.

UCA Athletic Trainers’ Host Clinical Workshop

Steve Tucker, PhD, LAT, ATC from the College of Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Kinesiology, organized a clinical workshop entitled “Emergency Care for the Injured Athlete.” The workshop took place on July 23, 2012 on the campus of UCA and was open to athletic trainers, paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The morning session featured two speakers. The first speaker was UCA alumnus Carl Leding, MD, FACC, a specialist in Cardiovascular Medicine and a partner at the Arkansas Heart Hospital Clinic in Little Rock. He shared his expertise on cardiac abnormalities in the athletic population and acute management of cardiac events.

The second speaker was Erik Swartz, PhD, ATC, FNATA, a nationally recognized researcher in the management of athletes with cervical spine injuries. He spoke about common mechanisms of spinal cord injuries in the athletic population and the recommended acute management. Both speakers shared valuable and current information to an audience of 21 athletic trainers and emergency medical personnel.

The afternoon session was a hands-on laboratory. Multiple scenarios were presented and discussed, and attendees practiced emergency procedures such as football face mask removal, helmet and shoulder pad removal, various spine boarding techniques, the application of automated external defibrillators and resuscitation techniques, and intermediate transportation. Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) provided two intermediate transport vehicles equipped with medical equipment that are utilized in transporting injured athletes from athletic fields to ambulances.

The laboratory session was instructed by the following professionals:

Maj. Ken Ekenseair – Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS)

Harold D. Shray, BSE, NREMT-P – University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

David Strickland, MS, LAT, ATC – University of Central Arkansas

Erik Swartz, PhD, ATC, FNATA – University of New Hampshire

Steve Tucker, PhD, LAT, ATC – University of Central Arkansas

Kinesiology Instructors Conduct Workshop for Local Physical Education Teachers

Mary Ann Schlientz

Betty Sessum

Dr. Mitch Parker

Suzi Wilcox

The UCA Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) faculty conducted an in-service workshop in early August for the Conway Public Schools. The program was a Professional Development for Physical Educators in K-12. Betty Sessum and Suzi Wilcox lead the elementary curriculum instruction with scooter games, dance and yoga. Mitch Parker, PhD and Mary Ann Schlientz conducted the secondary portion of the program by introducing lessons in basketball and volleyball from the Games for Understanding curriculum model.

“The PETE department from UCA did an outstanding job working with our Conway School District Physical Education teachers,” Janet Taylor, assistant athletic director at Conway High School, stated. “We had around 30 – 35 teachers that attended and all were engaged and enthused by the workshop presentations. We are looking forward to continuing to grow our great partnership with that department.”

Faculty, Students Publications

Elizandro, A., Bramlett, R.K. & Crow, R. (2012). The effects of musically adapted and traditionally read social stories on the prosocial and negative behaviors of hyperactive-impulsive children. Perspectives (Journal of the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association), 7, 9-15.

Bramlett, R. K., Hopper, J., Lester, M., & Hindman, J. (2012, February). School Psychologists’ Training in Prevention: A Survey of Program Directors. Paper presented at the National Association of School Psychologist, Philadelphia: PA.

Nail, P. (2012, April). Future trajectories in psychology and culture. In R. Wight (Ed.), Future trajectories in psychology: Perspectives from SWPA’s past presidents. Invited symposium, Southwestern Psychological Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Joshi, K. J., Simon, J., Bihm, E. M., & Nail, P. R. (April, 2012). The relationship between self-esteem, defensive egotism, and various roles in bullying situations. Poster presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mikeal, C., & Nail, P. R. (April, 2012). I have to wash my hair: Why reasons matter. Paper presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Van der Toorn, J., Nail, P. R., Liviatan, I., & Jost, J. (2012, March). My country, right or wrong: System threat eliminates the liberal-conservative gap in patriotism. Invited address, 5th Annual Conference on Experimental Political Science, New York University, New York.

Simon, J.B. (2012, March). Enhancing hospital-to-school transition success: How YOU can contribute. Arkansas Mental Health in Education Association, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mitchell, C., & Simon, J. (2012, February). Seeking interventions: Development of the Website Investigation Model. Poster presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Michael Yoder

Dr. Michael Yoder, an associate professor of geography, recently appeared on KTSS in Texarkana/Hope. The show, which aired Aug.6, is a 24-minute show that was taped in four parts. The research topic, titled “Highway Commercial Strips and Evolving Micropolitan Geographies of Arkansas” examines the impact of automobiles and related sprawl on small cities in Arkansas. The research was conducted between late summer 2011 through June 2012, and involved case studies of Magnolia, Hope, Batesville and Blytheville. The field work and public presentations of the results were funded by the Arkansas Humanities Council (AHC) and UCA’s Department of Sponsored Programs. The methodology included interviews of local historians, urban planning officials, and commercial real estate brokers, as well as archival research, primarily news articles and city directories from the 1950s through the 1980s. The segment are available at:

Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx5qynEnhQs

Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMQCcN1zBJ4

Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM2N1OWrLKE

Part IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6ni_MXWl4

Phi Alpha Theta, Mu Chapter, Wins Best Chapter Award for 2012

The University of Central Arkansas’s Mu Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta has received the 2012 Best Chapter Award from Phi Alpha Theta, the American history honor society for undergraduates, graduates, and professors of history. The award is presented to those chapters that excel in promoting the mission of the national honor society at the local level. The Mu Chapter competed in Division IV, which represents universities with a student population between 10,001 and 15,000. Phi Alpha Theta presented the Mu Chapter with a certificate of achievement and a $250 monetary prize to purchase books for the university library.

“This award is a tribute to the dedication of the members and the leadership of our officers,” Dr. Michael Rosenow, co-faculty advisor of the Mu Chapter said. “It is a well-deserved honor for our outstanding students who worked hard during the year to promote an active honor society that fostered a vibrant intellectual community in the history department.”

The Mu chapter offered study skills workshops for general education history classes, hosted movie nights, coordinated a forum on graduate school, and more. Three student members traveled to the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Conference in Orlando, Florida, in January of 2012 to present their research. Five student members presented papers at the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference hosted by the Mu Chapter at the University of Central Arkansas in March 2012.

“For several years our honor society has been one of the best little secrets on campus. Having lots of fun, serving our campus, and even once in awhile being history nerds is an achievement worthy of recognition,” Dr. Brent Ruswick, co-faculty advisor, said in response to the national recognition.

The Mu Chapter was organized in 1932 when the campus was known as Arkansas State Teachers College. Student officers for 2011-2012 were Laura Choate, President, Nathan Robbins, Vice President, and Ty Hendricks and Garrett Wright, Secretary.

For more information,  please contact Michael Rosenow, (501) 450-5623, mrosenow@uca.edu.

The History of Nursing at UCA

The University of Central Arkansas (UCA) Department of Nursing was established 45 years ago, in 1967. It can trace its beginnings to the closing of the nursing program at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU). The OBU nursing program was short lived and began in September 1965 and ended in spring 1967. OBU had taken over the program from Arkansas Baptist Hospital but could not continue to operate it due to a lack of financial resources.

In a letter dated April 19, 1967, from the president of OBU, Ralph Phelps, Jr., to the OBU School of Nursing faculty, the reasons for ending the nursing program at OBU were discussed. According to President Phelps, “It is with the deepest possible regret that I must inform you that the Executive Committee of our Board of Trustees today voted to discontinue our program in nursing education after this present school year.

For several weeks we have searched desperately for funds with which to keep the School of Nursing in business. Every possible source suggested by anyone was explored. I presented, without recommendation, these facts to the trustees today. After a lengthy discussion, they came to the conclusion that the prospects of raising the $75,000 to make up the nursing deficit this next year were dim and the chances of raising the anticipated $100,000 deficit next year were even more dim. They therefore concluded that we were simply unable to stay in the nursing business. I should like to stress that their decision was based on the economic factor alone.”

OBU attempted to raise the necessary funds to keep their nursing program operating but fell far short of what was needed. In an April 22, 1967, article in the Log Cabin Democrat, OBU President Phelps was quoted as saying, “We had not one single offer of a penny from anybody but a dear lady in the country, outside of Arkadelphia. We had some offers from business people to help temporarily — not large amounts and with the provision we would not come back again. There were no offers of help from the medical profession.”

In a separate memorandum dated April 20, 1967, from OBU President Phelps to the School of Nursing, President Phelps stated in part, “To have retained the School of Nursing would have lessened the chances of our having a quality school at Arkadelphia. The trustees were not willing to do this. While the experience is a heart-breaking one for us here, the real loser is the State of Arkansas, which is woefully short of nurses. However, we have been unable to enlist philanthropic givers as we had thought we could when we started this program. Why Arkansas does not see the nursing need we do not know. But it doesn’t.”

President Phelps’ comments about Arkansas having a nursing shortage were not without merit. According to a 1969 report titled, “Registered Nurse Plan: Supplement to the Self-Evaluation Report of State College of Arkansas Department of Nursing,” Arkansas had the least number of nurses in the nation. According to that report, the southern states averaged 215 nurses per 100,000 people in 1962 but Arkansas only had 121 nurses per 100,000 people. In 1968 the national average was 298 nurses per 100,000 people with the District of Columbia having the most nurses with 529 per 100,000 and Arkansas having the least with 142 nurses per 100,000 people.

