Studentexperience

STUDENT Experience F14

Leadership to Serve Erika Peterson, Clinical Psych page 21

STUDENT Experience 8

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In This Issue

2 Around the World and Back Again

4 No Educator Left Behind

6 Making Learning Fun for Students

7 Music To Their Ears

8 Teaching Math and Science through Robotics 10 Emporia State Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) 13 World Class Traveler Graduate Student Abroad

14 Reclaiming her Identity in Nature

15 Emporia State Grad Is Common Core Expert

17 Future Teachers Take to the Caves to Study Cave Environments and Bats

19 Children Inspire Glass

20 Code for Life: Don’t Give Up!

21 Erika Peterson, Clinical Psych

23 Putting Physical Education in the Palm of Your Hand

24 Finding Out about Forgiveness

25 The Game Changer

26 Immersion in Asian Language and Culture

28 SMART Board Off-Key In Music Composition Classroom

29 Student Preference In Music Teachers

Contributers Emmy Edie Tony Hall Rachel Petersen Liz McLain Doricka Menafee

Yohan Kim y BSB Marketing & Management 2014 My name is Yohan Kim and I am from South Korea. Being at Emporia State University has helped me develop and grow as a Business Management major and Marketing minor.

In spring 2014, I worked at the Chamber of Commerce as an intern. My main responsibilities were to maintain the Chamber of Commerce website and help develop videos to showcase their members and programs, such as the 3D competition, 2014 Spring Expo, and Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies. I also assisted in maintaining their social media sites and helped to prepare for upcoming events and activities.

I also participated in the 2014 Research & Creativity Day. My research looked at Pinterest usage in Fortune 500 companies. I presented at the 2013 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science (KSMS) Spring International Conference.

I worked in Marketing and Media Relations during 2013- 2014 and belonged to the Emporia State Enactus and Marketing Club. In addition, I was an International Ambassador and worked with the ESU Bulletin, Sunflower, and Kansas City Union Mission. The Emporia State School of Business provided me with a variety of experiences and helped me turn my weaknesses into strengths.

Adam Just y BSB Marketing 2014 Our project was to help market the company Green Door, the local recycling agency in Emporia. One thing we did was to design a flyer they used as a t-shirt design.

Through this project, I learned that it takes a great deal of work to promote a business in a competitive environment. In order to promote it, a business owner has to have knowledge of the current market of which he or she is trying to sell, and what ways work best to attract potential customers. Media can only help so much since small business owners may operate on a small budget.

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Laura Patrick y BSB Marketing In my Marketing Research class, we were required to pick a topic to research that has not had much research done on the topic in the past. Being a women’s basketball player for Emporia State University the past two years, I decided to research how to increase student attendance at the Emporia State home basketball games. I did several different forms of research along with a survey where I was able to get 117 respondents. All of the respondents were Emporia State students. I analyzed the data and made recommendations that could be used to increase student attendance. I learned how to do practical and effective research, how to collect data, and how to analyze it to see the results which in return provided solutions to help the problem that I was researching.

Soojin Bae y BSB Management I have learned so many great things at Emporia State University, and of course met great people. I participated in many different activities this year. In February, I participated in American Marketing Association (AMA) conference in St. Louis. It was a great experience for me.

It allowed me to access great resources and build new connections.

I also did a poster presentation at Research and Creativity day. This semester, I assisted Dr. Joyce Zhou with a research project. The research project was about social media usage as a marketing tool among Global 500 companies. I chose Global 500 because I found many research papers about Fortune 500 companies but there was limited study done about social media usage among the Global 500. I studied the companies and found some countries ban Facebook or Twitter due to government intervention so they have developed their own social platform. I was able to utilize the knowledge and the research techniques I learned in class to do this project.

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Around the World and Back Again: HPER Alumni has Done it All Ingrid Knight-Cohee (MS HPER 2001) has accomplished a great deal in her life. She had a unique upbringing, trained with an Olympic gold medalist, competed all over the world, and lived in Japan for three years. All of these things were done BEFORE she got her master’s degree from Emporia State University. And she has done so much more since completing the degree.

With her unique family history—a father from Barbados and a mother from Norway—it should be no surprise that Ingrid has led a fascinating life. Both of her parents worked for the United Nations and she was raised in the Manhattan 2

borough of New York City. In 1985, her father was assigned to work on a project that took the family to Vancouver, British Columbia. The move came at a perfect time for Ingrid. “That move was very exciting for me because I was already involved in a sport called rhythmic gymnastics.

I was on the junior national team and had just watched a woman from Vancouver, Lori Fung, win the gold medal in 1984. I thought maybe I could meet her. She was just about to retire at the time and was building her own team. So my mother made a few phone calls and while I lived there I was able to be coached by her. That was a great experience for me.”

Student Experience

Ingrid moved back to New York to finish high school.

She kept in touch with Lori because she knew she wanted to continue her athletic career and work with Lori. After graduation, she was accepted to University of British Columbia and continued to be coached by Lori while she attended college. Ingrid competed at the national level and earned a spot on the senior national team. She competed for four more years and represented the U.S. all over the world.

She traveled to Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and Taiwan with her career culminating in 1991 at the Pan-American Games in Cuba. At this same time, Ingrid also got married and finished her degree at UBC. She calls her connection to Emporia State University “a process of fortunate discovery.” It began in Vancouver when she was starting her career in fitness and her husband was teaching. “He came home one day and asked if I wanted to move to Japan.” They moved to Japan to teach English and ended up staying for 3 years. The couple had a child while they were in Japan and her husband began pursuing his Master of Education. Ingrid began to think about her own education. “I thought that it might be a good idea for me to get my master’s degree as well. I started exploring things that were of interest to me in the fitness and health promotion field. I needed to find what interested me in my post-athletic career and that whatever my next chapter was going to be it had to still be in health and fitness in some way. I found, more impactful than the physical benefits of exercise, were the psychological benefits and that is something that really intrigued me. I started Googling and searching Exercise and Health Psychology and up popped up the Emporia State program. It was a distance program and I was in Japan so it seemed like a perfect fit.”

By the time Ingrid returned to Vancouver, it was time to start her thesis work. The thesis gave her the opportunity to work with a very unique group of women, “I wanted to measure the effect of exercise on psychological parameters.

I discovered a very interesting group of women who exercised together at a nearby community center. I asked an employee about the group and it was explained to me that this was a group of breast cancer survivors. They had banded together and created a team and their sport was dragon boating. A dragon boat is a traditional Chinese boat that is very long and narrow and accommodates 12 rowers.

It is free-paddling so it requires coordination, balance, and strength. It’s a popular event in Vancouver. The group started this team and called themselves Abreast in a Boat. I, of course, admired them right away for their tenacity and initiative to take on such a challenging sport, especially given their health challenges. They were really keen to be a part of my program. I measured the three parameters of stress, anxiety, and depression before and after an eight week exercise program. I put them through the paces of a low-impact spinning workout, followed by upper body strength training with resistance bands.”

Emporia state university

When she finished the master’s, she wanted to put the degree to use but not work full-time. She found that personal training allowed her to set her own schedule.

The Health and Fitness Centre of Vancouver YWCA had a system of work with contracted trainers so she was able to be independent. Eventually a position opened up for a fitness coordinator. It was a short contract and she saw it as a chance to see if working full-time would work for her growing family; her and her husband would welcome a second child during her time at the YWCA. She really enjoyed the work and the contract was extended several times. Finally, the job wound up being permanent. She was then named Health and Fitness Manager, then Associate Director, and then Acting Director when her boss was on maternity leave. When the director returned and she returned to her former position, she started to think about her career. “I had kind of been on a progressive track so it was a bit like stepping back. As luck would have it, around that time I was contacted by the CEO of Steve Nash Fitness Clubs. They had just undergone a big acquisition and had gone from 3 clubs to 16 clubs. They were looking for a Director of Group Fitness to oversee all of the classes at the clubs and to realign and update their class offerings. It was a big step but I was ready for it. I have been doing it for 4 years now and it was a good move.”

