Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education |
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December 2009 |
Vol 1, Issue 2 |
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Undergraduate Student Research News In Oklahoma Higher Education
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Dear Faculty and Students,
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This newsletter is designed to give you information about Oklahoma students and programs of undergraduate research. We hope you learn a lot and share with others. Congratulations to those who participate in these challenging experiences! You can send us stories about your own projects. And if you received this newsletter from someone else and would like to receive your own, just let me know at [email protected]. Sincerely, Dr. Linda MasonOSRHE Coordinator for Grant Writing
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UCO Students Win Campus Undergraduate Research Grants
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At UCO, undergraduate students may win campus funding for their research, creative and scholarly projects. The College of Education and Professional Studies
students submitted 28 proposals, the highest number of student submissions of
any college; Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) submitted 7;
Business Administration (CBA) submitted 5; Liberal Arts (LA) submitted 10, and
Mathematics
& Science (CMS) submitted 22. These students wrote proposals for original research to be conducted with a faculty mentor.
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OSU Undergraduate Student Research
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At
OSU, several programs are making a big difference in how our students
experience undergraduate study. Wentz Research Projects make substantial
awards available every year for 50 students who submit high quality proposals
for work to be done with a faculty mentor. OSU is now offering winners of
Wentz awards an extra (third) semester of financial support, hoping that more
time will allow them to publish results and take part in institutes and
internships. Specialized areas are represented with other programs like the
Niblack scholarships, which encourage a year of study with the supervision of
not only faculty but graduate students, fall, spring, and summer.
Knowing
that a quick start is the key not only to good retention but also prestigious
awards, graduate school admission, and jobs farther down the line, OSU also has
refined a popular Freshman Research Program. Administered centrally (see
"Scholar Development and Recognition" on the OSU web-site) and managed jointly
with undergraduate colleges, each of which receives scholarship funds for their
best new students, the program attracts high quality students and ensures
outstanding retention rates. During the fall semester, the college
presents an orientation to research for participants and helps them identify
mentors for an introductory research project, conducted in the spring.
Various occasions to display their work are made available, and those who
perform at a high level receive other incentives, such as travel to a
professional conference of their choice to display their work.
The
value of all this is clear to see, as the majority of the fifty OSU winners of
major national and international awards in the last fifteen years have been
recipients of Wentz funding, and the last four winners of Goldwater
Scholarships have begun their careers at OSU in the Freshman Research Program.
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Langston University Student Entrepreneurs Win Grants
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Two Langston
University students used
their entrepreneurial skills to win $10,000 grants to launch their prospective
companies.
RaShaun Robinson and Drew Brown
were among four students out of 53 applicants who received the Student Entrepreneur Grant from the
Thurgood Marshall Fund.
The grant encourages young
entrepreneurs to develop business concepts. Robinson, 20, and Brown, 26,
submitted their business concepts to the grant committee.
Robinson's concept was to create a
company that specializes in organic ice cream from goat milk that has less fat,
more vitamins, more calcium and is easier for the body to digest.
The business is named The
Billy Goat Ice Cream Co.
The reasons they chose goat ice cream were because everyone likes ice cream and Langston University is known for goat research.
Robinson will collaborate with
Langston's E (Kika) de la Garza American Institute for Goat Research to produce
the ice cream as an outsourced entity. The ice cream flavors will include
chocolate, vanilla, Jack Daniel's, pecan praline, pina colada and strawberry
cheesecake.
Brown's business concept was to use
Mother Nature to create an environmentally friendly source of energy.
The company is named B&E
Better Energy for the Future. Brown will supply wind turbines for homes on
one or more acres of land. The wind turbines will
restrict pollution and decrease a homeowner's electricity bill by 50 to 90
percent.
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Who Wants to be an Entrepreneur?
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Recently, 200 Oklahoma
college students and faculty advisors and others attending the "Who Wants
to Be an Entrepreneur" workshop, sponsored by Oklahoma EPSCoR. More than half plan to enter the 2010 Donald W.
Reynolds Governor's Cup Business Plan competition. The competition, now in its
sixth year, has launched scores of young Oklahoma
entrepreneurs on the career quest to engage in entrepreneurial enterprises.
In recent months, i2E has taken the message of
entrepreneurship to campuses at Rogers
State in Claremore and Cameron University
in Lawton, and
at the offices of Rural Enterprises Inc. in Durant, where lively
entrepreneurial communities are thriving.
Audiences included a mix of faculty, economic development
professionals and entrepreneurs who are working to commercialize products in
settings far outside Oklahoma's
metropolitan areas.
Undaunted by the long odds they faced, they shared with us a
strong belief in their ability to turn their passion into a commercial success.
It was a refreshing attitude in a time when others across the nation have
pulled their bait out of the water and gone home.
This is the entrepreneurial spirit that typifies our Oklahoma heritage. We
continue to help spread it around.
Tom Walker is president and CEO of i2E, Inc., a
not-for-profit corporation that mentors many of the state's technology-based
start-up companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science
and Technology.
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ECU Student Externships
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Four environmental health science majors at East
Central University
have been selected to participate in federal externships through the U.S. Public Health Service's Commissioned
Officer Student Training Extern Program (COSTEP). The Commissioned Corps is
one of the seven uniformed services and is led by the surgeon general of the United States.
The students, shown in the picture, will start their assignments in May. They are Billy
Porter, a junior from Ada, assigned to the IHS in Santa Fe, N.M.; Tyler Jackson, a junior from Lilburn,
Ga., assigned to the Navajo Area IHS in Fort Defiance, Arizona.; Mistin Ray, a junior from Choctaw, assigned to the Indian Health
Service (IHS) in Fairbanks, Alaska; and Paul Eaton, a junior from Yukon,
assigned to the Oklahoma City Area IHS. They will be commissioned as ensigns
during their three-month tours.
