Letters and Sciences Today - Fall/Winter 2022

and

-Winston Churchill

The faculty and staff as well as the valued donors of the College of Letters and Sciences are committed to our students. Thank you to our donors and faculty for your undeniable commitment and dedication to the work of the College of Letters and Sciences and our students’ success. Donors, your generosity and selflessness enable us to provide exceptional educational experiences for our students through scholarships, internships, study abroad, and more. Thanks to donor support coupled with faculty mentorship, we have been able to change lives through our gifts and talents. As a result, COLS’ students have been accepted into prestigious summer undergraduate research programs, been chosen winners of top honors for their academic excellence, presented at regional and local professional conferences, won literary awards, and created an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. For example, fortytwo students presented at local and regional professional conferences in the past two years (e.g., the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Academy of Science, Georgia Climate Control Conference, and Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Conference). Our students have distinguished themselves by serving as interns and by working on special projects with agencies such as Columbus Fire and Emergency Services, Callaway Gardens, and the United Way of Chattahoochee Valley as well as a host of class projects that support the community. Chemistry and Data Science students have been selected to participate in the prestigious National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Finally, our graduates have gone on to pursue graduate education at Auburn University, the University of North Carolina, Purdue University, and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.

Thank you to all who give so selflessly.

As we approach our Fall 2022 commencement ceremony, this edition of COLS Today celebrates the accomplishments and successes of students, faculty, and donors who embody the mission and values of the College. Rest assured that the COLS will continue to support the success of students, faculty, and staff.

Warm regards,

Annice Yarber-Allen Dean

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” --- Pele

Letters & Sciences Today

Editors - Barbara Hunt (hunt_barbara@columbusstate.edu) | Crystal Woods (woods_crystal@columbusstate.edu)

Circulation Coordinator - Angela Johnson (johnson_angela@columbusstate.edu

Design & Layout - Shelby Kellin

“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”

Dean Annice Yarber-Allen

Student Scholarships

Refresco Chemistry Scholarship Winners

By Kerri Taylor and Jill Carrol

The Refresco Chemistry Scholarship was established in 2019 by the local branch of Refresco, formerly Cott Beverages. The award provides a $1,000 scholarship per semester (fall, spring) and is given out every spring for the upcoming school year.

Two winners were celebrated at a luncheon in Spring 2022 because CSU was unable to celebrate the 2021-2022 winner last year due to the pandemic. The 2021-2022 year’s award winner, Sara Collins, senior at CSU, is enrolled as a B.S. chemistry major – ACS Track. The 2022-2023 year’s award winner, Isaiah Anderson, a sophomore at CSU, is also enrolled as a B.S. chemistry major –ACS Track.

Collins is pursuing undergraduate research, under the advisement of Dr. Jonathan Meyers. She joined Meyers’ research lab in Fall 2020. In this research experience, she focused on the antibiotic resistance in hairpin peptides. During her time at CSU, she was also employed as a laboratory assistant for the Department of Chemistry for Survey of Chemistry 1 & 2 labs. She has presently continued these positions as TA and undergraduate researcher.

Collins has also been involved in various organizations including the American Chemical Society (ACS) student chapter (President), Gamma Sigma Epsilon – National Chemistry Honor Society (Secretary), Delta G – chemistry mentorship program (Mentor), and Student Government as a Senator for the College of Letters and Sciences. After graduation, she will be applying for graduate school with the intention of obtaining a Ph.D. in biochemistry. As for her career, she is interested in researching and developing pharmaceuticals.

Anderson, the current scholarship holder, is building his connections within the department and university. He is presently enrolled in organic

chemistry, quantitative analysis and Calculus 2, while maintaining a high GPA. During his time at CSU, he has also been involved with the CSU Overwatch team. The team was the #2 seed as a finalist in the Peach Belt Esports Championship. In addition, Anderson maintains part-time employment as a pharmacy technician and has also been involved in the virtual sessions of the 2022 ROAR+ orientation as a “virtual facilitator.”

Anderson is excited to see how he can optimize his degree in the field of chemistry. He plans to use his strengths to build his connections within the department and CSU. He hopes to gain membership in the ACS student chapter and build experience in the undergraduate research labs. He is interested in the field of organic chemistry and biochemistry.

Isaiah Anderson (left) and Sara Collins (right) are the Refresco Chemistry Scholarship winners of 2022-2023 and 2021-2022 (respectively).

Alumni Spotlights

Alumnus Corey Stewart Volunteers Time to Help Students in COLS

Alumnus Corey Stewart (2019 B.S. math with a minor in computer science) is now enrolled in Auburn University’s M.S. program in electrical engineering. He currently works as a graduate research assistant at Auburn under the supervision of Dr. Pradeep Lall and Dr. Robert Dean in the Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment Electronics (CAVE3 Lab). In addition, he volunteers his time to help current math majors and LSAMP students get a head start in their current interests and in their future prospects, where LSAMP stands for Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, an organization that fosters the growth mindset of minority students through mentoring and experiential learning.

