eInside Briefs

Leading International Innovation Researcher Appointed Bridgestone Chair in International Marketing at Kent State

Kent State’s College of Business Administration announces prominent global innovation and entrepreneurship researcher Joakim Wincent, Ph.D., as visiting scholar and endowed chair

Joakim Wincent, Ph.D., is visiting
professor and newly appointed Bridgestone
Chair of International Marketing at Kent State
University's College of Business Administration.

Swedish researcher and professor Joakim Wincent, Ph.D., has joined Kent State University’s College of Business Administration faculty as a visiting professor and newly appointed Bridgestone Chair of International Marketing.

A professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, Wincent will be the keynote speaker later this month as part of the Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series on Nov. 20 at the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center. His presentation, titled “Global Innovation Leadership,” will address how innovation can extend a company’s potential as a market leader.

“According to a study by the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization, Sweden ranks as one of the most innovative countries in the world,” says Deborah Spake, Ph.D., dean of Kent State’s College of Business Administration. “Dr. Wincent has spent his career researching strategic inter-organizational relationships, open innovation, competition and stress management in innovative processes in this setting. The College of Business Administration is fortunate to have him join us this year as a visiting scholar and the Bridgestone Chair of International Marketing.

“He will work with the faculty, staff and students in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation,” Spake continues. “Dr. Wincent’s research has been published in the top journals in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.”

“I’m honored to be at Kent State because the faculty is pursuing the right research, asking the right questions and has a broad depth of knowledge,” Wincent says. “The college provides a very stimulating environment; global research is a major focus.”

Because of this, Wincent says he has co-authored several research papers in prior years with Kent State faculty.

As the Bridgestone Chair in International Marketing, part of Wincent’s time will be spent working with Sergey Anokhin, Ph.D., the interim director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, to reach out and work with leading European research centers.

“Not only is the college a good school, it also has great resources like the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation,” Wincent says. “I’m excited [to have been appointed] and look forward to conducting research with Dr. Anokhin and developing new global research initiatives for the center.”

Wincent says he is involved with several European centers and he sees a lot of potential at Kent State.

He has won several awards for his research, including most recently, an award for his paper at the European Academy of Management Conference and Wallenberg Academy Fellows nomination.

For more information about Kent State’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, the Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series and the College of Business Administration, visit www.kent.edu/business.

Kent State’s Student Multicultural Center Launches Faculty-Student Research Program

New Faculty-Student Connection program targets undergraduate African-American, Latino American and Native American students

Kent State University’s Student Multicultural Center is introducing an undergraduate research program that partners African-American, Latino American and Native American (AALANA) students with tenure-track faculty members. The program, called Faculty-Student Connection, offers the opportunity for AALANA undergraduate students and faculty members to work on a common research project within their major or field of study. The new program, which is not restricted to the sciences, covers research, scholarship and creative activities, and it is open to all majors and fields of study.

The Faculty-Student Connection program will enhance knowledge creation for AALANA students and help prepare them for graduate or professional school. The program also will support tenure-track faculty members in accomplishing their academic goals. A $1,000 budget will be offered to each faculty-student pair to help pay for travel to meetings, supplies or other nonsalary, project-related expenses. Faculty members are eligible to receive funds to mentor only one student through this program per calendar year, but they may have additional students that they mentor through other programs or funding sources.

Students who participate in undergraduate research are able to reach new heights in their academic potential.

“Conducting research during the academic year enormously enhanced my academic skills,” says Dondrea Brown, M.Ed., who participated in a nationally recognized undergraduate research program at Kent State. “In addition to conducting my own research project under the mentorship of a faculty member, I learned to prepare poster and PowerPoint presentations for conferences and improved my public speaking. Overall, I would say the experience was transformative!”

Students in junior or senior standing will be preferentially paired with faculty members who are prior to their three-year review or who have not yet mentored a student in the program, while students with first- or second-year standing will be preferentially paired with faculty members who have completed their three-year review or have previously mentored a student in the program.

Faculty will serve as academic mentors for the students to guide them in their progress. The topic of study to be selected will be an important aspect of faculty members’ scholarship so that the product generated contributes meaningfully toward faculty members’ work. Faculty will gain valuable experience mentoring and a research product that contributes toward their tenure packet. 

The Faculty-Student Connection program will include extended, semester or longer collaborations between faculty mentors and undergraduate students. Faculty and student participants will be required to provide an end-of-project report explaining how the work impacted them in their position at Kent State and their career objectives.

Student participants also will be required to share their work with internal and external Kent State constituents, which will include a research presentation of their project on April 2, 2014, at the University Symposium on Undergraduate Research.

Eligibility
To be eligible for the program, student participants must:

• Have a declared major
• Have a 3.0 minimum cumulative grade point average
• Be an African-American, Latino/a or Hispanic, Native American or Asian/Pacific Islander (AALANA) student at Kent State
  

Faculty-student pairs from all Kent State disciplines are eligible to participate in the program.