Ingrid was on the Emporia State University campus earlier this year to attend an awards ceremony where she accepted an induction into HPER’s Hall of Honor. About the award, she said, “I would like to think I’ve made some contributions to the health and fitness industry. It has certainly been my passion for all of these years so to be recognized for it is an honor and a privilege.” While she was here, she had the opportunity to speak with a few of the HPER classes. She has this advice for students thinking about a HPER degree, “I think the whole field is so vital, especially now. Students will literally be in positions of saving people’s lives. The role of the health professional in terms of fitness, health promotion, training or corporate wellness—all of these things are going to be more and more crucial especially with this aging demographic and all of the preventable diseases that flood the health care system. It’s a very rewarding line of work and you truly make a difference.”

Ingrid Knight-Cohee

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No Educator Left Behind Between the two of them, Clint Corby and Vince Evans have 2 Bachelor’s degrees, 4 Master’s degrees, 1 EdD and both have district-level administrator certification. Clint is currently the principal at Winteer Elementary in Wichita, KS and Vince is the principal at Cooper Elementary in Wichita, KS. After several years in education they began to wonder why there weren’t many resources for teachers trying find jobs.

Most of the resources were all geared towards the business side of job hunting, which is different than education. So they did what any good educator would do and set out to create that resource. “We didn’t start gathering quantitative data or anything, it was really just through our own experiences,” Vince said. “We just kept interviewing people and we batted around the idea of writing something for a long time but we kept coming back to the interviews.”

Clint adds, “People kept walking through the door and making interview mistakes that included everything from common etiquette to professional mistakes that would surprise us. We thought ‘where did this come from?’ We were thinking back on our own experiences and found maybe outside of a day or afternoon of training, there really wasn’t any training about getting a job. There weren’t resources geared specifically to teachers.”

The two wrote a book, No Educator Left Behind (C&V Publishing, 2012), which helps guide teachers through the job hunt process. Both men say they looked back to early in their own careers. “We talked about some of the first interviews we remember doing at Emporia State University at one of the career fairs,” Vince said. “We were terrible. We didn’t know what we were doing. So we wanted to take what we learned and get it into people’s hands and to help them avoid some of the same mistakes we made.”

Clint agrees, “I went back and found my first resume and saw several things we tell people not to do in this book.

It was nobody’s fault, it was just that nobody ever told us.

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When we do group interviews at education fairs we come across people who don’t know the process. They might be perfectly great applicants but they are not familiar with the interview process.”

The market for new teachers is crowded and the book gives valuable tips on how students can stand out through the entire application process. “That’s hard for students coming out of college because there are so many applicants for each job. You have to absolutely shine above the rest and not make silly mistakes,” Vince said. “Not only do you have the potential to shoot yourself in the foot during the resume process but then during the interview as well. We want to help people avoid those pitfalls.”

Both men agree that being prepared is one of most important pieces of advice they would give students entering the interview process. Clint explains, “The preparedness is probably #1, especially in the interview.

A person should come to the interview and be able to talk to me about my school. As for the resume, it’s about specifics. People think writing something like ‘wrote creative lesson plans’ is sufficient. While I am sure they did write lessons plans, so did all 100 applicants for a job. What did you do to go above and beyond?”

Vince agrees, “I want people who come into an interview prepared and already knowledgeable about my school. I think as human beings we are taught to be humble but this is the one time to shine and take that spotlight. I don’t want to be forgotten when I leave that interview. I want everyone to remember who I was.” He also points out that putting in work on the resume is very important. “So many people just assume you can crank out this resume and go to the interview. But I want a finely polished resume. Something we like to ask students when we are out presenting to the colleges is to think about the most important term paper they have done and then about the resume on which they are working. So the paper is worth potentially an A+, which

Student Experience

is a big deal. But with a resume, you are talking about obtaining a teaching job that is worth over a million dollars during the course of your career. It’s worth investing the time to do it right.”

As for current research, Vince recently finished his doctoral research on the relation of sugar consumption to behavioral incidents. Clint continues to learn more about student engagement.

Both are also teaching college courses.

Clint is teaching School Leadership at Baker University and also is a student teacher evaluator for Grand Canyon University. Vince is teaching Educational Law, Special Education Law, and Assistive Technology at Southwestern College.

Vince said the two have discussed possibly doing some future research together. “As more colleges use this book and make it part the coursework, we would like to see how it effects their job placement rate. We’ve been talking with some local colleges and universities. I think with some very simple changes they could dramatically increase the number of teachers who obtain employment in their first year out of college.”

Clint Corby and Vince Evans

Jordan Storrer/The Bulletin

Clint adds, “Teachers need to specialize in more than one subject area. You are more marketable if you can teach more than one subject. You also have to be willing to go to other places that are not the suburban areas.

Both agree that their experience at Emporia State University helped to prepare them for future teaching careers. “Emporia State was a great experience,” said Clint. “They get you working with students early in the program and it made a big difference.

We have teachers coming through educational programs who get into the classroom and they have never worked with anything but small groups of students.” It made an impact on Vince as well, “It made all the difference in the world for me. They told me that I needed to get out and observe and see if the teaching profession was for me. I got up in front of the students and wasn’t really sure if I could do it. But by the time I walked out the door after leading my first lesson, I knew I had found my calling. I really owe it to Emporia State University for getting me out in the schools early.”

You can purchase a copy of No Educator Left Behind: The Art of a Successful Job Hunt on Amazon. There are a variety of free resources on www.nelb.info for job seekers. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Emporia state university

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Making Learning Fun for Students Holly McWilliams (BSE Business Education 2007 and current MS Business Ed) is a hybrid teacher. She has become part teacher and part game show host in order to spice up what could be a dull classroom experience. And the results have been worthy of a prize.

Holly, in her fourth year teaching at Winfield Middle School (WMS), and her sixth year of teaching overall, has developed methods of teaching based on popular television game shows like Jeopardy or Hollywood Squares, which she uses as a class review. “Students like competing against each other in teams and seem to get more out of this type of review rather than study guide reviews,” said Holly.

“Students have scored higher on tests.”

The Winfield native has now moved into other game show formats. “This year I am taking it a step further and having my Computer 8 students create a Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire game using vocabulary words.

Holly’s newest project is starting a game based on Project Runway, an idea she came up with while taking the online games and simulations graduate class taught by Dr. Nancy Hite at Emporia State University. She fully expects her classes to enjoy and benefit from this game turned school project. She believes Project Runway will be ideal as a tool for teaching these skills. Project Runway is a reality television series where contestants compete to create the best clothing designs. Each contestant is restricted in time, materials, and theme. Designs are judged by panel members who eliminate one contestant each week of the show. The students in Holly’s class design a business card the first week followed by designs for a billboard, a flyer, a menu, and a brochure. Holly acts as the mentor for the designers just as Tim Gunn does in the television reality show.

“Students like projects in which they control the outcome.

That is why I believe the Project Runway game is a good teaching tool. Students are the judges and whether they realize it or not, they are learning the desktop publishing design principles at the same time. Each week students are given a challenge, the first week they design a business card for a flower shop. I am the “Tim Gunn” of Project Runway and walk around guiding students through the design process. I pick 10 designs for the runway show and show them through the LCD projector. Four students are randomly chosen to be the judges. They are given critique

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sheets and they choose a winner. The judges have to explain their choice to the class based on design principles.”

This type of learning has students tuned in and turned on. One student said by creating games and using games as study tools, she learns more in class and keeps focused longer. One student said using the games makes learning fun. Another student said, “Using games as a study tool and competing against other students in class is fun and helps me remember more for tests.”

Holly credits her professors at Emporia State University with encouraging her to design innovative teaching techniques. “Choosing Emporia State was the best decision I made. I wanted to be a business teacher and Emporia State’s teacher program is top of the line. I could not have found better advisors; Dr. Railsback for my undergraduate degree and Dr. Hite for my graduate degree in business education. They go above and beyond to make sure we succeed. One of my favorite classes I took at Emporia State was business communications taught by Dr. Don Miller. He was so passionate and made learning fun.”

Now, Holly is making learning fun for her students.

Holly McWilliams

Student Experience

Music To Their Ears It was music to their ears to hear that a gift of a quartermillion dollars was allowing 20 Emporia State University students to continue their study of music through the Fulhage Music scholarship. The scholarships were made possible by a gift from the estate of alumna, Mildred Fulhage. A school teacher for 41 years, Fulhage earned a bachelor of music education from Emporia State (Kansas State Teachers College at the time) in 1936.