According to Corey, in summer 2022, “I had an idea for a medium-sized to large project, and I thought it would be interesting to recruit a few CSU students to help me with it. So, I initially reached out to Dr. Guihong Fan, Chair of the Department of Mathematics, and we developed a few ideas about the best ways to proceed. That was the start of the workshop series.”

He then met with the director of LSAMP, Dr. Monica Frazier, Chair of the Department of Biology, who “had the idea of incorporating current STEM focused LSAMP students into the workshop sessions and formalizing it a bit more with a willingness to fund certain materials for student use. From that point, the idea grew, and it became a collection of open and closed sessions throughout the semester.”

The open sessions, held during Fall 2022 on Wednesdays from 3-4 p.m., were more lectureoriented and covered a wide range of topics in mathematics and engineering (See Summary of Workshop Sessions at https://www.vitaeelectronics.com/csu-workshop/workshop-notes). The closed sessions with the LSAMP students on Friday afternoon “focused more on the project idea that I originally had.” Both were quite successful, with 5-8 students attending each session.

The topics covered in the workshop sessions included linear algebra, calculus and programming in engineering, statistics and machine learning, simulations and prototyping, microcontrollers and the internet of things, cloud platforms, databases and data management, as well as physical design and software design with their particular applications to engineering. Corey said, “I would always have small snacks and drinks ready - sometimes we’d have nicer snacks like Zaxby’s and Pizza. We gave away a book every week.” Guest speakers included an M.S. Mechanical Engineering candidate from Auburn, a software engineer working in Atlanta who graduated from Georgia Tech, and a mechanical engineer working for the government in Florida who also graduated from Georgia Tech.

Thank you, Corey, for donating the best gift of all—your time—to foster the success of current students!

The Chemistry of Love: A Wedding Story

By Dr. Jonathan Meyers

One of the exciting things about joining a research lab is the thrill of discovery, learning new skills, collecting data, presenting results, and …falling in love? Sure, why not? That’s the story for Kameron Griffin (BS ’16 and MS ’19) and James Smith (BA ‘15).

Having shared several classes as they pursued their chemistry degrees, Kameron and James were aware of each other, but not well acquainted. That changed in the Spring of 2016 when each enrolled in Dr. Jonathan Meyers’ biochemistry research course.

The biochemistry research space was housed in a small room on the third floor of LeNoir Hall. That tiny lab didn’t leave much room for personal space. With six research students and a faculty mentor, it could get quite crowded and emotions could run high. However, as they began working together, it was clear to everyone in the research group that there was chemistry between the two (pun fully intended).

The following fall, James and Kameron joined other chemistry students and faculty on the six-hour drive to Memphis to present their research at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society. The fifteen-passenger van suffered a mechanical failure in Tupelo Mississippi, stranding the group for hours. During this fortuitous pause, James and Kameron found themselves enjoying the sights and each other’s company as they explored the historic downtown area.

Upon arrival at the conference, the two entered the huge exhibition hall to hang their research posters. Kameron was almost instantly surrounded by a large group of guys from other universities. The crowd, which seemingly appeared out of thin air, competed to help Kameron hang her poster. James couldn’t help but notice that not a single dude offered to help him. They were too distracted by the brunette in their midst. From that point on, James and Kameron were almost inseparable. Everyone who was in the van for the return trip to Columbus can distinctly remember the flirting and laughter. Love was in the air.

After the conference, James invited Dr. Meyers for coffee seeking advice. He and Kameron were about to graduate and puruse very different paths. Was it right to risk all that by asking her out? Dr. Meyers’ response? “Absolutely!” Plus, who wants to look back in 20 years and ask “what if?” Besides, Dr. Meyers was pretty sure what Kameron’s response would be. And he was right.

The following year, at the Annual Chemistry Awards Ceremony, the nowengaged couple asked Dr. Meyers to officiate their wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, with just enough chemistry puns thrown in to remind everyone of how they met. Kameron and James are now both employed as chemists by Refresco, a multi-national beverage company with its research and development labs here in Columbus.

Vanessa Ellis Wins MCSD Award

The 2022 Muscogee County School District Teacher of the Year—drum roll please!—is none other than a graduate of CSU’s Department of History and Geography, Vanessa Ellis, who teaches at Veterans Memorial Middle School. She was feted in early May 2022 at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center where she received the award, including a check for $5,000 and the promise of being featured on both an Outfront Media digital billboard and a full-page ad in the Ledger-Enquirer. The two other finalists—Andrea McCarthy, a 7th grade English language arts teacher, and Gena Davis, a K-5 special education teacher—each received $1,000.

The group who selected Ellis as the winner is the Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation, which is composed of local leaders in business and education who interviewed the semifinalists and observed the finalists teaching in the classroom. In its history of awarding the Teacher of the Year designation and various grants, it has awarded more than $2.9 million to educators.

