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2019-2020 College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences Award Honorees
Distinguished Professor of the Year
Gary Straquadine, ASTE/AVTE
Researcher of the Year
Irina Polejaeva, ADVS
Teacher of the Year
Heloisa Rutigliano, ADVS
Graduate Research Mentor of the Year
Kynda Curtis, APEC
Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year
Tyson Sorensen, ASTE
Faculty University Service
Denise Stewardson, ASTE
International Professor of the Year
Scott Jones, PSC
Scholar of the Year
Nicolle Ritchie, PSC
Graduate Student Teacher of the Year
Michael Clayton, ADVS
Doctoral Student Researcher of the Year
Paul Kusuma, PSC
Master’s Student Researcher of the Year
Ji-Jhong Chen, PSC
Undergraduate Student Researcher of the Year
Osvaldo Gonzalez, ADVS
Undergraduate Mentor of the Year
Andreas Wesemann, AVTE
See videos noting each award recipient’s accomplishments on the USU College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences’ YouTube channel.
under the direction of Professor Irina Polejaeva, and began work on in vitro research.
“I was working at a clinic in Sandy after graduating, and I actually had a co-worker who got his Ph.D. from USU and worked with Dean (Ken) White,” said Keim. “That’s what sparked my interest and led to me pursuing my Ph.D. here.”
Coincidently, White won the same competition when he was a student at the University of California, Davis, and the plaque he received hangs in the CAAS dean’s office. In 2018, Keim began research on embryo transfer, seeking to find ways to improve the efficiency of the process which needs improvement.
Keim’s research focuses on using cytokines—small proteins or signaling molecules that are important in controlling the activity of other cells—during oocyte maturation. Adding specific cytokines to the oocyte’s in vitro environment allows it to match the natural in vivo environment, giving the success rate of embryo implantation a boost.
“This research is not only applicable to agriculture, but to humans as well,” said Polejaeva, professor of developmental biology. “If we can figure it out on the animal side of things, some day we can produce better quality eggs for humans who are using in vitro fertilization as well.” �
Utah State University’s Health Professions Director Michele Lyman receives daily calls from rural clinics and hospitals asking for more of the program’s graduates. The need for medical personnel in rural areas in southern and central Utah is often in communities close to one of USU’s statewide campuses where health professions are taught, which is a major reason the programs were established.
strip, which serves close to 174,000 people who need healthcare. The demand for more medical professionals in rural areas is so great in the Four Corners region — surrounding the spot where Utah, Colorado Arizona, and New Mexico meet — Lyman said she often gets requests from as far away as Cortez, Colorado, and Farmington, New Mexico.
USU’s statewide campuses offer programs to fill the demand for healthcare nicians, medical laboratory technicians, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, and surgical technicians. The programs are part of the Department of Aviation and Technical Education’s focus on teaching skills that are needed in communities throughout the state and region.
“It’s very important that we are able to train people who want to go back into their communities and serve their people,” said Lyman. “These health professions
programs are important so our students can come to school and go back into their communities where they really want to be
According to Lyman, one healthcare system in the Blanding area has five clinics across the Navajo reservation in the Utah practitioners with a range of training, including medical assistants, certified nursing assistants, emergency medical tech-
living with their families and taking care of people in their communities.”
USU’s instructors have years of real-world experience in the medical field and have often worked in the rural areas in which they live and teach. Spencer Spotted Elk started out cleaning buildings on the Blanding campus to pay his way through school. He eventually graduated and served his community in the local hospital as a laboratory technician. Spotted Elk now teaches at USU Blanding as a medical laboratory technician instructor and brings his knowledge to the classroom with hands-on learning.
“Having those hands-on experiences is part of everything we do here,” Spotted Elk said. “I try to bring in different aspects of how we learn. You have some people who love to learn by reading books and you also have those hands-on learners. When I’m teaching, I try to give those different perspectives.”
Spotted Elk said the jobs his students will eventually take are hands-on. While they are students, these future medical professionals can train in a calm, controlled, and educational environment where they will prepare for real-life situations.
Jonathan Brewer is a lab technician student being trained by Spotted Elk. He said being a lab tech is the perfect fit for him because he enjoys the behind-thescenes detective work.
“They say the lab work is 70% of the diagnosis of patients,” Brewer said. “People think we just take the blood, put it on a machine, and click a button. It takes a lot more investigation than most people think.”