The Emporia State Foundation played host to a ceremony and reception for the students receiving the scholarships.

Students Seth Girton (cello), Carlos Cabezas (violin), and Huan Wang (piano) were selected to provide entertainment at the scholarship ceremony. Seth is from Wichita, Kansas, Carlos is from Colombia in South America, and Huan is from China.

“Being asked to perform for this ceremony was such an honor,” said Seth. “The three of us had never played together before so it was a brand new experience. We had a handful of rehearsals before the event but we were still a little nervous going into the event. It went really well and the three of us had a fun time performing together.”

“I was so happy and excited when I played for the Fulhage program,” said Huan. “That was a valuable experience for me.”

“I felt very happy to be part of this program,” added Carlos.

“It was great to see so many others supporting this event.

Playing in a piano trio is a very unique experience.”

Girton and Cabezas are both Fulhage scholarship winners and extremely happy to have the financial aid. “Thanks to the Fulhage scholarship,” said Carlos, “I am able to be in this wonderful country and be supported by the Emporia State music program. I am really grateful for this scholarship and happy to be a part of the growing music program at Emporia State.”

Seth’s love of the cello began because his first instrument choice was unavailable in the fourth grade. “During music class in grade school it was time to pick out an instrument to play. I really wanted to play the bass, but when I got to class they were all taken. After being slightly disappointed about not being able to play the bass the teacher suggested playing the cello instead. Who knew this suggestion would make such a huge impact in my life?”

When asked how he likes the program so far, Seth said, “It feels like home. I have been studying with Susan Mayo (cello professor at Emporia State) for 10 years now. I went to Wichita East High School and studied with Susan privately there.” Mayo’s joining the Emporia State faculty was a huge draw that led Girton to further his study of cello performance at the school.

Huan’s connection to Emporia State was Dr. Martin Cuellar.

“He came to China many years ago and held a recital,” she said. “I like the style he has and thought it would be good for me.”

Carlos said the music program at Emporia State is well balanced. “The faculty are very good teachers and performers.”

All three are looking ahead to graduation.

Seth and Carlos will both graduate in the spring of 2015 and Huan graduated in the spring of 2014. Seth is still uncertain about his plans after graduation. “I will take things as they come, I’m not positive where life will take me after graduation.” Huan and Carlos both have plans to continue making music.

Huan plans to apply for a doctoral program.

Carlos and his wife hope to move to Canada where he will open his own violin studio and become part of the local orchestra.

Carlos Cabezas, Huan Wang and Seth Girton

Emporia state university

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Teaching Math and Science through Robotics

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student Experience

A self- proclaimed education junkie, Kathy Mikkelson (MS Curriculum & Instruction 2014) grew up in a family of teachers but became an engineer. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Washington State University in 1980 and worked for eight years at an oil company in New Orleans.

“At the time I decided to go into teaching, the oil industry was beginning to tank. It’s come back some, but not like it was in the early 80s,” Kathy said. Her desire to be a role model and advocate for females pursuing careers in math and science cemented her career change to become a teacher and continues to motivate her. She believes in girls’ potential to excel in math and science. “I’ve always been a girl in math and science, and always one of very few,” Most of them (girls) are afraid to speak out.”

Her passion for math and science began as a child working on a farm in north central Washington State. “If I wanted to spend time with my dad, that’s what I did. I went out and worked on the tractors, and handed him wrenches. I knew the difference between metric and SAE, and knew how internal combustion engines worked,” explained Kathy, who honed her math and science skills solving practical problems on the farm.

After leaving the engineering field, Kathy obtained her teaching certificate from Saint Mary’s of the Plains in the late 1980s and has been teaching math and science classes at Horace Good Middle School (HGMS) in Garden City, Kansas for 25 years. Recently, she completed a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Emporia State University. “I didn’t want to waste my time doing something just to get a master’s degree for more pay, so I asked around.

Emporia State has a reputation in Kansas for being a good teachers college and well-versed in the art of education.”

She liked the flexibility and convenience of completing her masters’ degree online, and her program has helped in understanding curriculum changes, developing teaching strategies, and implementing the common core curriculum at HGMS. One valuable lesson she implemented and Emporia State professors encouraged was “to teach with the end in mind and work your way backward. So you can make sure that your students can do what you want at the end.”

Kathy is part of an exciting new project at Emporia State University, a robotics workshop. With the assistance of an education grant, Dr. Seimears led a two week robotics class at Emporia State University during the summer of 2013 that taught Kathy and other teachers how to build robots. At the end of the workshop, the teachers returned to their schools to implement robotics projects. “I was one of the first to sign up because that is my thing. I’m a gadget girl.”

Kathy built a platform robot with her students that has two power wheels in the back and a steering wheel in the front.

It functions like a remote control car with a PlayStation remote directing its movements. “They look like those emporia state university

automatic floor sweepers! But truthfully, this robot is built from everyday objects. It’s just metal and gears, and it can entertain people for hours.”

Kathy uses the robot to teach difficult mathematics concepts like adding and subtracting integers. Moving the robot forward signifies addition, and moving the robot backward demonstrates subtraction. What happens with a double negative? The robot turns around and then moves backward, which is the same as moving forward or addition.

“They just think it’s the coolest thing in the world, and that’s high praise coming from an eighth grader.”

If there is free time in class, they beg Kathy to get the robot out. Her students come up with creative ways to use the robot, like setting up obstacle courses through which they navigate and this improves their ability to listen and give explicit instructions. “The driver has to listen to instructions from a spotter, similar to the rally car drivers who have a navigator telling them to turn left or right or slow down.”

One of HGMS Science Olympiad teams used parts from the kit to build a robot they entered into the robotics competition in February 2014. The students used concepts they learned in Kathy’s class to build the robot and compete.

The students didn’t win, but it was the first time that HGMS participated in Science Olympiad and were, in part, motivated by her robotics class. “We didn’t expect to win.

We were more in it for the experience, so that we would know how to do better next year,” said Kathy.

At the end of every school year, several of Kathy’s students said that her math class was the only one that they enjoyed.

Several of her students are now in engineering school and have told her that she is their inspiration.

“Working for an engineering company, you never saw the end result. I got the oil out of the ground, and it went off to a refinery somewhere. But when kids leave the classroom, you know whether you have made a difference on an individual basis.

That’s what I enjoy the most,” confided Kathy.

“I was raised on the philosophy that if you do what you enjoy then you will never work a day in your life, and I don’t think I’ve worked a day in my life.”

Teachers at the robotics workshop 9

Emporia State Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) The purpose of the program is to provide opportunities for students to pursue in-depth, relevant studies in their discipline by collaborating with a faculty mentor.

Chloe Blake y BSE Elementary Education 2014 Zombie Survival Fitness Camp: A Look at Movement-based Education Mentor: Dr. Melissa Reed This summer I worked on a project involving teacher action research on movement-based teaching practices and their effects on student engagement. I believe movement and interaction belong in every classroom. Being a student who struggles to sit and pay attention for long periods of time has really helped me to understand the need to keep students moving when I teach. I worked with my mentor to plan a week-long camp to implement movement strategies and study the effects of these strategies on student engagement. We also created a website on movementeducation to serve as a resource for teachers, parents, and students. I plan to stay in Emporia and teach in the primary grades, because they are the students who need the most movement in their daily activities. This research will help me implement these teaching practices in my current coursework, student teaching, and future classroom.

Funding Source: Emporia State University Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) and the Teachers College

Courtney Brokaw y BSE Elementary Education 2013 Same-Sex Classrooms vs. Non Same-Sex Classroom Achievement in Mathematics and Science at the High School Junior and Senior Grade Levels Mentor: Dr. C. Matt Seimears I enjoyed working with Dr. Seimears this summer doing research. I was able to survey multiple school districts, superintendents, building principals, as well as classroom teachers. I was overwhelmed at the total responses I received from the district sample size selected. The results of my work enable me, as a teacher, to understand that there are significant factors involved in same-sex classrooms, as well as the need to do additional research to see if there is a higher level of bullying occurring in same-sex classrooms vs. non same-sex classrooms which may hinder students’ achievement in Mathematics and Science.

Funding Source: Emporia State University Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) and the Teachers College 10

Maria Castro-Munoz y BS Biochemistry and Cellular Biology Primer characterization for QRT-PCR Mentor: Dr. Tim Burnett I had a great experience this summer doing research.