Ellis received both her bachelor and master degrees in history education from Columbus State and has taught exclusively in the Muscogee County School District, first at Fort Middle School (six years) and then at Veterans Memorial Middle School (5 years). In 2017, Ellis was a semifinalist of the Teacher of the Year award and received a grant to attend an all-expenses paid professional development week as a Fellow at Harvard University. She said it was “the most impactful professional developments I’ve ever attended” and that it made her a better teacher. Congratulations, Vanessa Ellis!

COLS Graduates Score at the Alumni Recognition Awards Luncheon

The Columbus State University Alumni Association recently presented its 2022 alumni awards at the Alumni Recognition Awards Luncheon during Homecoming in September. Recipients included several COLS alumni.

• David Hart Jr., B.S. ‘77, Thomas Y. Whitley Distinguished Alumnus Award Hart is the retired CEO and president of Mountville Mills, Inc. in LaGrange. Hart led Mountville Mills from a small family business to a worldwide enterprise with more than 1,000 employees. In 2018, he received the Maglin/Biggie TRSA Lifetime Achievement Award. He currently serves on the CSU Foundation Board of Trustees.

• Dr. Brad Harris, B.A. ‘99, Excellence in Alumni Achievement Harris obtained a B.A. Chemistry from CSU and was a member of the Cougar men’s basketball team. He is currently an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Albany and graduated at the top of his class from the Medical College of Georgia.

• Cortney Wilson, B.A. ‘11 & M.S. ‘12, Alumni Service Award

A two-time alumnae of CSU, Wilson has been volunteering for Columbus State since the day she stepped foot on campus and recently concluded her term as president of the CSU Alumni Association. She currently chairs the CSU Athletic Association and is also the director of Columbus State’s William B. Turner Center for Servant Leadership.

• Gerald Chichester, B.A. ‘13, Young Alumni Award Chichester is an attorney at Fox Rothschild, LLC. He was recently awarded the Kevin A. Gooch Mentor of the Year by Emerging 100 Atlanta, and Georgia Rising Star for business litigation, which honors less than 2.5% of attorneys.

CSU Chemistry and LSAMP Students Conduct Research on ALS With

Specialist at University of the District of Columbia

By Kerri Taylor, Monica Frazier, Cremel Burney, and Eric Avant

CSU Chemistry students

Katie Powell, Harris Carlisle as well as Lance Crane and Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP1,2) scholars, Alisha Kennedy and Rahul Clamor, worked with Dr. Alexandria Taraboletti (University of the District of Columbia or UDC) to develop skills in transfection of mammalian cells to help further the innovative research to combat neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

To help students understand the research they would be doing, a five-day training session

was held on CSU’s main campus August 7-12, 2022, and was funded by two grant agencies (CSU’s Graduate School and Center of Experiential Learning) to acquire key experiment resources and supporting Dr. Taraboletti’s visit to CSU.

Students presented their work at a number of regional conferences between OctoberNovember 2022: Southwestern Regional Meeting, Louis Stokes Midwest Regional Center of Excellence Annual Conference, and Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students Conference. This project highlights the value of student research and provides

underrepresented minority students the opportunity to showcase their scholarly accomplishments and personal commitment to disciplinary learning.

The collaboration among Dr. Kerri Taylor and Dr. Monica Frazier (CSU) with Dr. Alexandria Taraboletti (UDC) aims to determine the effects of the benzothiazole compounds against ALS-based lines. This project combines work nation-wide among these three labs. To date, the project has involved seven CSU undergraduate students and two UDC undergraduate students. This is an ongoing project that will enhance faculty research and continue to involve future undergraduate students.

Pictured from left to right: Dr. Kerri Taylor (LSAMP Mentor, Chemistry), Alisha Kennedy (LSAMP Scholar, Biology), Lance Crane (Chemistry), Katie Powell (Chemistry), Harris Carlisle (Chemistry), Rahul Clamor (LSAMP Associate, Chemistry), Dr. Alex Tarabolletti (University of the District of Columbia).

Notes: 1The

2Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The material from the Southwest Georgia Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1817519.

CSU LSAMP program wants to thank their LSAMP mentors, Drs. Taylor and Frazier, for their hard work and commitment to providing laboratory experiences to these scholars of this program. The Departments of Chemistry and Biology would like to thank the CSU’s Graduate School/University Grants Committee and Center of Experiential Learning for the funding to acquire key experiment resources and supporting Dr. Taraboletti’s visit to CSU.

Cover Story

The Women of Robotics Engineering

In a discipline dominated by men, the CSU Robotics Engineering programs (graduate, undergraduate, and combination) have attracted quite a few women (ten), six of whom were interviewed for this article. They come form locales as close as Columbus and Atlanta and as far away as Pakistan and Iran.

CSU offers three programs in Robotics Engineering: a Master of Science (MS) degree, a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, and a combination BS/MS degree.

Some who enrolled in the Master of Science degree in Robotics Engineering already have graduate degrees in other fields. For example, Shokoufeh Davarzani already has a graduate degree in electrical engineering while Rehmana Younis’ previously earned graduate degree is in computer science. Saira Gillani has a graduate degree in data science. She sees her work in the robotics engineering graduate program as an application of her theoretical understanding:

“In Data Sciences, they teach about algorithms of robotics. Now I am doing my 2nd masters in Robotics Engineering. I am now learning how robots use the algorithms to do different tasks. Earlier I had theoretical knowledge only; the MS in Robotics has provided me a platform where I am having hands-on experience.”