An externship is one of ECU's requirements for completing a degree in
environmental health science. The selection process into the COSTEP program is
highly competitive. Only students from accredited undergraduate programs in
environmental health science like ECU's are eligible to participate. Dr. Patrick O. Bohan, ECU associate
professor of environmental health science and a retired captain in the
USPHS directs the program.
ECU students learn about theory and practice in such areas as occupational
health and safety, food protection, air and water quality, hazardous waste,
toxicology, community health and epidemiology.
The ECU Environmental Health Science Program has placed more graduates in the
environmental health category of the Commissioned Corps than any other
institution in the country. Congratulations ECU!
To learn more about the Environmental Health Sciences Program at ECU, contact Dr. Doug Weirick, Department Chair, at
580-559-5548.
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ECU Students Present Research
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Four East Central
University students presented research
at the Alpha Chi national college honor society's 2009 biennial national
convention in April in Indianapolis,
Ind.
Jacobi Nichols, a senior from Healdton,
submitted two works in the political science category. Nichols presented a
poster titled "Westside Stories:
Political Profiles and Political Community at the Grassroots Level" and a
paper, "Oklahoma Native American Students' Political
Attitudes and Participation: A Comparative Study of 2004 and 2005."
Also
presenting a poster was Rachael Bryant,
a senior psychology major from Ada.
Bryant's poster was "Stigma of Mental
Illness."
Shae Parmer, a junior history major
from Tecumseh, presented "Women's Right
to Vote: Virgin Voters Empowered."
Patrick Tadlock, a junior political
science major from Elmore City, presented a paper on "U.S. House of Representatives and British House of Commons: The Real
Story Behind the Incumbency Advantage."
Attending
with the students were Dr. Christine
Pappas, Associate Professor of Political Science, and Rebecca Gatz, Instructor of Communication, sponsors for the ECU
chapter. I
In the
photo above from left to right are Shae Parmer, Patrick Tadlock, Jacobi
Nichols, Dr. Christine Pappas and Rachael Bryant.
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Seven Oklahoma Students Named Brad Henry International Scholars
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Seven students from Oklahoma's
regional universities have been named Brad Henry International Scholars and
will spend the spring 2010 semester participating in an international study and
internship program at Swansea University in Wales.
Echo Adcock, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Lindsey "Dare" Chronister, East Central University; Taylor Hildenbrand and Zachary Hurley, University of Central Oklahoma; Andrea Jones, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Brian Lunk, Rogers State University, and Andrea
Morgan, Langston University, Langston, were chosen by their
institutions for the international study program, which was established by the
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in June 2008.
The State Regents provide a $10,000 stipend for students selected to
participate in semester-long study or research programs affiliated with Swansea University. Academic credit for these
programs will be awarded by Oklahoma
regional universities.
Hildenbrand and Hurley will intern with the National Assembly for Wales. Hildenbrand is pursuing dual bachelor's degrees in marketing
and political science at UCO with the goal of serving in an elected office. Hurley currently studies organizational communication with
a minor in leadership at UCO.
Adcock, Chronister, Jones and Morgan will participate in the study-abroad
program at Swansea
University. Adcock is a senior double majoring in biology and chemistry
at Southeastern. Chronister is working toward a bachelor's in kinesiology
and a minor in education from ECU. Jones is a senior at USAO majoring in English with minors
in Spanish and liberal arts. Lunk is majoring in global humanities with a minor in
English at RSU.
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ECU Political Science Senior Wins Award
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Patrick Tadlock of Elmore
City, a senior political science major
at East Central University,
was awarded the Best Undergraduate Paper award at the 2009 Oklahoma Political
Science Association Conference.
The winning paper, "All Deliberate Speed: Oklahoma City
Public Schools' Journey from Brown to Board of Education of Oklahoma City v.
Dowell, 1955-1991," detailed Dr. Robert Dowell's protracted legal battle for
integration of the Oklahoma City Public Schools. The Supreme Court's 1991
ruling effectively ended the federal court system's mandate for integration.
Tadlock is ECU's candidate for this year's Nigh Leadership
Academy held at the Oklahoma State Capitol each spring. The OPSA conference was held at ECU in November.
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OU Students to Spend Break Training Others Overseas
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Two University of
Oklahoma students are planning to spend a week of their winter break training
journalists in Bangladesh. Senior Hailey Branson, graduate student Alex Page and
faculty members of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication are
scheduled to train with video journalists in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
from Jan. 4-11 as part of a U.S. State Department training program.
Branson is a Perry native who has never traveled overseas, spent the summer of 2008 as an intern at The Oklahoman,
the spring semester writing and doing video work in Washington for Hearst Newspapers, and this
past summer at the New York Times. And a great experience was had with the ;Perry Daily Journal at the beginning of her journalism career, at age 15 in the press room, putting
newspaper inserts together.
Page, of Keller, Texas, completed her bachelor's degree in journalism
earlier this year and now is a first-year graduate student in the Gaylord College. Her background is in broadcast
journalism, having worked on "OU Nightly" and "Our Sports Pad" in addition to
her two years at "SoonerVision."
The students will travel with broadcast professor Ken
Fischer, journalism professor Elanie Steyn, "OU Nightly" news director Bob
Dickey, and veteran foreign correspondent Mike Boettcher, who is a visiting
professor this academic year.
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"Meet me in Montana" for NCUR -
April 15-17, 2010! Please encourage your students
to join the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Missoula, Montana on April 15-17, 2010. Visit the website at
http://www.umt.edu/ncur2010.
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