Students at USU campuses are trained with state-of-the-art equipment, preparing them to hit the ground running as they enter the workforce. One piece of equipment is an Anatomage table that has a uniquely important role among the learning resources available at the school. The tabletop is a large touch screen with multiple cadaver scans uploaded to its operating system. Each cadaver is scanned one layer at a time from the skin, to the bones, and all the systems in the human body. The image library allows students to view specific medical pathologies, including fractures, joint replacements, and aneurysms.
Health professions students dissect the “cadavers” digitally and study any part of the human anatomy. According to several students, it’s much less intimidating to work on a real patient once you’ve had experience working with the Anatomage table. In addition to its practical uses as an important learning tool, Spotted Elk said using the table has important cultural benefits for USU Blanding’s Native American students.
“You’re supposed to allow the dead to go in peace and let them rest,” Spotted Elk said. “There are a lot of taboos that we try to respect. Having that table, you’re able to get hands-on experiences that one would never get with real cadavers. We’re also respecting our culture and our way of life.”
A major component of USU’s health professions programs is catering to Utah’s rural communities and the needs of individual students who often have jobs, families, and other responsibilities in addition to attending school.
“I’ve been practicing in rural Utah for 30 years,” Lyman said. “I’ve watched healthcare progress, and it might have been slow at first, but it’s wonderful to see that we have healthcare in the area now. Even though it’s tough. It’s very hard. Now our students are getting healthcare to their communities and that’s a wonderful thing.” �
Left: A student virtually dissects a cadaver at the Blanding campus. Top: Health Professions Director Michele Lyman. Above: Spencer Spotted Elk (left) graduated from the medical laboratory technician program and returned as an instructor after serving the community at a local hospital.
By Trent Toone, excerpt printed with permission from The Deseret News
Robert “Robbie” Petersen and Rusten Thornley had never met before, yet they shook hands like old friends.
The handshake and unique meeting between the 36-year-old Petersen, sporting a black Western Seeds Utah hat, and the 16-year-old Eagle Scout, dressed in his tan uniform with green merit badge sash, took place a few feet from a new 8-foot granite monument, located a few miles north of Tremonton and just off the eastbound side of Interstate 84.
What brought the unlikely pair together was 15 years in the making, beginning with a tragic accident and culminating with a fitting tribute. “This site will always have significance for me,” Petersen said. “Every time I come past here I’m reminded of that day.”
THE ACCIDENT
On the sunny fall afternoon of Sept. 26, 2005, a 1994 Dodge passenger van with 10 Utah State University agriculture students was returning from a field trip to see farm equipment Petersen, who recalled conversations on various topics as they rode along. “As part of the field trip there was a worksheet to fill out, so guys were asking each other questions.” Peterson said. “Being a bunch of farmers and ranchers, there was talk about Ag stuff. We also talked about the College of Ag activities on campus to celebrate Ag week.”
Just before 4 p.m., Parker lost control of the van when the left rear tire blew out, causing the van to roll and ejecting all 11 occupants. The Utah Highway Patrol estimated the van traveled from the interstate over about 300 yards of sagebrush before coming to rest on the edge of a deep ravine.
Nine of the 11 died as a result of the accident, including Steven Bair, 24, of Moses Lake, Washington; Dusty Fuhriman, 22, of Tremonton; Justin Gunnell, 24, of Providence; Justin Huggins, 21, of Bear River; Jonathan Jorgensen, 22, of Hyrum; Curtis Madsen, 23, of Payson; Ryan McEntire, 22, of West Point; Bradley Wilcox, 26, of Salt Lake City; and Parker, 45, of Hooper.
in Box Elder County. Evan Parker, a USU Ag instructor, was the driver. The students were underclassmen, mostly freshmen, including
Two students survived. Jared Nelson suffered a traumatic brain injury and broke some bones. His wife, Amy, is his full-time caretaker and they live near his family’s farm in Woodburn, Oregon.
Petersen suffered two broken femurs, a broken nose, a deep gash in his chin, a broken foot and two broken ribs. He continues to have knee problems 15 years later. He and his wife have two children and live in the Tremonton area where he is the manager of Western Seeds Utah.
REFLECTIONS
USU President Noelle E. Cockett was the interim provost at the time of the accident but had previously served for several years as dean of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.