I was able to characterize several primer sets for conducting quantitative RT-PCR. The results of my work enable me to use these primers to measure the expression levels of different immune related genes in an epithelial cell line after exposure to hypoxia and bacteria. Through this experience, I was able to learn techniques such as cell culture, RNA extraction, CDNA synthesis, and QPCR Funding Source: Emporia State University Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) and K-INBRE Gowoon Son y BS Biology 2014 Culture of hybridoma cells for production of antibodies Mentor: Dr. Tim Burnett I grew hybridoma cells, PC61, to get monoclonal antibody from them. I used a bioreactor, which allows culture at extremely high densities and was able to harvest about 30mL of supernatant. This was my first time working in a laboratory so I learned about time commitments in a lab and how to use equipment. In addition, I learned how to deal with frustration when experiments did not go well.

Funding Source: Kansas IDEA Network of Biomedical Research (K-INBRE) Karson Wilson y BS Marketing The Missouri Mavericks Mentor: Dr. Jack Sterrett This summer I worked for a professional hockey team.

Even though it was during the off-season, I learned so much about the sport and what goes on behind the scenes.

I worked with ticket and corporate sales, sponsorships and community relations. By the end of the summer I had sold two season tickets, two corporate sponsorships, facilitated my own newsletter and participated in a Stick to Reading Program making reading fun for children.

Funding source: “Missouri Mavericks Hockey”

Student Experience

Brian Dorsey y BS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2014 Activation and purification of cdc14 protein phosphatase Mentor: Dr. Kim Simons The primary objective for my research project was to correctly synthesize and develop a protocol for studying the protein Cdc14p, a critical factor involved in the exit from mitosis. I developed research skills in the areas of experimental design, understanding and using laboratory protocols, and interpreting results and drawing conclusions. Thus far, I have progressed through the preparative work necessary to make and purify stable quantities of CdC14p. Our difficulty has been finding conditions that produce active Cdc14p.

Funding Source: Kansas IDEA Network of Biomedical research Excellence (K-INBRE)

Jeffrey B. Miller y BSB Management 2014, MBA Stadium Operations Assistant Mentor: Dr. Jack Sterrett My overall knowledge about venue management has grown tremendously due to working in the stadium operations department with the Kansas City T-Bones Baseball Club. I was a part of a team that assisted the Director of Stadium Operations. I was responsible for preparing the ballpark for all game day and specially arranged events. In addition, I had the opportunity to learn from other departments such as Promotions, Box Office, Group Sales, Corporate Sales, Fan Services, and Grounds Crew. It was a positive experience because it taught me the importance of problem solving, time management, and communicating with countless individuals.

Funding Source: Kansas City T-Bones Baseball Club

Zhiyuan Jia y BS Mathematics 2014 Wavelet-Based Digital Signal Denoising Mentor: Dr. Qiang Shi For my project, I worked with my mentor Dr. Qiang Shi and another undergraduate student Zijian Liu. I learned how to use some mathematical signal processing tools and improved my programming skills. I learned the way to use the internet and Emporia State library to find research articles. My reading and writing have improved, and I became more confident to do presentations and show our research results to others. It was a really great and important project for me. I appreciate the excellent education Emporia State University offers to me and other students.

Funding Source: Emporia State University Summer Undergraduate Research Program (ESURP) and Liberal Arts and Sciences

Business students and faculty at the Undergraduate Research reception Emporia state university

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“

Dr. Storm (left) with his students at Stonehenge

Even more than learning about London or about the British Isles or about Europe, I want my students to learn how to become travelers. If they come out of the experience able to research a city or an historical site, determine how and when to get there, and make the most of their time when they do, the program has been a success. And if a few years after the experience one or two of my students end up living and working abroad—teaching perhaps—or just traveling to new and distant places, it will have been even more of a success.

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”

—Dr. Mel Storm student Experience

World Class Traveler

Getting the opportunity to study abroad in Santiago De Compostela, Spain is an experience that Amy Murphy (BA Modern Language 2014) will never forget. During the spring 2013 semester, she took classes alongside the Spanish students and was happy that she was not limited to only the typical study abroad classes. Amy says she also learned a valuable lesson about herself while she was in Spain, “At first I was really critical of the customs of Spain and I thought that I was open-minded. It opened my eyes to how much I had closed my mind to other customs. I think overall what I learned about myself exceeded what I learned academically.”

Amy also got the chance to travel around Europe adding England, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Portugal to her itinerary. One of the most memorable parts of her experience was being a lone traveler in Knock, Ireland. “My favorite place that I visited was Ireland. I picked this small place named Knock, Ireland where the population is somewhere between 250 to 500 people. I went there with no plans, but the people were so hospitable and nice. It was just nice, I loved it. It was the best part of my study abroad trip.”

Amy Murphy

Graduate Student Abroad By the time Miranda Renfro finishes at Emporia State University, she will be leaving with three degrees. In addition to getting her bachelor’s degree, Miranda (BSE English 2012) is currently working on two master’s degrees in English and TESOL. Even though completing two graduate degrees simultaneously is a lot of work, she enjoys the variety, “They are different types of research and different types of information so one is not a repeat of the other. I like them both equally.”

Her time abroad and at Emporia State University has taught her how important it is to make the most of your experiences. “The most important thing is to build good relationships and get to know people, especially if you’re going to be here for a long time. Make sure the relationships around you are as important as the work you are doing.”

Miranda’s experiences with the English department involves unique memories in the classroom. “My junior year I took a Mythology class from Dr. Storm and for a group project I dressed up like a Minotaur while another person dressed as Theseus. I wore the costume the entire day and none of my professors could take me seriously but it was a lot of fun.”

Miranda’s experiences also involved study abroad in London and China. “I got to go on the Summer Study Abroad trip with Dr. Storm. It was my first time out of the country and I learned how to be a traveler and run around London for ten days so, that was cool too.” When Miranda went to China it was for a program called Focus. While there she took classes and learned the language and the culture of the country.

Miranda said that the most interesting thing she learned on her trip was the unwritten rules of politeness. “It’s how you treat people. For instance, you have to argue over who gets to pay the bill. It’s very different than how we treat each other in America.”

Emporia state university

Miranda Renfro 13

Reclaiming her Identity in Nature Doricka Menefee, an English Education graduate (BSE English 2014) of Emporia State University and a Bill Gates Millennium Scholar, attracted interest with her research project, “Why African Americans Don’t Camp: An Eco Critical Reading of the Black American Experience in Nature.” Her project won best oral presentation at Emporia State University Research and Creativity Day in 2014, and she presented it at the Ivy League Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 13-15th, 2014, with students from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Duke.

Doricka’s research involved analyzing African American literature influenced by nature. “Even though we are separate from nature, nature is something that will forever be in us. Africa is not an urban place, it’s still a rural place, an agricultural place, and something onto which we still hold. That’s a part of us. So even though a lot of African Americans don’t identify with nature, it still seen in our writings.”

Her English professor, Amy Sage Webb, introduced Doricka to the idea of the separation of Blacks from nature or natural scenes through the article, “Dancing through Nature” by Evelyn C. White and the short story “Brownies”

by ZZ Packer. Historically, in Africa and America, blacks labored in nature to survive and wrote about natural objects to symbolize important concepts such as a tree representing a family tree, someone’s roots, or a lynching. A black traditional song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” is about using the Big Dipper to find the North Star to escape slavery and to gain freedom.

“We got out of slavery by using nature.” Doricka explains.

However, the stigma of slavery, the assimilation into white culture, and the striving for advancement in modern society have displaced blacks from nature. “We had to get away from it. You don’t want to be compared to a slave. There’s a part of our identity we don’t want to hold onto because it’s painful.” Many blacks do not know from where they originated in Africa. In slavery, their ancestors were sometimes kept in the same ledger as the livestock.

“It bothers me to not know where my family came from because it’s like a piece is missing from me that I will never know.”

Doricka believes nature is an important part of black people’s identity that shouldn’t be forsaken or ignored.

“For us to allow slavery to get us down so much that we 14

Doricka Menefee can’t even identify with that aspect of ourselves in nature is unfortunate. I believe that by getting away from nature, we are getting away from our identity.”

