eInside Briefs

Kent State University to Receive State Funding to Support Student Intern Programs

Grant money to help business and education partners fill workforce needs

Kent State has received state funding to support workforce
development strategies and enhance student success
through internship and co-op programs linked to key
industries targeted for growth in Ohio.

Kent State University was selected to receive $724,553 of state funding to support workforce development strategies and enhance student success through internship and co-op programs linked to key industries targeted for growth in Ohio. The funding will support up to 200 student interns and improve the intern tracking system to discover new opportunities and to develop a strong feedback loop between the university and area companies, contingent upon Controlling Board approval in January. The university also will create an Intern Advisory Board to help improve internship experiences.

In September, the Ohio Board of Regents announced that $11 million in state funds would be shared among colleges and universities through a competitive process that required universities, in partnership with business and industry, to submit proposals to enhance experiential learning and career opportunities for students. The grants are part of Gov. John Kasich’s workforce development strategy to align Ohio’s higher education curriculum with skills that are in demand by Ohio’s businesses.

The purpose of the grant is not only to provide opportunities for students and encourage them to stay in Ohio after graduation, but also to give Ohio businesses access to high-quality talent to help increase competitiveness while decreasing the cost of finding new talent in the communities where they do business.

“I am optimistic we can help more students complete credentials and expand the human capital talent pipeline for Ohio businesses,” says Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro.

The colleges and universities that participate in this program must provide matching dollars from private sources. Undergraduate programs are required to match 100 percent, and graduate programs are required to match 150 percent of the awarded grant. For Kent State, the matching target industries will include advanced manufacturing, aerospace and aviation, biohealth, energy, financial services, information technology and polymers.

Letters of commitment from 17 companies supported Kent State’s proposal, along with support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE).

Participating companies include: Akron Polymer Systems, AlphaMicron, Assurance Investment Management, AtNetPlus, Crystal Diagnostics, Echogen Power Systems, Explorys, First Energy Corp., GraphSQL, Kent Displays, Melin Tool Company, Price Builders & Developers, Summa Health System, Telerik Inc., The Timken Company, Tribute Inc. and True Wealth Advisors.

The total budget for this program, called Integrating Kent State University Learning Experiences and Business Work Experiences, is nearly $1.5 million, which includes the state funding.

“In conjunction with increasing the number of Kent State students in internship positions, we also hope to improve our methods for helping students prepare for, find and make the most of internships,” says Austin Melton, Ph.D., professor of computer science and mathematics, who will coordinate the internship program at Kent State University.  

To help students have better and more effective internships, the university will work with NOCHE to develop materials and programs to assist companies in beginning and improving internship opportunities and to assist students in preparing for internships.

“We are forming much closer relationships with industry that help inform our research and educational programs to the extent that we can provide an educated, trained workforce for companies in the region,” says Grant McGimpsey, Ph.D., vice president for research at Kent State University. “In that way, we’ll drive economic development in the region. One way for us to be more responsive to industrial needs — particularly on the workforce training side— is through an active and aggressive internship program.”

The program is a cost-effective, economic development tool for the state, according to McGimpsey.

“They’ve taken a relatively small amount of money and leveraged it very effectively," he says. “It will have a great impact.”

For more information about internships at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/career/jobs.

Kent State Continues 20-Year Tradition of Hosting National Teacher of the Year 

2012 National Teacher of the Year
Rebecca Mieliwocki will present a
Gerald H. Read Distinguished lecture on
Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the Kent
Student Center Kiva.

For more than 20 years, Kent State University has been one of only seven places in the world that the National Teacher of the Year visits every year. This year will be no different as Rebecca Mieliwocki, recognized by President Barack Obama as the 2012 National Teacher of the Year, presents a Gerald H. Read Distinguished lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 4:30 p.m., in the Kent Student Center Kiva. The lecture is free and open to the public.

“Kent State is honored to be a continued part of the lecture series, and this event is the cornerstone of a series of celebrations of education,” says Linda Robertson, Ph.D., director of the Center for International and Intercultural Education in Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services. “The National Teacher of the Year recipients come to Kent State because we use their visit to celebrate teaching, our growing profession and its excellence.”

The three-part event this year--lecture, reception and dinner--focuses on “English Globally.”

Following the lecture, a reception honors English teachers internationally with 15 secondary teachers from around the world, in addition to research assistants at Kent State and teachers in the U.S. State Department.

An honors dinner closes the evening, celebrating Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education, a group committed to recognizing excellence and fostering mutual cooperation, support and professional growth for educational professionals.

The event itself will be memorable to many, but it is the legacy of Kent State’s continued hosting of the national teacher of the year that makes a difference to the college.