How to Apply
Student participants are required to submit:

• A Faculty-Student Connection application (contact Oscar Ramos at oramos@kent.edu);
• Two letters of recommendation from faculty members;
• A 300-word essay that includes a summary of the applicant’s desire to participate in undergraduate research, areas of research interest, career and professional goals, etc.;
• A writing sample from previous coursework (no more than seven pages); and
• Unofficial copies of transcripts.
  

The 2013-2014 application deadline is Nov. 29.

Student participants will be selected on the basis of having the potential for graduate studies. A committee composed of faculty members and executive officers from the Student Multicultural Center will interview and select eligible students.

For more information about the Faculty-Student Connection program, contact Oscar Ramos at 330-672-8584 or oramos@kent.edu.

For more information about Kent State’s Student Multicultural Center, visit www.kent.edu/smc.

Empower Timekeeping to Replace Kronos

Kent State University is transitioning from Kronos to Empower Software Solutions as the university’s timekeeping system vendor. Over the past two years, the payroll department and the Division of Information Services, with assistance from the Division of Human Resources, University Facilities Management, Dining Services, University Libraries, Regional Campuses and many others, have been assessing timekeeping and scheduling needs and looking for ways to better satisfy those needs. 

Empower was selected after a comprehensive evaluation process that included issuing a request for proposal, reviewing the proposals received, selecting the top vendors and attending vendor presentations and system demos. Empower was the unanimous preference of the payroll department, information services and the end users involved in the evaluation process. 

Empower is used by thousands of companies nationwide, including Home Depot, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Tufts University and the University of Northern Iowa.

Some of the features or improvements we will see with Empower are:

• FLASHcards can still be used to swipe time clocks.
• Empower software is HTML-based so there will be no Java issues.
• Empower software is compatible with Macs.
• Empower has more robust baseline scheduling options.
• Empower has more flexible reporting options.
  

The payroll department, information services and other user areas will work together to implement this new system. The transition will take place over the next eight to 12 months with plans for Empower to be fully implemented by Dec. 31, 2014.  

Questions may be emailed to payroll@kent.edu.

Kent State College of Nursing Professor Receives Excellence in Political Action Award

Yvonne Smith, a Kent State University
College of Nursing faculty member, was
awarded the 2013 Excellence in Political
Action Award by the Ohio Nurses
Association. 

Kent State University College of Nursing faculty member Yvonne Smith was awarded the 2013 Excellence in Political Action Award by the Ohio Nurses Association. Smith was recognized for outstanding leadership and participation in political action.

“I am honored to be selected for this award,” says Smith. “One of the most significant acknowledgements of our work is to receive recognition from our colleagues.”

The Ohio Nurses Association calls for award nominations every two years, and Smith was nominated by colleagues in her district. The nominee must demonstrate commitment to achieving nursing goals through involvement in political activity and the ability to involve peers in political action, educate other nurses about the role of politics in nursing, promote nurses serving in elected and appointed offices, demonstrate professional qualities in nursing and be an active member of the Health Policy Council or an Ohio Nurses Association legislative liaison program.

To fulfill the criteria, Smith serves on the Nurses Day at the statehouse planning committee and served a five-year term on the Ohio Board of Nursing. At Kent State, she teaches health policy to graduate-level nursing students and a second online health policy course for RN/B.S.N. students. Smith also is a guest speaker in other local nursing programs, including Malone University’s College of Nursing.

In addition to these accomplishments, Smith has received many honors, including Outstanding Contribution to Nursing Award from the Stark Carroll District Nurses Association in 2006, Excellence in Nursing Education Award from the Ohio Nurses Association in 2003, induction into the Cornelius Leadership Congress from the Ohio Nurses Association in 2001, the Dorothy A. Cornelius Award from the Ohio Nurses Association in 1999, Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from Sigma Theta Tau Delta Omega Chapter in 1999, Faculty Recognition Award from the Ohio Nurses Association in 1998 and the Outstanding Nurse of the Year for Education from Stark Carroll District Nurses Association in 1995.

“This award provides recognition for the work I have done and demonstrates to my students that I practice what I teach,” says Smith.

For more information about Kent State’s College of Nursing, visit www.kent.edu/nursing.

Kent State Dance Professor Receives Arts Alive! Award

Andrea Shearer, dance division director
and associate professor in Kent State
University’s School of Theatre and Dance,
received the Arts Educator Award at the
7th Arts Alive! Awards ceremony.

On Nov. 3, Andrea Shearer, dance division director and associate professor in Kent State University’s School of Theatre and Dance, accepted the Arts Educator Award at the 7th Arts Alive! Awards. The award ceremony is held biennially by the Akron Area Arts Alliance and celebrates outstanding individuals and groups throughout the artistic and cultural community.

“I was blown away. I was totally blown away,” says Shearer about finding out she won the award. “You never really expect these kinds of things because you know there are a lot of really deserving people, a lot of people working very hard in the area and a lot of people do really, really good work.”