An attractive feature of all three of the programs is the emphasis on internships. Most of those who were interviewed participated in internships in summer 2022, including Cynthia Lopez-Jordan (BS program) and Skyler Dexter (combo BS/MS program).

Cynthia’s internship, with the University of Nevada at Reno, was a cross-disciplinary study in which she got to choose among six different projects. She chose to do a project based on wildfire analytics. She trained deep learning models “to detect smoke transportation and air quality to see if we could detect wildfires in the early stages to better combat them.”

Skyler’s summer internship involved assisting “the Pratt and Whitney engineers [in Midland, GA] on a water skid project for a new build in the facility….I used PLC (programmable logic controller) to help program the project and an automated lubing system. The robot used in the living project was a FANUC robot.” FANUC is a Japanese group of companies that provide automation products and services, including robotics.

Pictured left to right: Saira Gillani, Cynthia Lopez-Jordan, Skyler Dexter, Natasha Barrow, Rehmana Younis, and Shokoufeh Davarzani.

CSU’s Robotics Car, QCar

Three of the other women interviewed, all graduate robotics engineering students, also had internships that involved 3-month, full-time appointments that started in May 2022. For example, Natasha Barrow received an internship offer as a Design/Manufacturing Engineer in the Aerospace Department at Honeywell in Phoenix, Arizona.

Rehmana Younis and Saira Gillani were selected through a highly competitive process by PIN (Partnership for Inclusive Innovation) to be part of the 2022 Smart Community Corps Summer internship program. PIN has partnered with Georgia Tech Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) program. Rehmana Younis worked with The Ray Project (Columbus, GA) as a Research Intern while Saira Gillani worked as a summer intern at TSYS.

Rehmana added that she “was invited by Microsoft for my final work presentation with The Ray as Microsoft funded the PIN program.” Another achievement was to be a Robotics Inspector for the FIRST Robotic Competition held at Columbus State University. Finally, she conducted a drone maneuvering project which she “implemented using Deep Learning and the drone was controlled by hand gestures.”

Representing Columbus State University, Saira Gillani was recently invited by Intel to San Jose, California, for the Innovation conference and competition. According to its website, the conference facilitates the open developer community to come together to “learn from each other and build solutions to change the world. From Intel, developers will find the latest offerings across the company’s hardware, software, tools, services and support. From Intel’s partners, developers will experience creative technologies on display and focused lessons in hands-on classes.” The event lasts several days.

What attracted these women to the robotics engineering programs at CSU? For some, it was that CSU has the ONLY graduate program in robotics engineering in the state of Georgia. For others, the state-of-the-art facilities and the impressive credentials of the faculty were what persuaded them to come here. Others came because the programs offer a broad degree with many applications and job prospects. (See sidebar story CSU’s Robotics Engineering Programs on page 11.)

An additional bonus for women in the robotics engineering programs is the incredible bonding experience that has taken place. They support one another in all they do and have made friendships not just for now, but for life.

Rehmana Younis at the FIRST Robotics Competition

Rehmana Younis at Microsoft for her presentation

Saira Gillani at the Intel Innovation conference.

The person overseeing the Robotics Engineering programs is Dr. Mahmut Reyhanoglu who serves as Director and Professor of Robotics Engineering at CSU and was recently named in Stanford University’s global list recognizing the top 2% of the world’s leading scientists.

Dr. Reyhanoglu completed his bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and his master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Reyhanoglu also obtained a master’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at The Ohio State University, and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering Systems and his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at The University of Michigan.

Other faculty include Drs. Mohammad Jafari and Abiye Seifu, as well as faculty from related disciplines, Drs. Rania Hodhod and Guihong Fan.

Dr. Mohammad Jafari, Assistant Professor in Robotics Engineering, received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2018 and his M.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 2015 while working at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab; both degrees are from the University of Nevada, Reno. He earned both his M.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering in 2012 and his B.S. degree in Computer Hardware Engineering in 2007 from Iran. From 2018 to 2021, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Abiye Seifu, Professor of Engineering and Robotics, currently serves as the Regents’ Engineering Pathways (REP) Coordinator and as the coordinator for the Engineering Studies program. He developed the lower division engineering coursework offered at CSU. Dr. Seifu is a Certified Fiber Optics Engineer whose teaching interests cover a broad range of topics in engineering, including statics, dynamics, engineering graphics and computer-aided design, circuit analysis, signal processing, and feedback control systems.

Dr. Rania Hodhod -- Affiliated Faculty, Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of the TSYS School of Computer Science—has research interests that span a range of areas, such as artificial intelligence, expert systems, serious games, interactive narrative and computational creativity.