“It makes our faculty and our students proud of the choice they’ve made in Kent State,” says Robertson

Planned Transition of Van Campen Hall Creates Swing Space for University’s "Foundations of Excellence" Initiative

UPDATE 7/12/13: Van Campen Hall will be used for residential housing for the 2013-14 academic year. The originally planned transition to office space will not be occurring at this time.

Residence Services to turn building back to Division of Business and Finance

Van Campen Hall, currently a residence hall on loan from
the Division of Business and Finance, will serve as
transitional office space for displaced employees for the
“Foundations of Excellence: Building the Future” initiative
that will transform the Kent Campus.

Kent State University’s Department of Residence Services will turn control of Van Campen Hall back to the Division of Business and Finance in May 2013. Residence Services has been using the building as a residence hall for the past three years, on loan from the Division of Business and Finance. The planned transition of the three-story building will take 56 beds offline from Residence Services’ available stock.

The building will be used for much-needed swing space, providing transitional offices for displaced employees for the “Foundations of Excellence: Building the Future” initiative. During the next four years, Kent State will be transforming its campus with new buildings and revitalized classroom, laboratory, studio, performance, living and studying spaces. Van Campen Hall will provide temporary office spaces for employees whose buildings are being renovated or constructed.

Students who are currently living in Van Campen Hall will have priority registration for the contract renewal process for fall 2013 university housing. The hall director and other members of Residence Services met with residents to let them know of the hall’s transition and explain how they will receive priority registration.

Van Campen Hall residents also were given an information handout and were encouraged to contact their hall director should they have any questions.

“We feel comfortable with our demographics and our ability to house everyone who chooses to live on campus or is required to live on campus,” says Jill Church, Kent State’s interim director of Residence Services. “This is a planned transition. Van Campen is located on the periphery of campus, and generally, our students have preferred living closer to the center of campus.” 

Van Campen Hall is located on the edge of campus at 625 Loop Road in Kent. The building was added to the university in 1967 as part of Small Group One, which also included Harbourt Hall and Heer Hall.

For more information about Kent State’s Department of Residence Services, visit www.kent.edu/housing.

Kent State Connects Blog: National Blood Donor Month, and a Weight-Loss Challenge Update

On the Kent State Connects employee blog, Scott Dotterer, health promotion coordinator for University Health Services, writes about National Blood Donor Month and why it is important to donate blood.

“I can certainly appreciate the importance of donating blood, especially with the realization that there is no substitute for it. That being said, I think it would be great if more people would consider donating, if eligible, so that others can benefit from this life-saving gift.”

Read more from Dotterer’s blog post.

Emily Myers, special assistant in the Office of the Provost, provides an update on the unique weight-loss challenge adopted by some Kent State employees to lose weight.

“Oh the agony – how difficult it is to peel off one pound! And it seems like a conspiracy – just when you want to eat healthy, all you see is your favorite “junk” food!  Who keeps bringing that stuff in anyway? We just finished clearing out the holiday treats and now there is Valentine’s chocolate everywhere.”

Read more from Myers's blog post.

The Kent State Connects blog is written by Kent State employees for their colleagues, and features health and wellness and other fun blog posts.

Click here to subscribe to the Kent State Connects blog and receive an email notification when a new post has been published.

Inform Your Female Students About the Women’s Center Foundation Scholarship

The Women's Center at Kent State University provides
Kent State female students with scholarships. Nineteen
students so far have benefited from the scholarship
program. 

The Women's Center at Kent State University has been a motivating force toward the advancement of women in higher education. An integral part of the center’s effort is to empower women with financial assistance in obtaining a college degree.

The Women’s Center endowed scholarship fund, established in 2003, enables the center to provide two Kent State female students with a $500 scholarship. To date, 19 women have received scholarships.

Applications will be accepted for the 2013-2014 school year through Monday, Feb. 11, at 5 p.m.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

• Applicants must be a female sophomore, junior or senior enrolled at Kent State University as a full-time student during the award period
• Strong academic performance
• Demonstrated contribution to social causes related to diversity and/or women’s issues
• Active involvement in campus and/or community groups and organizations (including holding positions and/or coordinating responsibilities)
• Unique life circumstance/challenges, such as financial need or overcoming obstacles
  

To apply, encourage your female students to complete the application found at www.kent.edu/womenscenter/scholarships.cfm and submit it to the Women’s Center by Feb. 11 at 5 p.m.

For more information, contact the Women’s Center at 330-672-9230.

New Resources Offered to Scholars of Information and Religion

The Center for the Study of Information and Religion at Kent State University announces the release of two new resources for researchers in the area of information and religion: the Sermon Texts Posting Sites Index and the Sermon Content Review. Both resources were developed by CSIR primary researcher Dan Roland, Ph.D., assistant professor in Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science.