The severe shortage of nurses was also mentioned in an editorial in the May 5, 1967 edition of The Echo (UCA student newspaper) which stated the need for more nurses in Arkansas. According to The Echo, “Interested in a nursing career? SCA will institute a baccalaureate nursing program in June. The opportunities for professional nurses are excellent. The demand is high and is expected to continue to be greater than the supply. Hospital administrators in Arkansas estimate the state is 5,500 nurses short now.”

Less than one week after OBU President Phelps notified the OBU School of Nursing faculty that their department was closing, a memorandum from J.B. Gilbreath, an administrator for the Arkansas Baptist Medical Center, stated that State College of Arkansas (now UCA) had been approved for the program.

In a memorandum from J.A. Gilbreath to Arkansas Baptist Medical Center department heads, dated April 24, 1967, Gilbreath stated, “Mrs. Nell Balkman, president of the State Board of Nurse Examiners, has informed me today that the State Board has approved the State College of Arkansas at Conway beginning a degree program in nursing. Our Ouachita students may transfer to the Conway program and any students who were to have come to our hospital on June 1 may carry out their original plans except that their degree will be from Conway. Dr. Snow will make an announcement in the papers sometime tomorrow and therefore our crisis is passed…All those faculty members desiring to transfer to Conway may do so.”

Dr. Silas Snow, UCA’s fifth and longest tenured president, who served from 1953 to 1975, made an announcement about UCA’s newly created nursing program in the April 25, 1967 edition of the Log Cabin Democrat. According to the Log Cabin Democrat, “State College of Arkansas, with the blessing of the State Board of Nurse Examiners, a pledge of cooperation from the Arkansas Baptist Medical Center and offers of financial support, will institute a baccalaureate nursing program in less than two months.

SCA, while state appropriations are fixed until July 1969, accepted Governor Rockefeller’s personal offer of $25,000 a year for a two-year period provided the gift would be matched by the Conway community. College officials say they have been assured by Conway business leaders that the citizenry here will raise $25,000 per year for two years to match the Rockefeller gift. Snow said the college in the meantime would investigate the possible assistance of federal funds to finance the school.”

The first and only degree initially offered was the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) with a major in nursing. This degree should not be confused with the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) which came later. The first two years of the program were taught on the UCA campus and included courses in general education, chemistry and other science courses. The final two years of the program were a cooperative effort between UCA and the Arkansas Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock.

One of the reasons that UCA was chosen for the nursing program was the recent completion of the new B.A. Lewis Science Center. The new Lewis Science Center, completed in 1967, was inspected by officials from the Arkansas Baptist Medical Center (ABMC). The ABMC administrative staff was favorably impressed with UCA’s facilities which proved to be important in helping UCA secure the nursing program.

Dr. A.E. Burdick, Dean of the College and President Snow appeared before the Arkansas State Board of Nurse Examiners to make UCA’s case to acquire the program. According to the April 25, 1967 edition of the Log Cabin Democrat, “The college was given conditional approval for its program by the board and its chairman, Mrs. Nell T. Balkman. Burdick said the school would apply to the National League for Nursing for accreditation for the college’s new program. Consultants, probably from the University of California at Los Angeles, will assist the college in planning its program, Burdick said.”

UCA was given official approval from the National League for Nursing in September 1967 to accept nursing students into its program. According to the October 6, 1967 edition of The Echo, “Dr. Silas D. Snow, SCA president, said the board of Directors of the National League gave its approval after an examination of SCA’s plans and facilities at Little Rock and Conway September 13. The approval, he said, took the form of what the League calls ‘reasonable assurance of accreditation.’ He stressed that such a rating is all that any beginning nursing department could receive from the League. Full accreditation can come only after there is a product for the League to judge. Immediately after our first class of nurses has been graduated, we will seek full accreditation from the League.”

J.A. Gilbreath of ABMC was happy that UCA was selected to operate the nursing program and was quoted in the Log Cabin Democrat as saying, “With the progress that the college has made in the past few years and with its promise for the future, we’re pleased to be a part of the program.” Gilbreath was also favorably impressed with the enthusiasm exhibited by the UCA administration and he promised that ABMC would do all it could to support the nursing program at UCA.

It was anticipated that UCA would have about the same number of students registering for nursing classes as OBU, but the number was exactly half as many for the first year. During the first fall semester at UCA (1967) there were 130 students enrolled in the new nursing program. Of the 130 nursing majors, 102 students were registered as freshmen and sophomores and 28 were registered as juniors.   – Jimmy Bryant, director of UCA Archives

Author’s Note: Sources for this article include The Echo, Log Cabin Democrat, State College of Arkansas Bulletins, and materials from M12-02 UCA Department of Nursing Collection held by the UCA Archives. The article for next week will look at the advancement of the nursing program at UCA.