Dr. Guihong Fan, Affiliated Faculty, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics—has teaching and research interests in differential equations, dynamical systems, bifurcation and stability, mathematical biology, population dynamics, mathematical modeling in ecology and epidemiology, as well as infectious diseases including West Nile virus and Lyme disease.

Dr. Mahmut Reyhanoglu

CSU’s Robotics Engineering Programs

In today’s world, robots are at work everywhere from packing and shipping to space exploration. As a result, demand is strong for workers skilled in robotic design, programming, sensory feedback, and information processing.

CSU’s Master of Science in Robotics Engineering is an immersive and interdisciplinary program that encourages students to focus their creativity on designing the next generation of robotic devices, developing new applications, and implementing intelligence into robotics systems. As the only Master’slevel Robotics Engineering program in the state of Georgia, the program works closely with regional industries like Pratt & Whitney, PCI, (Precision Components International) and the U.S. Military to understand their needs and design a responsive learning environment. These strong business and military partnerships give students access to unique resources, internships, and employment opportunities.

Some of the research opportunities in which students can participate include

• Image Processing

• Embedded Systems

• Artificial Intelligence

• Robotic Arm Design and Control

• Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS)

• Formation Control of Robotic Systems

• Autonomous Mobile Robots

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

• Aerial Robotic Systems

• Computer Vision

• Microelectronics

The Robotics Engineering program houses state-of-the-art facilities for research and teaching labs. Its computer labs are equipped with high-speed engineering workstations and software including SOLIDWORKS, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and ARDUINO, all chosen to optimize potential career opportunities. Graduates of the master’s degree in Robotics Engineering are prepared for a broad range of careers, including Robotics Engineer, Machine Learning Scientist, Aerospace or Drone Engineer, and Computer and Information Research Scientist.

CSU also offers a Bachelor of Science in Robotics Engineering, a four-year program that leads students to exciting careers in emerging fields. For the undergraduate degree, students study computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering, and more. CSU’s creative curriculum blends traditional coursework with hands-on learning and valuable internship opportunities with community partners. Undergraduates prepare for careers as engineers in robotics, automation, controls, process, hardware and software.

One of CSU’s Robotics Labs

Internship and Service Learning

Graduate Student Interns at Callaway Gardens

Juliana Giles earned a BS degree from CSU in 2020 and is now enrolled in the MS program in Natural Sciences. This past summer, she worked as an Education Intern at the Virginia Hand Callaway Discovery Center, where she spent most of her time developing and leading educational activities for children ages 4-12 who were visiting Callaway Gardens as part of their Summer Family Adventure program.

Summer Family Adventure is a family-style “summer camp” and has happened annually at Callaway Gardens since 1960. Parents and children of all ages stay at Callaway Gardens and have the opportunity to participate in recreational and educational activities for a week.

As part of the education department, Juliana designed educational activities and crafts for students using many of the resources and attractions on the property, including the Pioneer Log Cabin, critters on display in the Discovery Center’s “Crawleseum,”and the outdoor, interactive MegaBugs! exhibit. In addition, Juliana spent time developing environmental education programming to be used by the education department during this school year. Her internship also allowed her to spend time in other departments when they needed a helping hand—she worked in the conservatory at the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, assisted Birds of Prey staff with routine maintenance, and helped the Callaway Gardens Horticulture staff on occasion.

MPA Student Does Service Learning Project

When Nicole (Niki) Lemeshka enrolled in MPAG 7128 Nonprofit Organization and Operations, she chose the Cherokee Family Violence Center (CFVC) in Canton, GA, as the agency for her Service Learning Project. A student in the MPA (Master of Public Administration) program, Niki decided to review the “planning for safety” webpage of the CFVC website, www.cfvc.org, as well as the safety planning resources provided by agency staff to victims of intimate partner violence seeking services. Niki assessed how the agency’s current safety planning materials comported with known best practices in the field of family violence response and developed new materials and supplemented existing materials to align with best practices.

She also created a video where she provided an overview of CFVC’s services and detailed her service project, completed under the tutelage of Dr. Saerim Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Administration.

(Below) Juliana Giles (L) and Alex Lahue (co-intern from Auburn University)

Juliana teaching children at Callaway

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Susan Hrach Receives Fulbright

COLS faculty member Dr. Susan Hrach received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for the 2022-23 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Hrach is among over 800 U.S. citizens who will conduct research and/or teach abroad this upcoming academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to their campuses and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.

As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 61 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 40 who have served as a head of state or government.

Hrach, Director of the Faculty Center and Professor of English, will serve as a Fulbright Canada Distinguished Research Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and conduct research on embodied learning hosted by Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. She will focus her study on how physical space, sensation and movement impact student success and wellbeing.

“Distinguished Research Chair awards are the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program,” mentioned Hrach. “My host institution, Carleton University, has a strategic focus on wellness, so I’ll be using this precious opportunity to study embodied active learning strategies and how they contribute to student and faculty wellbeing.”

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries worldwide. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program.