She remembers Sept. 26, 2005, started out as a beautiful fall day. She was working in USU’s Old Main building when the accident report came in. In a short time Old Main be-
Eagle Scout Rusten Thornley and Robbie Petersen at the monument dedicated to eight Utah State University agriculture students and their instructor who were killed in a 2005 van crash near Bothwell, Box Elder County. Petersen survived the crash, and Thornley raised the money for the monument. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred.
came emergency command headquarters and everyone stayed together late into the night, gathering reports, responding to media requests and trying to support the classmates and the families of the victims.
“There are certain moments when you know exactly where you were when you heard something, and that’s one for me,” Cockett said. “This hit the college (of Agriculture) hard. I think everybody realized in some sense how fragile life can be. It makes me kind of weepy even now. These were strong, good young men. ... We still hear from some of the families and that means a lot to me. I will always remember.”
THE MONUMENT
Rusten Thornley was only a year or so old when the USU van crash happened, but he’s known about it most of his life. His mother, Katie Thornley, was a relative and close friend of Justin Huggins.
On several occasions in recent years the Thornley family has passed the crash site and thought how nice it would be to see a monument of some kind built there. At one point, Russell Thornley suggested it would make for an “awesome” Eagle Scout project.
His son was listening. When the time came to choose a project in 2019, Rusten decided to go for it.
Originally, the Thornley family discussed spending $500 for a nice sign, but Scoutmaster Reed Summers suggested the community might rally around a fundraising campaign. He was right.
On the 14th anniversary of the crash — Sept. 26, 2019 — Rusten launched a social media fundraising campaign in which more than 200 donors raised $10,000. As word of the project spread, donations poured in. Sweet old ladies even approached Rusten with white envelopes at church. The young man was almost overwhelmed by the staggering response and didn’t want to let anybody down.
Standing together by the tall monument — 15 years to the month of the accident — Petersen and Rusten Thornley discussed some of the details of the project. “He did an awesome job, a home run,” Petersen said. “This pays tribute to the people who died and it’s going to ensure that they are not forgotten.” �
Reat Trent Toone’s full story online at tinyurl.com/VanAccidentMemorial.
By Lynnette Harris
Following weeks of creative collaboration and countless hours of work in the design studio, three Utah State University Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning students and their two teammates at the University of Utah were selected as winners of the 2021 Utah Real Estate Challenge and claimed the contest’s $20,000 grand prize.
Students Jonathon Brown, Hannah Anderson, and Taylor Olson, and U of U students Sam McConkie and Ryan Thomas, in the U’s master of real estate development program, created the winning proposal for their project, The Foundry.
Annually, Utah Real Estate Challenge organizers select a location with development potential for the intercollegiate competition. Students create proposals and present them to expert judges followed by intense question and answer sessions.
This year’s challenge site was in The Granary District, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Salt Lake City. The spot, at the southeast corner of 900 South and 500 West, has always had commercial and industrial use but has recently become an attractive area for new restaurants and other community gathering spots.
Students on the winning team met during the competition’s initial site visit and decided to combine their collective skills even though they were at different schools.
“I was exposed to elements of design and planning that I have never done before and this made my abilities as a designer
Left: The Foundry Group is (left to right) Taylor Olson, Sam McConkie, Jonathon Bowen, Hannah Anderson, Ryan Thomas. Team photo by TWIG Media Lab. Top: A rendering of The Foundry virtually placed in a Google Earth view of the proposed development site. stretch and become stronger,” Anderson said. “We had a pretty seamless experience working with the U students.”
Anderson, Bowen, and Olson agree that working in a cross-disciplinary team with real estate development students was an outstanding learning experience.
“I learned a lot about working with teammates from diverse career backgrounds, and I was able to greatly advance my 3D rendering and visualization skills,” Bowen said.
The Foundry Group ultimately designed a development with commercial, retail, and residential spaces—including much-needed affordable housing— pocket parks, restaurants, and co-working spaces.
“We had help from mentors scattered across several states who gave us insights into how this process works in the real world,” Olson said. “The timetable this project put us on made us push ourselves while also being patient with the members of our team as they found the balance that we could work with… This competition was like being given a bunch of cloth and string, then being told to build a parachute as you were pushed off an extremely high cliff. In the end, it was an amazing experience and we couldn’t have done it with our professors, Todd Johnson and Caroline Lavoie, and our mentors.”
The Utah Real Estate Challenge is sponsored by numerous Utah companies and organized by the IvoryBoyer Real Estate Center in the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. This year’s virtual awards ceremony, including the top teams’ video presentations, and more about the competition can be viewed at tinyurl.com/UtahRealEstateChallenge. �
