eInside Briefs

Willie Harrell Named 2014-2015 Provost’s Fellow

Dear Academic Affairs Colleagues:

Willie Harrell, Ph.D., will join the Office
of the Provost in August to serve as the
2014-2015 Provost’s Fellow.

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Willie Harrell will join the Office of the Provost in August to serve as the 2014-2015 Provost's Fellow.
 
The Provost's fellowship provides faculty members who have an interest in academic administration the chance to develop knowledge, skills and experience as an administrator; to increase the understanding of the faculty about practices and procedures in academic administration; to extend and strengthen the administrative resources of the university; to assist in the development and implementation of projects in key areas; and to provide ongoing faculty involvement and input into the activities of the Office of the Provost.
 
Dr. Harrell joined Kent State University in 2003 as an assistant professor of English and was promoted to associate professor of English in 2009. He has served as an undergraduate studies advisor in the Department of English and as the Provost's Faculty Associate for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
 
Dr. Harrell has been a member of the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Professional Development Center Redesign Steering Committee Advisory Board, multiple search committees, the Kent State Commission for Women in STEM Education and Research and various departmental and college committees.
 
Please join me in welcoming Willie to this new role.
 
Sincerely,
 
Todd A. Diacon, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

WKSU Wins 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards

WKSU reporter/producer Amanda Rabinowitz picked
up two awards from the Press Club of Cleveland's Ohio
Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony. In all, WKSU
won 12 awards at the ceremony that took place June 6
at the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland.

WKSU, a public radio station and service of Kent State University, was honored by the Press Club of Cleveland with 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards at a ceremony held June 6 at the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland. The station won three first-place and two best-in-show awards, including Best Website in Ohio – a category that drew from the best of radio, TV, newspaper and magazine websites – and Best Newscast. Award entries were judged by a panel of journalism professionals from press clubs and news publications across the country.

WKSU winners of 2014 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards from the Press Club of Cleveland are:

In the New Media division:

Best in Show – Best Website in Ohio, IT Director Chuck Poulton and staff for “WKSU.org.”
Judges said: Well organized, lots of news, interesting features. Very well done!

First Place – Best Radio Website, IT Director Chuck Poulton and staff for “WKSU.org.”
Judges said: Easy to read and listen to the current news. Additional tabs for subjects. Easy to navigate.

Second Place – Best Use of Social Media, Reporter/Producer Vivian Goodman for “Quick Bites Facebook page.”

In the Radio division:

Best in Show – Radio Newscast, Reporter/Producer Amanda Rabinowitz for “WKSU’s Morning Edition.”
Each weekday, Rabinowitz arrives at WKSU at 4 a.m. in order to bring Northeast Ohio the best in local, regional and national news. 

First Place – Ongoing Coverage, Reporters/Producers M.L. Schultze and Tim Rudell for “Fracking Looms Large.”
Reporters covered multiple angles surrounding the controversial practice of injecting fluid into shale deposits in order to extract natural gas. 

First Place – Human Interest, M.L. Schultze for “Young and Homeless in Cleveland.”
A profile of young people living on the streets in Cleveland and social service organizations reaching out to help them. 

Second Place – General News, Reporter/Producer Kevin Niedermier for “Building on the Success of the Senior Games.”

Second Place – Public Service, Amanda Rabinowitz for “Hate Crimes Have LGBT Community on Edge.”

Second Place – Use of Sound, Reporter/Producer Jeff St. Clair for “Exploradio: When a Tree Falls in the Woods.”

Third Place – General News, Tim Rudell for “Homegrown Rubber in Northeast Ohio.”

Third Place – Public Service, Jeff St. Clair for “Exploradio: Engineering a Chiari Breakthrough.”

Third Place – Human Interest, Reporter/Producer Mark Urycki for “Punk and New Wave Roots in Northeast Ohio.”

The Ohio Excellence in Journalism contest is a statewide competition for the best in print, broadcast and digital journalism. More than 800 entries were submitted for consideration.