Shearer was nominated for the award by a former dance coordinator and colleague, Kathryn Mihelick. Shearer says she nominated Mihelick for an Arts Alive! Award 10 years ago, but once the tables were flipped, she didn’t realize how big of a campaign Mihelick had organized.

“She got a lot of people to write letters for me, including the director of the School of Theatre and Dance, some of my other colleagues and even alumni,” says Shearer. “It resulted in me being chosen, and I think it’s the first time a dance educator has been selected for this particular award.”

Shearer says she has done a lot of thinking since finding out about the award and thanks Mihelick for bringing her accomplishments to not only the Arts Alliance’s attention but to the community’s attention, as well. “There’s teaching in the classroom, and that’s very exciting to me, but that’s only one aspect,” says Shearer.

Since becoming the dance division director, Shearer has implemented a dance education degree in the School of Theatre and Dance in an attempt to educate the community about modern dance. She also has worked with area dance educators in order to place Kent State students as student teachers and interns in local schools.

Shearer is currently on the Board of Education at the Falcon Academy of Creative Arts in Brimfield. It houses children from third through seventh grade, and she describes it as a community conversion school that uses the arts as a means to educate students.

“It’s the school I wish I had gone to when I was a kid,” says Shearer. “I’m in my fourth year serving on their board because dance and education are my two passions.”

Shearer says that receiving this award is a thrilling opportunity and gives her a feeling of responsibility. “I have to carry this torch, I suppose, and push myself forward to continue to do whatever I can, in whatever areas I can, to promote not only dance, but arts education in the area.”

For more information about Kent State’s School of Theatre and dance, visit www.theatre.kent.edu.

For more information about the Akron Area Arts Alliance and the Arts Alive! Awards, visit www.akronareaarts.org.

Kent State’s Center for Student Involvement Introduces Peer Involvement Advising Program

Kent State University’s Center for Student Involvement began a Peer Involvement Advising program this fall. The program will serve as a resource to connect students to campus activities and organizations.

This new departmental initiative is part of the university’s commitment to providing quality resources that aid in the overall retention of Kent State students. The peer involvement advising office is housed on the first floor of the Kent Student Center in Room 120K.

Students in need of this type of mentoring will be able to drop in to the office during scheduled hours, request an appointment or call in for more information. This peer-to-peer interaction will serve as a great connection for first-year students and a valuable opportunity for leadership growth for the peer advisors.

Each student will leave the session with an individualized “involvement plan” designed to set them on a path to extracurricular involvement.

Seven upperclassmen – highly involved students – were chosen to be peer involvement advisors for the 2013-2014 academic year.

"These students here at Kent State are going to be the future leaders of this world,” says Nick Elder, a peer advisor and junior at Kent State. “The first step in that process involves understanding the importance of developing leadership skills, and there is no better way to do so than through becoming heavily involved with organizations on campus. I want future freshman to share a similar experience as me. This is why I became a peer involvement advisor."

“As a junior at Kent State, I know how hectic adapting to campus life can be for freshmen,” says Krandall Brantley, peer advisor and journalism major at Kent State. “My goal is to help students have a smooth transition into college and give them advice on how to overcome adversity.”

While targeted mostly to new students on campus, the program encourages Kent State faculty and staff to refer any student who may be struggling to find their niche. With the multitude of organizations and activities available to Kent State students, this new program will serve as a great method to encourage involvement and make connections.

For more information about Kent State’s Center for Student Involvement, visit www.kent.edu/csi.

Air Force ROTC Cadets Participate in Fall 2013 Warrior Day

Cadets at the Air Force ROTC Detachment 630 at Kent
State University participate in flight relays during a Warrior
Day event.

Cadets at the Air Force ROTC Detachment 630 at Kent State University participated in a Warrior Day event on Oct. 1. The event took place during the cadets’ Leadership Laboratory at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center Annex gymnasiums.

Warrior Day inspires a sense of motivation, helps build esprit de corps and increases warrior ethos. After a very motivational National Anthem video, cadets began the workout challenge with stretches and were then split into two groups of two flights, one in each of the gymnasiums. Both groups started the day with a relay race consisting of down-and-backs, ranger push-ups, bear crawls and line sit-ups.

“I thought they [the workout challenges] were fun and they brought out the competitiveness,” says Cadet Jordan Love. “I feel like this Leadership Laboratory brought my flight closer together.”

Afterward, cadets participated in an outdoor warrior run. The Air Force ROTC cadre introduced a surprise activity, splitting the cadets into four groups to test them on several levels of leadership, including decision-making. The cadet groups participated in extended running, architecture, physical training and a minefield group leadership project.

“I thought it was fun,” states Cadet David Kahwaji, a freshman Air Force ROTC cadet. “The only difficult part was that there was only one person in our group from Kent, but he knew where he was going. The execution of events went well, and everyone seemed to have a good time.”

The day ended with Detachment 630 painting the rock on Front Campus. Lt. Col. Daniel Finkelstein, professor of aerospace studies, gave a motivational closing speech, and the cadets had a retreat at the flagpole in front of Terrace Hall Annex.