Doricka believes avoiding nature is intergenerational. Her grandpa was a swimmer, but he drowned. Consequently, Doricka never learned. “I feel that there is a lot of African Americans on this earth who don’t know anything about themselves. I struggle with this a lot. I want to get more into nature. They (her ancestors) might have been awed at the beauty of nature, but they didn’t get to enjoy it.”

In order to rediscover a part of her identity, Doricka went stargazing at the edge of Lyon County. A friend used a smart phone app to identify the constellations and pointed out the North Star while their group huddled around. “That is the star that led thousands to freedom. You’re looking for that epiphany, that betterness.”

Her parents, who never completed college, encouraged all four of their children to go to college and graduate. Doricka, upon graduating from Emporia State University with her secondary education degree in English, is focusing on teaching students how to read. In the future, she plans to pursue a doctorate degree in school leadership and to open a public charter school in Wichita.

“Even though we are separate from nature, nature is something that will forever be in us,” said Doricka whose reclaiming part of her identity by experiencing nature.

“With this project, I’ve grown to know more about myself.

I know that with camping, though scary and I hate snakes, it’s pretty fun to make S’mores, tell stories, and learn how to build a fire.” Doricka, like her ancestors, is drawing inspiration from nature and looking to the North Star for guidance, “I could see myself looking for that star and trying to get out. That’s going to lead me out.”

Student Experience

Emporia State Grad Is Common Core Expert Kyla Slate (MS Educational Administration/PreK-12 2012) is the go-to person for school districts wanting to master the Common Core State Standards. Kyla, a graduate of Emporia State University’s Master of Science in Education Administration, works as a field consultant for the nonprofit Curriculum Leadership Institute (CLI) headquartered in Emporia. She currently works with districts in Kansas, Wyoming, and Illinois.

“CLI founder and Emporia State professor, Stu Ervay, started the Curriculum Leadership Institute in the 1990s in response to the need for school districts to adopt systemic and systematic processes for developing sound curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices,” explained Kyla. “As a field consultant, I meet regularly with district personnel to train and guide them through this model.

“Every school district is unique, so no two meetings are ever the same — which is both refreshing and challenging,” she added. “I meet wonderful educators in my travels, and I am constantly learning and growing professionally by working with them.”

local assessments, and implementing and validating all components.”

Kyla is originally from Castle Rock, Colo., and did her undergraduate work at Louisiana Tech University. After graduation there, she taught secondary classes in English, health, and physical education for nine years before getting her master’s at Emporia State. Emporia State was a good fit in a lot of ways, she said.

“Emporia State is one of the universities that has a good reputation for being a ‘teachers’ university. My class sizes were small, which gave me the opportunity to get to know my instructors and classmates. My master’s program was a hybrid of in-person and online coursework,” added Kyla, “which really helped with commuting costs and time challenges that come with trying to get an advanced degree while working a full-time job. I enjoyed being able to complete some courses at home on my own schedule; but was also able to take classes on campus when I felt the content required me to be able to have face-to-face interaction with my instructor and/or classmates.”

The CLI website at http://www.cliweb. org, states that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) “are no longer ‘new’ or ‘someday in the near future’ guidelines.

They are here now. Student assessments and accountability to these complex, high-level standards begin in 2014.

Steps every district need to complete in order to be ready, include (at minimum): Training teachers about the CCSS content, interpreting the standards to develop local curriculum, aligning instruction with the curriculum, matching educational materials to the standards, developing common

Kyla Slate

Emporia state university

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Education students after their cave adventure

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Student Experience

Future Teachers Take to the Caves to Study Cave Environments and Bats Elementary education undergraduate and graduate students at Emporia State University used hands-on learning in the bat caves of Alabaster State Park to create teaching resources for their classrooms. Jenny Waugh, Beth Carl, and Luke Bryan (MS Elementary Education 2014) believe the experience built confidence and increased teaching abilities.

“It tested your physical and mental limits,” said Jenny.

“You’re cut up and bruised. We crawled through mud in a confined space, and I don’t like dark holes.”

Dr. Matt Seimears, Chair of Elementary Education, received funding from an EBSCoR grant to lead eight teachers to Freedom, Oklahoma. The students slept and cooked for themselves in a trailer at Selman Learning Lab, a distance learning facility for Oklahoma State University. “It was perfect. All expenses paid. The only thing we had to pay for was our headlamp, which was $10 and admission into the cave, which was $8. So it was a very inexpensive experience but an amazing one,” said Beth.

The students worked as a team using maps and headlamps to navigate through three caves. “It’s not like the bridal cave in Missouri. It’s not a guided tour. You are on hands and knees, crawling,” explained Luke who learned about his and other group members’ learning styles. “Some people are naturally leaders. Some people, even in this career field, want to follow. Some want to have the map with them and some just want to jump in and go whichever way the road leads.”

on human blood, contrary to popular myths. Because of a disease that is responsible for killing thousands of bats, the students had to throw away their clothes after each excursion as a precautionary measure from spreading infected guano to other caves. The students’ goal was to observe the bats without adversely affecting them or their natural habitat. Fortunately for Beth who had a close encounter with one, the bats are not aggressive. “Dr. Seimears told us you cannot talk when you see a bat, but when I saw one, I got so excited I screamed. So it flew and flapped near my face.”

The undergraduate students returned to Emporia State University to create a thematic unit for student teaching.

As for the graduate students, Beth taught about the cave ecosystem using pictures of Alabaster cave formations, and her second grade students made their own stalactites on a string draped between two mason jars filled with baking soda and water. Jenny’s students studied the anatomy of bats and the birthing process using a real bat encased in clear plaster. “Most kids thought bats bite and drink blood because that is what they were taught by cartoons,” said Jenny who set the record straight with her first graders.

Luke hopes he can take his own students to the caves one day, but in the meantime, the experience was transmitted from him to his students. “You get to bring it to life in your classroom,” Luke said. “That’s the best part of going on this trip.”

Each cave had a different terrain and took, on average, three hours to complete, so physical obstacles, and dehydration were challenges the group faced. The students couldn’t predict what terrain they would be up against, “There were small spots that people were getting stuck and we had to work as a team to get through. That was scary,” said Beth who led a subgroup of terrified students back to the entrance of the first cave because some couldn’t maneuver through tight areas. Temperatures in the caves ranged from 52-62 degrees Fahrenheit. One wet cave required swimming in their gear - jeans, long sleeve shirts, and tennis shoes – and then sloshing through the rest of the cave in freezing, wet clothes. The cave opened onto the side of a sunny cliff with a spectacular view making the experience worth the challenges.

Even though many cave dwelling creatures were observed such as salamanders and spiders, bats were the main attraction that drew the group underground for front row seats. Small enough to fit into the palm of one’s hand, the Mexican free-tailed bats subsist on spiders and insects, not Emporia state university

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Student Experience

Children A dragon named Spike is not something you expect to see on a college campus. It’s even more unusual when it shares a room with a fairy named Arabella, a flying sea horse that shoots fireworks, a flying cheetah, a horsey queen named Bella, and a turtle with one fin missing, named Tally-Alley.

During some very unique art shows on campus and in the community, there was an opportunity to see all of these amazing creatures.

In May of 2013, under the direction of Dr. Carol Russell, Professor of Early Childhood and Fletch Russell, Adjunct Professor of Art, in collaboration with Art Faculty Patrick Martin and Roberta Eichenberg, and Dr. Heather Caswell from Early Childhood, an extraordinary opportunity was provided for children, ages 5 – 10, to create stories and design creatures to be transformed into glass sculptures.

The program was entitled, Children Inspire Glass Project.

This project celebrated children and their imaginations in collaboration with Emporia State University instructors and students from various educational disciplines who share this enthusiasm (Elementary Education, Art Therapy, Early Childhood, Art Glass). This project was funded by the Kathrine K. White Faculty Incentive Grant and generous support from the C. F. Marshall Trust.

Several students from different Emporia State University departments helped with the project. Bringing the creatures to life in glass were Master Glass students Grant Charpentier, Nicolas Diken, Collin Haire, Alex Martin & Brady Wilson. Jennifer Primeaux (Art Therapy) also worked with the children. Roberta Eichenberg guided the Emporia State Glass students in learning techniques and teamworking concepts to reproduce the child’s design in glass; first in clear, then in color. Each child had his/her day at the

Glass Hot Shop. They were able to examine the clear model of their design, and give input on any changes or modifications for the colored version, according to their design. The glass students observed the children’s enthusiasm and self-esteem as their designs took on 3D glass forms.