The Sermon Texts Posting Sites Index (STPSI) is a directory of blogs and congregational websites used by religious leaders for posting the text of their weekly sermons. In addition to site links, the directory includes the denominational affiliation and geographical location of each religious leader and the name of the congregation he or she serves.

STPSI currently links to more than 100 blogs and congregational websites, with new links added on a continuing basis. To be included in STPSI, a blog or congregational website must add full-text sermons on a weekly or near-weekly basis, and the sermons must be written by a religious leader serving the community of worship at which the sermon was originally delivered. Blogs and websites that feature only audio and/or video recordings of sermons will be included in the near future. Recommendations for links that meet the criteria can be sent to csir@kent.edu. STPSI enables researchers to quickly and easily subscribe to the blog or link to the congregational websites and thus access a weekly sampling of sermon texts from around the country, by various denominational affiliations, geographic locations or particular dates.

“The goal of the directory is to provide a snapshot of themes, topics, references, illustrations and interpretations included in a small, convenience sampling of sermon texts for any given week,” Roland says. “This allows researchers from a variety of academic disciplines to discover potential patterns and clues regarding the use of information in the broader social conversation and construction of knowledge that occurs in communities of worship.”

For more information about the STPSI, visit http://csir.slis.kent.edu/content/sermon-texts-posting-sites-index-stpsi.

The second new resource, the Sermon Content Review (SCR), expands on the value of the STPSI by offering a broad overview of sermon message contents. The monthly report will cover frequency distributions of scripture texts; references to current issues, events and phenomena; trending words, phrases and concepts used in the sermon texts; citations of information resources and more. For more information about the SCR, visit http://csir.slis.kent.edu/scr.

For more information about the Center for the Study of Information and Religion, visit www.kent.edu/slis/research/csir/index.cfm.

Kent State Professor to Host American Library Association Youth Media Awards on Jan. 28

Carolyn Brodie, Ph.D., associate professor in Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Sciences, will serve as emcee for the 2013 American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards. The event takes place Monday, Jan. 28, at 8 a.m. Pacific Time (11 a.m. Eastern time) in the Washington State Convention Center.

Brodie is president of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association.  The ALSC is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. ALSC’s network includes more than 4,200 children’s and youth librarians, children’s literature experts, publishers, education and library school faculty members, and other adults dedicated to creating a better future for children through libraries.

More than 1,300 onsite audience members and an unlimited number of virtual participants will join a webcast to see the recipients of  top honors among children’s and young adult authors and illustrators, as well as producers of children’s audio and video materials.

Among the 19 awards presented at the Youth Media Awards program are the prestigious Caldecott Medal (75th anniversary), which honors the illustrator of the year's most distinguished American picture book for children; Coretta Scott King Book Award for African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults that communicate the African American experience; John Newbery Medal, honoring the author of the year's most outstanding contribution to children's literature; Michael L. Printz Award for the best book written for young adults; Pura Belpré Award, honoring Latino writers and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for youth; and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, for both the author(s) and illustrator(s) of an outstanding book for beginning readers.

You can follow along in real time by logging in to the ALA Youth Media Awards Facebook page or via Twitter by following #ALAyma. 

For more information, visit the ALA Youth Media Awards page at www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/presskits/youthmediaawards/alayouthmediaawards. The site includes 12 video presentations titled ALA Youth Media Awards in Motion, which are clips from past award announcements and events.

Dealing With Seasonal Affective Disorder

Kent State offers on-campus resources

With the shorter winter days, maybe you are feeling a little blue or not like your usual self? Maybe you’re snacking more often or having trouble concentrating? It could be more than just the ‘winter blues’ – you could be feeling the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

You are not alone. SAD is experienced by at least 10 million Americans to some degree. The severity of SAD symptoms, such as depression and fatigue, increases throughout the day.

If you’re feeling some symptoms of SAD, spending at least 30 minutes outside at midday, when the light is brightest, can help. Studies show that even exposure to brighter lighting indoors for a few hours, especially in the morning, can alleviate SAD symptoms.

Light therapy is another treatment option for SAD. The Women’s Center at Kent State University, located on Midway Drive, has a SAD treatment lamp available for use for the Kent State community. The lamp is available on a first-come, first-served basis from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays. It can be reserved by calling 330-672-9230.

If you think you might be experiencing SAD, talk to a counselor or healthcare provider. On-campus resources include:

• The Counseling and Human Development Center at 325 White Hall (330-672-2208)
• Psychological Services at University Health Services, Eastway Drive (330-672-2487)
  

Visit the University Health Services website at www.kent.edu/uhs.