For more than 75 years, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to challenges facing our communities and our world. In addition to the 800 US teachers and researchers who are sent abroad each year, over 1,900 diverse U.S. students, artists and early-career professionals in more than 100 fields of study receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants annually to study, teach English and conduct research overseas.

Faculty Spotlight

From January until September of 2022, Dr. Florence WakokoStudstill has contributed much to the Columbus Community, to the lives of CSU students, and to her own professional development. Here’s a sampling of her accomplishments:

April 8, 2022: Valley Rescue Mission Service Day Co-Mentored the Sociology Alliance Club with Dr. Cameron Williams to engage our students to donate their time and effort to serve the needy at the Valley Rescue Mission (VRM) in Columbus, Georgia. “We served meals to about 25 people who chose to use the cafeteria room. We spent quality time with them and assisted with cleaning up after the event. “

Panel Discussion on Gun Violence in Columbus GA.

The purpose of this was to inform, educate, and raise awareness about gun violence in the community. In combining Wakoko’s and Cameron Williams’ classes (SOCI 1101, SOCI 3117 and SOCI 1168), about 70 students participated.

Keynote Speaker: Freddie Backmon, Chief Columbus PD. Panelists:

1) Shawna Love, Executive Director, Boyz 2 Men

2) Dr. Marcus Gibson, Pastor, Shady Grove Baptist Church

3) Tod Barclay, CSU Student (SOCI 1101 –Spring 2022)

Facilitators: Dr. Florence Wakoko and Dr. Cameron Williams

Tower Day, April 22, 2022.

Dr. Wakoko mentored two students: Tod W. Barclay (from her SOCI 1101 course)

Columbus State University Peace Cooperative

Major: Psychology Mentor: Florence Wakoko

Julia J. Lawyer (from her Sociology Capstone Class)

Voting in Georgia: Equal Access and Opportunity Costs

Major: Sociology

Mentor(s): Florence Wakoko & Cameron Williams

Research Award/Professional Development: Awarded the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship

Listed left to right:

Chief Freddie Blackmon, Executive Director Shawna Love, Dr. Marcus Gibson, Dr. Florence Wakoko, and Dr. Cameron Williams.

Educational activities that she implemented were completed in March 2022, as detailed here: https://news.columbusstate.edu/posts/csus-wakoko-and-kuforiji-selected-for-carnegie-african-diasporafellowship/

Dr. Florence Wakoko-Studstill

Dr. Florence Wakoko (center) at VRM

Last school year, I took a sabbatical to study cinema in Uruguay. The original plan was to spend an entire year there, but the coronavirus kept the country closed to foreigners until last October, so I only got 10 months. Still, it was an incredible experience.

I traveled with my wife Allie and our dog, Skritch. We rented an apartment in the Ciudad Vieja neighborhood of Montevideo, where the original fort of the capital city was built in the 1700s. We were just a couple of blocks from the “rambla,” the city’s long waterfront walkway, and less than a mile from Cinemateca Uruguaya, which I visited almost every day to watch current and revival international arthouse films.

Part of my research was to experience this steady flow of international arthouse cinema, but the bigger part was conducting interviews with filmmakers and film community members to learn about why and how a country as small as Uruguay (3.5 million people) is able to maintain a robust national film industry, despite not having a market large enough to support it.

From these interviews and other research, I amassed enough material for two articles, both of which I’m working on now. One is an in-depth story about the making of Las vacaciones de Hilda, by Augustin Banchero, and another about a filmmaker

named Lidia Garcia who made a number of awardwinning films in the 1950s and who has recently been “rediscovered” by Uruguayan cinephiles. I also wrote a review of the Uruguay International Film Festival, which was published in Desistfilm.

I learned a lot about international cinema, and I intend to return to broaden my knowledge, but the most surprising learning experience came from bringing our old dog with us. Without a backyard to be let out in, he demanded upwards of six walks a day. And he walked slowly, so I really got to know the neighborhood in a way that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, and I got to know quite a few neighbors that way.

Joe Miller, Professor of English, on Sabbatical in Uruguay

Faculty Publications

da Silva, S. P., Adams, A. (2021). Ancillary Materials for Psychology Research Methods and Data Analysis I. MERLOT: Available at https://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=773310655.

Received 5-Star Peer Review: https://www.merlot.org/merlot/ viewCompositeReview.htm?id=1379570

Drs. Stephanie da Silva and Katherine White (Kennesaw State) published the following article: da Silva, S. P., & White, K. (2021). Use of open educational resources in research methods for psychology. International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15(2), Article 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2021.150209

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dr. Jacob Holt recently had two articles published: Holt, Jacob (2022). What Explains Party Unity? A Test of Competing Theories. Party Politics, Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13540688211064601

Holt, Jacob (2022). Party Does Not Matter: Unified Government and Midterm Elections Social Science Quarterly Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13112

Sociology Professor Writes Book Chapter

Dr. Richard “Rik” Newtson, Professor of Sociology at CSU, recently completed a book chapter for the 5th (live now) and 6th Edition (live Fall 2022) of the eBook Introduction to Sociology: A Collaborative Approach (Ashbury Publishing). His contribution is Chapter 4, titled “Socialization,” which is about “learning the rules of the groups to which we belong. We are socialized throughout our life,” says Newtson.

