eInside Briefs
News Briefs
- Pulitzer Winner Joins Faculty of Kent State’s College of Communication and Information
- Kent State’s Eron Memaj Named International Student Affairs Director
- Summit Street Improvement Project Update
- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program at Kent State Seeks Volunteers and Interns
Pulitzer Winner Joins Faculty of Kent State’s College of Communication and Information
Kent State University will welcome alumna and Pulitzer
Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz to its faculty
this spring.
Kent State University’s College of Communication and Information and its School of Journalism and Mass Communication will welcome alumna and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz to its faculty this spring.
Schultz, who graduated from Kent State with her bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1979, is a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate.
“It’s such a fantastic opportunity to bring Connie, one of the best feature and opinion writers in the country, to the College of Communication and Information,” says the college’s dean, Amy Reynolds, Ph.D. “I have followed her work for many years and am always inspired by the quality and depth of her writing and analysis. She is a remarkable person, and our students will benefit tremendously from her guidance.”
Schultz says she is looking forward to her new position as the College of Communication and Information Professional in Residence.
“Kent State launched me, as a journalist and as a citizen of the world,” Schultz says. “In recent visits to the campus, I was blown away by the energy of the place and moved by the university’s commitment to put students first. This is a rare opportunity to be part of the school community I cherish while still working in this profession I love. As Kent State taught me so many years ago, we must carry as we climb in this life. I can think of nowhere I’d rather be than working with the future journalists at my alma mater. I am coming home.”
Thor Wasbotten, the director of Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says Schultz will teach classes and help the college and school with conferences and seminars.
“We are fortunate to have Connie as a colleague,” Wasbotten says. “Our students will benefit from her tremendous writing and reporting skills. We couldn’t be happier to have another Pulitzer Prize winner join our faculty.”
Schultz served as a reporter and columnist at The Plain Dealer for nearly 20 years, from 1993 to 2011. While there, she was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, earning the award in 2005 for Commentary. Schultz also earned such prestigious awards as the National Headliner Award for Commentary, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Commentary, the Batten Medal, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice Reporting and more.
Schultz was the editor of Kent State’s own Daily Kent Stater student newspaper her senior year of college. Upon graduation, she served as a freelance writer for several news organizations, including the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan and The New York Times.
Schultz has authored two books, Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and … and His Lovely Wife, and is currently working on a third. After her years at The Plain Dealer, she has worked as an essayist for Parade Magazine, and she has been a public speaker, talking about topics like journalism, women’s rights and politics. Additionally, in the past three years, some of her freelance essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Politico, ESPN The Magazine, Chicago Tribune and Democracy Journal.
Schultz also uses social media as an outlet to share her opinions on a variety of topics, and she is very successful in guiding conversations in her online communities. She has nearly 139,500 followers on Facebook and more than 14,400 followers on Twitter.
“Many journalists have struggled to figure out how to translate their work for social media,” Reynolds says. “Connie is a role model for anyone who wants to build civil discourse and community using social media. Her Facebook page is an exemplar of this. Connie’s knowledge of social media and how to effectively use it to inform and engage citizens is something I know she will share with our student media organizations and in her classes.”
For more information about Kent State’s College of Communication and Information, visit www.kent.edu/cci.
For more information about Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, visit www.kent.edu/jmc.
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Kent State’s Eron Memaj Named International Student Affairs Director
Eron Memaj has been named the new international
student affairs director for the Division of Student Affairs.
Kent State University’s Division of Student Affairs has announced Eron Memaj as the new international student affairs director. This position provides leadership for international students and the Kent State community by developing partnerships with Kent State’s Office of Global Education, the Division of Student Affairs, and other university and community resources.
Shay Little, Ph.D., interim vice president of student affairs, says she worked with Todd Diacon, Ph.D., Kent State’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, and Marcello Fantoni, Ph.D., associate provost for global education, to create the position of international student affairs director when the Division of Student Affairs was reorganizing this summer
“The idea of this position is not to create a separate office, but have Eron in place to help connect international students to all resources on campus,” Little says. “International students should be referred to all the resources on campus the same way domestic students should be.”