WKSU is an award-winning public radio station and service of Kent State that broadcasts to 22 counties throughout Northeast Ohio from the station’s primary signal at 89.7. WKSU content also can be heard over WKRW 89.3 (Wooster), WKRJ 91.5 (Dover/New Philadelphia), WKSV 89.1 (Thompson), WNRK 90.7 (Norwalk) and W239AZ 95.7 (Ashland). The station adds WKSU-2 Folk Alley, WKSU-3 The Classical Channel and WKSU-4 The News Channel over HD Radio and as streaming audio at www.wksu.org.

Kent State Finance Student Places Top 5 in National Competition

Andrew Macpherson, a Kent State
University senior finance major, placed
fifth in the Wall Street Journal Student
Index Competition. Macpherson competed
against more than 7,500 students from
universities around the country.

A student from Kent State University’s College of Business Administration placed fifth in the Wall Street Journal Student Index Competition.

Andrew Macpherson, a senior finance major, competed against more than 7,500 students from universities around the country in the Wall Street Journal’s sponsored trading competition.

The competition is designed to provide students with an opportunity to manage a $100,000 virtual portfolio. During the month of April, the contest required students to trade at least 10 different stocks and securities. Macpherson completed 4,773 trades by the end of the competition and ended with a net worth of $502,064.93.

“Andrew is a very diligent and motivated student,” says David Dumpe, Ph.D., associate professor of finance with Kent State’s College of Business Administration. “He is a self-starter and entered this competition entirely of his own accord. His performance in this competition comes as no surprise. It indicates that our best students can definitely compete in the national arena. I expect him to be very successful and to continue to reflect well on Kent State’s College of Business Administration.”

Because he placed in the top 10 nationally, Macpherson has the opportunity to interview with proprietary trading firms; some of the firms include Avatar Securities, the Chicago Trading Company, KCG Holdings, PEAK6 Investments, SMB Capital and Vortex Capital Group.

“This is a testament to Kent State’s College of Business, which has not only allowed me to learn the skills I need to succeed, but has also provided me with the opportunities to demonstrate my abilities to their fullest potential,” Macpherson says. “I hope to continue to represent Kent State successfully as I begin my career in finance.”

Kent State’s Carrie Circosta Selected for Fulbright Award

Carrie Circosta, assistant director of
student and recent graduate programs
in Kent State University’s Office of Alumni
Relations, has been selected to participate
in the 2014 Fulbright Seminar for U.S.
Administrators in International Education in
Berlin, Germany, this October.

Carrie Circosta, who works in Kent State University’s Office of Alumni Relations, has been selected to participate in the 2014 Fulbright Seminar for U.S. Administrators in International Education in Berlin, Germany, this October. She was selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which is made up of 12 members appointed by the president of the United States. With this award, Circosta joins the ranks of other distinguished Fulbright alumni who have participated in the program since its inception more than 60 years ago.

The Fulbright seminar in Germany provides selected administrators in the fields of international education, career services, alumni relations and development with the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge about the host country’s higher education system, as well as to establish networks of U.S. and international colleagues. Grantees return home with new relationships, deeper understanding of other higher education systems and the enhanced ability to serve international students and encourage prospective education-abroad students.

Circosta serves as the assistant director of student and recent graduate programs in Kent State’s Office of Alumni Relations. In that role, she expands outreach opportunities for recent graduates and students to participate in educational, professional, social and service-oriented projects and events designed to develop an alumni leadership base and foster lifelong relationships that will lead to increased alumni support of the university.

“This is a really wonderful honor,” Circosta says. “I was particularly interested in this seminar because I created a plan to implement an international alumni relations program for Kent State. Through my research, to fully develop an effective program one must understand the country’s higher education system, society and culture. Considering Kent State’s growth of international and exchange students, we must start thinking about how to engage and serve our alumni no matter where they reside in the world.”

Circosta received two degrees from Kent State: a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2007 and a Master of Education in 2010. Before returning to Kent State to earn her master’s, she worked as a news producer at television station WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio. She currently resides in Kent, Ohio.

For more information about Kent State’s Office of Alumni Relations, visit www.ksualumni.org.

For more information about the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program, visit www.cies.org/iea.