He says the seven agents of socialization are “the family, friends, the educational system, the media, work, religion and some say the military. These agents are the arenas in which we are socialized with the family being the most important agent largely because we spend the majority of our formative years within the family.” He spent most of his time working this past fall in updating data and data sources within his chapter, while replacing some work with more timely information. He is grateful for the reassignment time of one class he was awarded Fall 2021 by Dean Annice Yarber-Allen to work on this chapter. Prior to coming to CSU, Newtson earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the Iowa State University of Science and Technology, joined the Civic Education Project, and taught graduate courses in sociology and social work in Kyiv, Ukraine, for two years. .

At CSU, he teaches a wide range of classes, including introduction to sociology, social psychology, domestic abuse, and sociology of the family. He is a member of the Georgia Sociological Association and a contributing member of Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center (Jerusalem, Israel), the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC), and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (Skokie, IL).

Drs. Stephanie da Silva (below, left), Professor of Psychology, and Aisha Adams (below, right), Associate Professor of Psychology, received a 5-star review on MERLOT for teaching ancillaries to accompany an open-access research methods textbook:

Faculty Publications

Dr. Daewoo Lee Publishes Article

Dr. Daewoo Lee, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Administration, is co-author (with Maureen Parog) of “Geographical Constraints and College Decisions: How Does For-Profit College Play in Student’s Choice?,” published in Innovative Higher Education. Dr. Lee is also a Faculty Fellow with the CSU Honors College. Here is the link to the article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-022-09619-4

Dr. Hrach’s Book Wins National Book Award

Dr. Susan Hrach’s book Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning (WVU Press, 2021) has won a Nautilus Book Award (Silver). The Nautilus mission is “to celebrate and honor books that support conscious living & green values, high-level wellness, positive social change & social justice, and spiritual growth.” The Book Awards have honored writers from the US and around the world annually since 1998. Minding Bodies, a winner in the Social Sciences and Education category, joins past award-winners such as Priya Parker (The Art of Gathering: how we meet and why it matters) and David Epstein (Range: why generalists triumph in a specialized world). For the full list of 2022 winners, see https://nautilusbookawards.com/2022-winners-cat-21-29/.

“I wrote this book to advocate for a holistic view of learning. I am very proud to be honored by an organization dedicated to inspiration, imagination, wisdom, and new possibilities,” says Hrach. The Nautilus Award follows Hrach’s spring appearances as a guest on Columbia University’s Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast and Vanderbilt University’s Leading Lines podcast. In April, she delivered keynote presentations at the Military Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Forum and the USG’s Teaching and Learning Conference.

Hrach has taught English at Columbus State since 1999; she serves as the director of CSU’s Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. She is a past recipient of the CSU Faculty Service Award (2010), the USG Regents’ Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award (2013), and the CSU Living Our Values Award (2018).

Donors Unveiled

New Minors

Digital Humanities

Have you ever wondered how political groups have such a good sense of the wealth, interests, and values of voters in a particular community without ever actually talking to residents directly? Have you ever considered how a film production company could leverage reviews from around the world to identify what is popular and mitigate risk in making the next blockbuster? Have you thought about how the public can learn more about something like the French and Haitian Revolutions without ever stepping foot in a place like Paris or Port-au-Prince, or a museum or, for that matter, a classroom at all?

These questions all have the humanities at their center, but there is something else about them, too: they can benefit from innovative solutions that combine technology and the training of historians, social scientists, linguists, and litterateurs. But they also have something new in common, too: they are the types of questions that Columbus State students can now work to answer as part of the new Digital Humanities program at CSU, which has begun this year.

Dr. Ryan Lynch is the faculty member who wrote the proposal for these minors and coordinates the program. Lynch is an Associate Professor of History and the Interim Associate Dean of the Honors College. He and his colleagues in the Department of History and Geography have been working on how best to train students in the 21st-century skills that employers need while demonstrating how degrees in the humanities are more needed than ever.

The new Digital Humanities program is a minor with three different tracks: Digital Humanities with GIS, Digital Humanities with Data Analytics, and Digital Humanities with Python Programming. Each track, Lynch explains, focuses on teaching the students a particular skill-based computer software so that the student can work independently on their own (or their future employer’s!) research questions or challenges. At the center of these new tracks are two common courses in particular:

ITDS 1774 Introduction to Digital Humanities (3 credits) serves as an “introduction to the methods, theories, and current debates within the growing field of the digital and computational humanities, an area of study which combines the skills of the humanist with the digital tools available to researchers in the present day. In this 3-credit-hour course, students will explore the multifaceted nature of digital humanities scholarship while learning about opportunities for research, innovation, and career preparation at the crossroads of the traditional and the technological” (catalog course description).