In addition, students from the Elementary Education Children’s Literature course facilitated the children’s stories, written about their design, under the direction of Dr. Heather Caswell. Two of these students were Sarah Leeper and Andrea Decker (both Elementary Education majors). Andrea had this to say about her experience, “My favorite experience working with the children was to see how excited they were when the creatures they envisioned came to life. These young students were very detailed in their stories and it was great to see how each student added specific details to make their creature unique. Children have a wonderful imagination. This project not only allowed them to be creative artistically, but academically too. The students wrote their own unique stories to go along with the creature they created. Children love to be engaged in hands on learning. This particular project gave those students the perfect opportunity to express their creative ideas.”

Sarah agreed, “My favorite part was working with the students and being able to see what they could create.

They all have such great ideas about their stories. One of children I worked with had so many ideas she wanted in her story. It was great to see their imaginations at work. It helped me learn more about children, which I can use in my future classroom. I thought that this was such a great opportunity for not only the children, but for all of us who were a part of it.”

Finished glass projects Emporia state university

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Code Code Code Code

for for for for

Life: Life: Life: Life:

When asked about how he got into computer programming, Jason Suptic (BS Computer Science 2014, MS Mathematics) tells how when he was just five years old his father taught him some basic coding on a Commodore 64 computer his grandfather had bought him.

Don’t Don’t Don’t Don’t

Give Give Give Give

Up! Up! Up! Up!

Though he did learn some coding and had fun with it, Jason took a path far removed from where his father planted that seed of computer knowledge. After dropping out of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, where he took only one basic computer programming class, Jason got his GED, tried and subsequently failed a few college courses, then joined the Navy.

After Jason was discharged from the Navy, he returned to college and graduated with a BS in Computer Science in May 2014 from Emporia State University. He already has a job with Koch Industries the day he completed his undergraduate degree. “I heard a lot of bad things about how I was going to turn out,” he said. “I thought my life was over. Especially in the Navy where they drum into you that if you get in trouble you are finished. If I believed everything people told me, I would have ended up living on subsidies and working at a minimum wage job.”

Jason did not give up and decided he wanted to go to school to become a mechanical engineer. “I never thought about Emporia State for computer science,” he said. “I thought it was mostly for people who wanted to be teachers. But I checked it out and found the program was good and had what I needed. It was far enough away from home, but still close enough that I could stay close to my son who lives with his mother. And the program cost with tuition and room and board was less than the other schools and the class sizes were much smaller. The professors at Emporia State don’t just brush you off when you ask something and they are not just focused on research, they keep a nice mix of both teaching and research.” At Emporia State University, Jason’s life really began to change.

He ate through math classes like they were pieces of pizza. It was the same for computer programming classes.

Then he found an outlet for his coding talent outside of the classroom, writing an app for golf scorekeeping and getting it on Google Play. To date, the app has been downloaded 173 times.

He also wrote a book, Android 4 Development: From Eclipse to End User to help beginners understand how to write code in Eclipse for an Android app. The target audience for his book 20

Jason Suptic is “anyone who has an interest in developing an Android app for the first time. The book is written so that someone with coding experience can focus on the first couple of chapters and the last chapter, or anyone else can focus on the book as a whole.” The book is available in e-book form on Kindle or in hard cover form.

Jason now plans to commute from Emporia to Wichita so he can work as a software developer for Koch Industries, while also pursuing a graduate degree in math from Emporia State. “Jason is a wonderful student — great work ethic, great positive attitude,” said one of his math professors, Dr. Betsy Yanik. “I know he had to essentially start from the basics in mathematics as a (non-traditional) student, and oh, how he has soared. He enjoys new academic challenges and his independent work this summer on a computer app and an associated book describing its development is an excellent example of his initiative.”

That tiny seed of computer programming, first planted by his father and grandfather, finally worked its way up among the soil of trials and definitely blossomed. Now Jason would like to share his message with others who might be headed down the same path he once traveled.

“I would like my life, from where I have come from to what I have become, to be a motivation for others,” he said. So if Jason could code the life of someone like that, he might do it this way: “People with my type of background often give up.

Don’t give up. If you have had a bump in the road, don’t give up. Mine is sort of an underdog story, I guess. “People will give you a chance if you give yourself a chance.”

Student Experience

Erika Peterson, Clinical Psych Erika Peterson (MS Clinical Psychology 2014) had a unique study-abroad experience and got to see a different side of England. She spent her summer working as a mental health advocate for a law firm in London. Her main duty was to help patients in the British mental health system.

Erika explains, “I worked for a mental health law firm. In England, people can be involuntarily brought into a mental health hospital and those people would not want to be in there. Phone numbers were given to them to call and reach the law firm so they could (a) get them out of the hospital or (b) complain about the way they were being treated. They needed someone to be an advocate. So what I did all summer long was to travel around to different mental health institutions around London and figured out the patients’ needs and advocated for them.

Then I would take their medical records back to the solicitors and they would make a case from there.”

Having the opportunity to see the mental health system in England allowed her to compare it to the system in the United States. She said, “The systems are pretty much the same. The English system has a lot of variance because of the way the system is run.” Many of the clinics in England are owned privately and run differently than they would be in a centralized system.

Erika enjoys running in her spare time and hopes to do a half-marathon soon. As for her professional plans, “Graduate school at Emporia State University has been really great and I’m really enjoying the hands-on experience. In the future, I am looking to do a PhD. My main focus is psychopathologies and their underlying biological causes. I also hope to do a postdoc in neuropsychology.”

Erika Peterson

emporia state university

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Putting Physical Education in the Palm of Your Hand

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student Experience

It’s hard to imagine that you could do a Physical Education class using an iPod as the text book. But for his thesis, Perceived Usefulness of Mobile Learning, Tyler Goad (MS HPER 2014, BSE Physical Education 2011) found a way to do just that.

team didn’t have a strength and conditioning program so I designed one for the off season. I did pre-season work with the soccer team during the summer and stayed on for the season. The players made some huge gains. They went from 0-9 last season to making the semi-finals this year.”

Tyler used funding from the Boylan Graduate award to buy iPods along with all the peripherals and apps that were needed and sent them to distance students in PE 100: Active Living. Instead of traditional coursework, students completed the entire course on their mobile device. The course is usually distributed in a packet-based form but in this case it was pre-loaded onto the iPod. “Since it was an activity course it lends itself to being mobile. The students got arm straps for their exercise. They went to the gym, logged their exercise, and the mobile app time-stamped it. They snapped a picture to validate they were there, uploaded and sent it to me. They were in a classroom for two hours per week, they did the work anywhere and customized the workouts to fit their needs. They also messaged me on the device if they had questions.”

Tyler has ideas for future research. He says, “I have to find the link between technology and physical education and that’s a small niche. Online physical education is getting larger and larger. There are great tools coming out like iPods and FitBit but there aren’t really standards and best practices designed for using mobile technology in physical education.” He will begin working on his Ph.D. at West Virginia University in the fall.

The iPod also gave students a sense of ownership over the device since they had to check it out for 8 weeks. “They customized their own workouts, their own nutrition plan, and then at the end they had something they could take with them,” Tyler said. “They were able to put these workouts on their personal device and had something they could use beyond my course. I also used pre-loaded videos to demonstrate the exercises. Once they left the class they still had the ability to make changes to the workouts they created.”

In addition to teaching the PE 100 course, Tyler presented with Tiffany Orth (MS HPER, BSE Physical Education 2012) at the KAHPHERD conference. Their session, Student Teaching 101: What they can’t teach you in class, was for students who were about to do their student teaching. They put students in groups and gave them different scenarios to discuss. Tyler explains, “For instance, there’s a fight in class and you’re a female teacher. The student involved is huge, how do you handle that? Or social media scenarios such as, what would you do if a student was being flirtatious with you in a private message? We addressed the types of things that they don’t address in the textbook. We also dealt with how to handle homophobic or racial slurs. We talked about each of the 12 scenarios and then told the real story behind the scenario. We told them how it was handled even if it was handled wrong.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Tyler also presented at the national conference in St. Louis in April and co-taught an online course with Amy Avery (MS HPER 2014) who is located in Michigan. He worked as a strength coach for the women’s soccer team and the men’s basketball team. “The soccer

Emporia state university

Tyler has done a lot while he has been at Emporia State University and he has great memories of his time in HPER to take with him wherever his future takes him. “One thing I can say about HPER is that the faculty have a contagious passion for what they do. It’s hard not to get caught up in it.