Memaj came to the United States from Albania. He attended Garfield High School in Akron his senior year as an exchange student. Memaj’s high GPA got him a full scholarship to the University of Akron where he received his bachelor’s degree in international business and later his master’s in higher education.
Memaj started working at Kent State in 2008 as a residence hall director in the Department of Residence Services. During his first year in this position, Memaj says he noticed international students in Koonce Hall had limited English-speaking skills and would mostly interact only with each other. This gave Memaj the idea to start a program dedicated to building relationships between international and domestic students called the Koonce International Mentorship program.
“I started the program by emailing domestic students and asking them if they would be interested in being paired with an international student to meet with once a week and have conversations in English,” Memaj says. “They were also encouraged to attend campus events. The idea was to be a mentor and also a friend. The mentor aspect comes from both the international and domestic side.”
Memaj says during the first semester of the program, 40 students sent in applications. After the first semester, students who lived in other residence halls and off-campus students began sending in applications.
The program was then renamed Kent State International Mentors. Kent State International Mentors has its own website where students can learn more about what the program offers and submit applications. For the Fall 2015 semester, 270 applications were submitted.
“I saw the world by studying in the U.S.,” Memaj says. “Each campus is so diverse. I met so many people from countries that I never even heard of. I feel like I traveled through these countries by the relationships I formed with these people.”
In this role, Memaj says two initiatives that he wants to focus on are getting students involved and giving them a voice.
This semester, Memaj started the Kent State University International Women’s Group and International Graduate Student Association.
“To me, international is an all-inclusive term including domestic and American students,” Memaj says. “These organizations are open to both U.S. and international students on and off campus. We also invite spouses of international students.”
Memaj says he enjoys being a resource for these organizations and being able to give them a voice.
“Eleven percent of our student population at Kent State is international students,” Memaj says. “That is not a small number. I want to make sure they are represented and make sure they feel at home.”
Memaj notes that he wants to make sure that domestic students get to have an international experience as well.
“We are a very diverse campus with so many different cultures,” Memaj says. “Students have the opportunity to learn from one another.”
To find out more about international opportunities on campus, contact Memaj at ememaj@kent.edu or 330-672-4050.
To learn more about Kent State International Mentors, visit www.ksimonline.org.
To learn more about Kent State’s Division of Student Affairs, email studentaffairs@kent.edu or call 330-672-4050.
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Summit Street Improvement Project Update
The Summit Street: Building a Better Way project is
designed to transform a one-mile stretch of East Summit
Street that runs through the heart of Kent State University’s
Kent Campus.
Don’t be surprised to see orange traffic signs and utility company workers on East Summit Street this fall. Preliminary utility work has begun and will continue intermittently for the remainder of the fall semester, as part of the Summit Street Improvement project. Flaggers will be directing traffic, and you may encounter delays at various times throughout the day. Motorists traveling Summit Street in coming weeks may want to allow for extra time to get to their destination.
Later this week near the Schwartz Center, Ohio Edison crews will be performing utility work that will block off some parking spaces in the Schwartz Center and the two adjacent commuter lots. Weather permitting, that work will take place on Thursday, Oct. 29, and Friday, Oct. 30, and should only impact the first few rows of parking in each lot.
The Summit Street project will make enhancements to a one-mile stretch of East Summit that runs through the heart of the Kent Campus. Traffic and other updates will be posted on the Summit Street website throughout the project.
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Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program at Kent State Seeks Volunteers and Interns
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Kent State University is looking for volunteers and interns to provide free income tax assistance to qualifying individuals during the upcoming tax season.
VITA offers tax preparation assistance to low-to-moderate income taxpayers. The service is free to students, employees and community members who meet the eligibility requirements.
The VITA site at Kent State, the Schwartz Center, will be open for appointments and walk-ins on three dates: Feb. 6, March 5 and April 2. Volunteers are required to prepare returns for a minimum of 16 hours. Internships require additional hours and travel to an Akron VITA site for academic credit.
Tax preparation training is available online through the IRS or by attending an in-person training in Akron. All preparers must be certified. Training will be available beginning in November, and all volunteers and interns must be certified by Jan. 22, 2016.
Individuals interested in serving as volunteers should call 330-673-8622 or email vita@kent.edu.
More information about the program is available online.
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