ITDS 4779 Digital Humanities Capstone (3 credits) “serves as an opportunity for students, as they complete the minor, to reflect on their training and the projects they developed. Students from all digital humanities tracks will share unique insights and approaches to their research, to situate their work within the wider field, to identify future opportunities for the use of their skills, and to construct a portfolio of work that demonstrates their mastery of their skill” (catalog course description).

“Our students are receiving an education at CSU that is more relevant than ever,” Lynch went on to explain, “and our Digital Humanities graduates will be more prepared than ever for their future careers. But we aren’t just working to better prepare our humanists as users of technology. This is a true interdisciplinary program. We are also looking to get more of our students from other outstanding programs at CSU like computer science into more of our humanities courses. With us, they will receive greater analytical and communication training while thinking about the critical ethical implications associated with the use of powerful technology and their responsibility in topics such as people’s personal data.” You can learn more about the new Digital Humanities program by visiting https://columbusstate. edu/digitalhumanities

New Faculty, Fall 2022

Department of History and Geography

David Kieran – COL Richard R. Hallock Distinguished Chair in Military History

Dr. David Kieran, the new COL Richard R. Hallock Distinguished Chair in Military History, is a historian of war and society in contemporary U.S. culture, with a particular interest in the Vietnam War, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the organizational culture of the United States Army. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of five books, including his most recent, Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military’s Mental Health Crisis. That book examines how mental health became a signal preoccupation of military medical providers, military leaders, politicians, and the general public during the United States’ twenty-first century wars. He’s joining Columbus State from Washington and Jefferson College, where he served as Department Chair.

Department of Biology

Ramneet Kaur – Assistant Professor of Biology

Dr. Ramneet Kaur is a cell and molecular biologist with cancer biology as her research area. She has PhD in Biotechnology and post doc in cancer biology from Harvard Medical School, Boston University and Emory University, Atlanta. Dr. Kaur comes to Columbus State from University of North Georgia where she has taught biology courses and conducted cancer biology research with students. Her research was published and got her many internal research grants at UNG. Her research focuses on checking the effects of natural products like ginger, garlic, turmeric etc. on the growth of triple negative breast cancer and androgen independent prostate cancer stem cells.

Angel Robinson – Laboratory Manager/Instructor

Angel Robinson comes to Columbus State University with 12 years of experience instructing on the collegiate level. All of her experience has been in the field of biology and she has taught many courses in the subject area. Admittedly, her favorite subject to teach is Anatomy and Physiology. Angel received her Bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State University and her Masters degree from Alabama State University, where her research was in bacteriology and Biotechnology. Working with undergraduate students has become her passion over the years and she truly enjoys being in the classroom and laboratory settings.

Ensaf Taha – Assistant Professor of Biology (Microbiology/Immunology)

Dr. Ensaf Taha earned a PhD in Integrative-Biosciences in July 2016. She also has DVM and MSc degrees. She worked as a veterinarian and in public health for many years. She has more than 6 years of teaching experience in animal/veterinary science-related disciplines, microbiology and immunology and she has excellent interpersonal and communication skills, as well as a demonstrated ability to work collegially in teams. Dr. Taha has expertise in many science and research areas and extensive training and experience in collaborative research.

Department of Mathematics

Thir Dangal - Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Dr. Thir Dangal received his MS degree in mathematics from University of Southern Mississippi in 2013 and received his PhD from the same university in Computational Science in 2017. He worked at the University of Southern Mississippi for one semester as a Visiting Assistant Professor after his PhD graduation and then moved to Alcorn State University as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics for four and a half years before he joined CSU in Fall 2022. Dr. Dangal’s research interests include state-of-the-art numerical methods and partial differential equations. He is interested in this research because of its application on solving real world problems using mathematical modeling.

Non-Profit

Organization

U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 10 Columbus, Georgia

4225 University Avenue, Columbus, GA 31907

A Significant Addition to the

Donald

On September 20th, 2022, Mr. Donald L. Jordan made an additional gift of $500,000 to the endowment that he already established for the English Department at Columbus State University. Mr. Jordan’s generosity is deeply appreciated.

L. Jordan Endowment

Funds from this new gift will be used to create two Donald L. Jordan Fellowships that will be used for recruiting and retention, offering two incoming freshman $5,000 annually for their four years at Columbus State.

Another portion of the funding will be directed towards the publication of a nature title series and operating funds for CSU Press. The Jordan Endowment already funds an annual study abroad service trip for English majors; this year, 9 students are travelling to Vuelta Grande, Guatemala, to teach English lessons to children and install stoves in family homes.

Another initiative the endowment supports is the annual Donald L. Jordan Prize for Excellence, which carries a $10,000 cash award and a contract for publication with CSU Press. This year, 18 undergraduates are serving as Editors, Associate Editors, and Editorial Associates with the press.

The first Jordan Prize winner, author Michelle Herman, just visited Columbus on Oct. 13th and gave a reading from her prize-winning novel, Close-Up at the Bo Bartlett Gallery to a sizable audience. We look forward to sharing more exciting news about the Jordan Endowment activities in the near future.

D. L. Jordan reading to 6th graders at Wynton School.