They let me run with my ideas and encouraged me.”

KAHPERD Conference In November 2013, Emporia State University hosted the annual conference of the Kansas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD). Emporia State students were award recipients at the conference. There are two undergraduate awards from each university and two graduate awards. Graduate students are nominated from all Kansas universities and the KAHPERD awards committee selected one recipient from each category.

Emporia State University winners Undergraduate Student Education Major: Jayme Lindstrom, Health and Physical Education Undergraduate Student Non-Education Major: Daphne Mertens, Health Promotion Graduate Student Education Major: Amy Avery, M.S. in HPER, Emporia State University Graduate Student Research Award: Tyler Goad, M.S. in HPER, Emporia State University

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Finding Out about Forgiveness As the spring semester of 2014 and her final undergraduate year wound down, so did Racheal Countryman’s (BS Communication 2014) journey as Associated Student Government President at Emporia State University. And what a ride it was. “My experience as ASG President has been transformational,” said Racheal. “I have learned so much about myself as an individual and as a leader.”

The extra grind of duties and appearances that go with the job brought its share of work and stress, but no regrets. “I truly enjoyed every moment. I am so thankful to serve the student body during my last year at Emporia State. This institution holds a big piece of my heart and I’m happy I had the opportunity to create a positive impact during my college career.”

In addition to her duties as ASG President, she was a volunteer judge for high school debate and speech forensics, and served as an official judge for the statewide high school speech competitions. This high level of involvement could even be a key to her academic success. “I will admit during my first semester at Emporia State, I felt lost and that maybe I didn’t even belong, but I certainly didn’t try to get involved, either.”

Racheal remedied her involvement issues during her second semester. “During my second semester at Emporia State, I took a public speaking course that opened my eyes to a whole new world of opportunities. The communication professor, Dr. Michael Dennis, and the handful of classmates also interested in communication studies had discussions that made me eager to learn more. I realized my passion and natural skills and abilities flourished during that course and I began to completely rethink my choice of studies and career path. By the end of that spring semester, I applied for and accepted a job on campus as a student secretary in the Dean’s office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I quickly changed my major to communication and was appointed as a senator in ASG. From that moment on, I had purpose … I became a Hornet! I found my voice and began to see my true potential and for that I will forever be grateful to the institution, faculty, peers, and all others whom played a part in my amazing experience at Emporia State.”

Part of that experience was centered on the academic rigor she encountered at the university and illustrated by a communication capstone project she did her senior year with students Kari Eisenhut (BS Communication 2013), Annie Adams (BS Communication 2013), and Xinyu Huang (BA Communication 2013). The quartet was enrolled in the analysis of communication studies class and titled its research project: “Interpersonal Forgiveness.”

During an initial brainstorming session, the group began talking about forgiveness; how is it communicated and are some forgiveness messages more effective than others. At first, we discussed our own experiences and assumptions of effective forgiveness messages. We decided to focus on traffic accidents, in particular drunk driving fatalities.

Initially we asked ourselves, if a drunk driver injured or killed someone, how would the driver feel about receiving forgiveness. How would the driver go about seeking forgiveness? Or how does a loved one of the victim react to the driver wanting forgiveness?

To understand the dynamics of drunk driving, the group investigated the statistics of alcohol related automobile mishaps. After finding out that one-third of the fatal vehicle crashes where due to drunk driving, the students set up a questionnaire to collect data about this topic and randomly sent it out to 1,330 participants. The questionnaires utilized two different fictional scenarios: one negligent and one non-negligent. Each scenario asked the participant to imagine his or herself as a close family member of the victim in the story.

The non-negligent scenario used the wording: “Imagine your close family member Pat was on his way home from

Racheal Countryman

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Student Experience

work one evening. Bob, who travels the same road as Pat, was also on his way home and was driving toward Pat. Bob was going around a curve when the sun got in his eyes which caused him to cross over the line into Pat’s lane where they hit head on and killed Pat instantly.”

Whereas, in the negligent scenario, Bob has been drinking and decided to drive home, the sun got in his eyes and he killed Pat in a head-on collision. The survey then stated, “Bob has come to your house to speak to you. As a close family member of Pat, determine how willing or not willing you would be to forgive Bob if he approached you with each of these messages.”

The results to the questionnaires indicated people were more willing to forgive someone from a “non-negligent scenario” and with an “explicit acknowledgment” statement for the forgiveness-seeking strategy. It was easiest, according to survey results, to forgive someone if s/he acknowledged what s/he had done. But even nailing down the meaning of forgiveness was a task because it is such a complicated

feeling, said Racheal. “Research shows that there are many definitions of forgiveness, strategies and models of forgiveness, along with health benefits obtained by forgiving.”

“From this project I learned so much,” said Racheal.

“Forgiveness can be tied to either health communication or interpersonal communication. It made me feel like there was unconquered territory, still a lot of gray area to be explored and researched.” However there was enough clarity in the research project to draw rave reviews when presented at the department of communication’s capstone course poster session. Racheal said she felt honored at the poster session when Dr. George Yancey came up to the group and commented on the project’s potential for publication based on the content and quality, and when Dr. Michael Dennis discussed his personal interest in the topic and the possibility of publishing the team’s research project.

The Game Changer Rosalie Krenger (BA English 2014, MA English) was recently named one of the 150 Game Changers on the Emporia State campus. “I felt honored knowing that someone took notice of what I’d been trying to do for Emporia State University, it was heartwarming. My first year was rocky and it took a lot of hard work to get through that year. I actually left, got myself together, and came back ready to start over. There was a network of support here of professors and advisors who had a genuine, discernible interest in helping me succeed.

They helped guide me toward what I’m passionate about, helped me find where I fit in. I tried to make sure their faith in me wasn’t misplaced and to make the most of the second chance Emporia State University gave me, to give back what I could, and the award was an affirmation of that accomplishment.”

Rosalie became very involved at Emporia State, but there is one thing that really stands out for her. “I’ve done a lot that I’m proud of at Emporia State University, but I feel that I put the most of myself into Quivira. It’s a recognized student organization on campus that’s devoted to literature and creative endeavors, and puts out the Quivira Student Literary Journal every year. The journal

is full of art, poems, and prose all written by current Emporia State students. Quivira has been published by the students and for the students, for over 100 years and I feel that that legacy has continued for a reason.”

Rosalie had this to say about Emporia State University and what it meant to her, “Emporia State University fosters creativity and embraces and encourages its students in that way, instead of just pushing them through the mill like other universities. I love the feeling of camaraderie I found with the English students and faculty. I find it amazing that we can all be so likeminded while simultaneously having completely different philosophies and theories about nearly everything.

That’s where I found myself, and where I found what I want to do with my life.”

Rosalie Krenger

Emporia state university

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Immersion in Asian Language and Culture

Katherine Stuchlik

While studying Mandarin Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University as part of a study abroad experience, Katherine Stuchlik (BID Interdisciplinary Studies), an Emporia native and a senior at Emporia State University, attended classes with people from all over the world. “It’s very interesting to hear them communicating in Chinese.

You sit in a classroom and there is a student from Tajikistan talking to the person from Japan who’s next to the man from Korea who is sitting in front of the two men from Germany who are sitting across from the two Czech girls, all speaking

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Chinese together. But when class is over, everyone switches to English or Spanish,” said Katherine. She is majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Asian culture and language with a music minor.

Katherine fits easily into China, some even mistaking her for a native. “Since my mom is from the Philippines, I look vaguely Asian, so when they (local Chinese people) meet me they ask, ‘Are you really an American? Why isn’t your hair blonde?’ They want me to be the stereotype, and they are very disappointed when I’m not blond,” said Katherine.

Student Experience

From September 2013 through July 2014, Katherine’s language training consisted of taking two courses per day for two hours per course. Her required courses consisted of a speaking and listening course, which involved listening to a recording and answering questions and a grammar course which, “doesn’t provide a great deal of opportunities for creative thinking, but it is very useful in learning grammatical structures.” Some of her elective courses included a news listening course, a translation course, and an anthropolic geography course, a fancy name for a travel course detailing the places to visit in China.

In Katherine’s free time, she enjoys exploring new places and trying novel foods. When she first arrived in Beijing, Katherine and her roommate from Mexico wandered around the city when they stumbled upon a stepped plateau in a park. “We saw a middle aged Chinese man who looked extremely average in his button up shirt and slacks, using a whip to go through exercises. It was a chain with leather at the end, and I’m not precisely sure what to call it. He was going through these martial arts exercises, and we stood there gawking for a while.”

After noticing the girls watching him, he asked if they wanted to try. Her roommate refused but Katherine agreed.

The Chinese man replied, “Oh, it’s because you’re American, so you’re willing to try anything.” After he explained some simple ways to swing the chain around to make the whipping sound, Katherine said, “It was just like Indiana Jones. I couldn’t actually crack the whip but he showed me how to swing it around, and then at the end, I cracked the whip!”

Katherine went to an ice sculpture festival in Harbin when it was - 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Entire buildings were sculpted from ice and resembled different architectural buildings from around the world. She slid down ice slides, climbed on top of buildings, and tried not to slip down the ice steps. To finish the day, an acrobatic troupe put on a show while the buildings were lit up with colored lights.

A local place in Beijing Katherine likes to visit is a famous snack street that has a variety of foods. “It is a little gimmicky because they are trying to attract the foreigners so their prices are high,” said Katherine. One oddity they serve is live scorpions on sticks. “Their legs are twitching and you can see their tail moving. They would be menacing if they weren’t so small.”

When she was walking along the snack street with her roommate and Chinese friend, “We passed a stall on the street and we noticed this horrid odor.” Katherine and her roommate wanted to leave, but their Chinese friend stopped to buy them stinky tofu. “He stands there expectantly, waiting for us to try. If we had known each other longer, I

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could have potentially refused, but since we just met, there was no chance. I thought that three pieces were sufficient and I could say that I actually tried it,” explained Katherine, who claims that stinky tofu tastes better than it smells but doesn’t plan to try it again.

Over the Chinese New Year, Katherine went to South Korea with a Korean friend to explore the country. “South Korea is half the size of Kansas so it was quite feasible to travel across the country.” She tried Kimchi, South Korean cabbage, which she describes as being more sour than sauerkraut, and she ate a silkworm. “I would eat two whole containers of stinky tofu before I eat another silk worm. You are chewing its exoskeleton, and if you just imagine the flavor of a bug, it’s pretty accurate,” said Katherine.

“The worst part is that my friend (from South Korea) knew that they were terrible, which is why he stuck them in my mouth. He had only eaten them maybe twice in his life, and he also found them repulsive,” said Katherine who didn’t appreciate the prank. “At least my other friend (from China) was in earnest when he gave me the stinky tofu!”

Coming to China through Emporia State University’s study abroad exchange program has increased her cultural understanding, improved her Mandarin Chinese, expanded her worldview, and given her many stories to tell when she gets back home.

“It has opened my horizons to a great extent, especially since this university has students from so many different countries. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to communicate with people from different backgrounds and from different parts of the world and to see their upbringing and their mindsets as well as their fashions.”

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SMART Board Off-Key In Music Composition Classroom Jennifer Wassemiller (MM Music Education 2013) jumped in with, what at the time, was the newest advancement in teaching. Then she did some research on the technology and found a surprising result. The new technology was the SMART board, also called IAB technology, and it was the hottest technology being integrated in classrooms. “An interactive projector had been installed in my elementary general music classroom,” says Jennifer, “and I was looking for ways to expand my instruction with the interactive board/projector.”

An interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer. A projector displays the computer’s desktop onto the board’s surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. The board is usually mounted to a wall and can be seen by the entire class.

Curious as to the overall benefit of the IAB, Jennifer initiated a research project for her master’s degree in music education at Emporia State University. The master’s project was titled Interactive Whiteboard Technology’s Effect on Composition Instruction in the Elementary Music Classroom.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of interactive whiteboard technology on elementary students’ learning in music composition. One hundred first- and second-grade students from Osage City, KS Elementary School were selected to participate in this study, and their compositions were scored using a rubric.

“I was surprised that the use of IAB technology had no significant impact on the student’s learning during music composition instruction,” says Jennifer. “Music itself is a very interactive subject if taught in that manner. While technology is an excellent tool for instructional use, it does not always need to be integrated into our classrooms just because it is the newest and greatest thing on the market.”

She adds that, “The results of this study indicate that the use of IAB technology during elementary students’ instruction in music composition did not have a significant impact on composite scores, compositional components, or compositional yield.”

Jennifer has taught music in some form for 20 years and 28

is the elementary music specialist at Amelia Earhart Elementary in Goddard.

After earning a Bachelor of Music in Education from Friends University, Jennifer did her graduate Jennifer Wassemiller work at Emporia State, and received her Kodaly certification from Wichita State University. She selected Emporia State’s graduate program, she says, “because of its national reputation of excellence in training teachers, and the proximity of Emporia State University to where I lived.”

Besides being active within the Kodaly Music Educators of Kansas and the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, Jennifer has had several leadership positions within the Kansas Music Educators Association. She also served as a Music Education Ambassador to China with People to People in 2009.

In addition to her public school teaching duties, Jennifer teaches private piano and voice lessons in Wichita, and occasionally can be seen tickling the ivories at the Old Cowtown Museum.

“I have a passion for helping students find the gifts they did not know they possess” says Jennifer, “and I use music to accomplish this teaching in a way that is not a torture but a joy for the student. It usually takes a single experience to open the soul to music, creating a thirst that will last a lifetime.”

Student Experience

Student Preference In Music Teachers Erica Hunt (MM Music Education 2013) found a significant amount of research on the impact of teacherstudent relationships in the general classroom, but limited information about students’ preferences for interpersonal behaviors in a teacher as it pertains to the music classroom.

Her research project — as part of her master of music degree program was titled High School Students’ Preferences of Teacher Interpersonal Behavior Based on Gender, Age and Experience In Music — sought to find some answers.

“There is a need to study this aspect more at the high school level,” wrote Erica in her project, “as current research has focused on students at the collegiate level. Studies on the teacher-student relationship in the music classroom have implications for teacher retention in the profession and student retention in school music programs.

“The purpose of the study” Erica added, “was to use systems theory to examine high school students’ preferred teacher interpersonal behaviors and to determine if students’ preferences differ based on gender, age, and years of musical experience. The research questions were: 1. What are students’ preferences for interpersonal teacher behavior?

2. Do students’ gender, age, and/or years of musical experience predict their preferences for teacher interpersonal behavior as measured by the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction?”

Erica wrote in her conclusion that the results of the first question, “showed that participants clearly have the greatest preference for the dominant-cooperative category.

This category includes the behaviors of noticing what is happening, leading, organizing, giving orders, setting tasks, determining procedures, explaining, holding attention, showing interest, being able to take a joke, inspiring confidence, and trusting.” This finding showed “that age alone did not have an effect on the teacher-student

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relationship. Instead, age was a factor when combined with other factors.” The results of her research also “found that there was not a significant mean difference in the preference of students based on musical experience.”

As for gender, Erica indicated, “Research on the effects of gender on the teacher-student relationship has shown mixed results. Results from this study showed there was a significant mean difference in the categories of dominantcooperative and submissive-oppositional based on gender.

In the dominant-cooperative category female mean scores were higher than males.”

She had very specific reason for choosing Emporia State University for her graduate work. “I chose Emporia State because they were the first to have a graduate program for music educators that didn’t involve leaving the job to go to graduate school,” said Erica. “I wasn’t interested in being a graduate teaching assistant and I couldn’t afford not to keep my job. My experience at Emporia State has been wonderful. My professors have been great. I stopped working on my degree for five years because of a job change and starting a family, and when I reentered to complete my degree, Dr. (Gaile) Stephens was the one who made me believe that it was all possible.”

Erica Hunt

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GRADUATE SCHOOL & DISTANCE EDUCATION Campus Box 4003 1 Kellogg Circle Emporia, Kansas 66801-5415 800-950-GRAD gradinfo@emporia.edu

www.emporia.edu/grad