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In This Issue
Upcoming Events

UC Connect Brown Bag Meet & Eat 

When: October 8 


Hold the date for the next "UC Connect Brown Bag Series," a new initiative to come meet + eat + connect with your college colleagues for community building, networking,and  sharing insights, strategies and innovative ways for empowering all stakeholders of University College.

This is your "UC Connect Brown Bag Series" to plan, envision, and enjoy. Let's be pathfinders of our own success at University College and beyond
...read more 

 

1st Georgia FYTS Conference
When: October 10 

This one-day drive-in statewide conference will provide a forum for faculty, staff, and administrators to share ideas, resources, and engaging pedagogy to enhance their work with first year students and those in transition.

  

More than 140 attendees have already registered. 

 

Conference session topics will include engaging classroom pedagogies and best practices, assessment of curricular and co-curricular aspects of first-year and transition programming ...read more  

"The Power of Faith to Promote Global Change."

Presented by Rev. Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
When: October 15 

Reverend Naomi Tutu will visit KSU to deliver a public lecture co-sponsored by the American Democracy Project, the Institute for Global Initiatives and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, along with the support of the College of the Arts in securing the Bailey Center.  

 

"Tutu is the third child of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She was born in South Africa and had the opportunity to live in many communities and countries. The challenges of growing up black and female in apartheid South Africa have been the foundation of Tutu's life as an activist for human rights."

 

"Those experiences taught her that our whole human family loses when we accept situations of oppression, and how the teaching and preaching of hate and division injure us all. In her speeches, she blends this passion for human dignity with humor and personal stories." ...read more    

Global Futures Forum
When: November 14 
  

The Honors College and University College are co-sponsoring the 2014 Global Futures Forum that will be held at on the campus in the Humanities and Social Science Auditorium and Atrium Nov. 13-15. 

 

The theme for this inaugural event is:

Developing Economic Sustainability and Cultural Exchange in the Americas.

 

Kennesaw State University has distinguished itself as an institution of excellence and a leader in the field of international affairs and global issues. The recipient of the 2011 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization and a partner institution with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and its global training division, CIFAL, Kennesaw State...read more 

Black & Gold 

When: Every Friday 


Support KSU spirit by wearing black and gold each Friday. As the university prepares for its first football scrimmage Oct. 11, all faculty, staff and students are encouraged to participate in #BlackandGoldFriday this year.
September  2014
Preparing to celebrate 10 years of innovation, growth, and success
DEDICATED TO
 STUDENT SUCCESS ACADEMIC INQUIRY ENGAGED LEARNING 
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Greetings!

In the midst of a very busy fall semester, the college will officially begin its year-long 10th anniversary celebration Oct. 10. The Department of First-Year and Transition Studies will host the Georgia First-Year and Transition Conference that day, and we will launch the Next Generaion Scholarship campaign with a special event that evening. Throughout the year, we will hold events that honor the many accomplishments of faculty, staff and students during the college's first 10 years while looking ahead to the next decade. It is a time to reflect on what has been so we can determine what will be. We have much to celebrate!
- Keisha Hoerrner, Interim Dean
Next Generation Scholarship campaign launched to support graduate students 
University College recently invited donors to support its first graduate scholarship campaign, the Next Generation Scholars. The scholarship was created to provide support students enrolling in the M.S. in First-Year Studies with the distinct purpose of enhancing the next generation of student affairs professionals and faculty members dedicated to teaching first-year students.

 

The goal is to raise at least $20,000 to support scholarships while honoring the legacy of Nancy King and Bowman Davis, the Kennesaw College faculty members who developed KC 101. The fund-raising effort is led by a Scholarship Campaign Committee, which is chaired by John Gardner, president, Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, and Nancy King, KSU's executive assistant for strategic initiatives. Additional committee members include Stephanie Foote, director, M.S. in First-Year Studies; Keisha Hoerrner, interim dean; Mary Stuart Hunter, associate vice president, University of South Carolina; Scott Johnson, dean of University College, SUNY Buffalo State; Michael Sanseviro, KSU's dean of student success; and David Siegel, associate professor, East Carolina University.

read more

General Studies track approved by UPCC
Ree Howard
 Michael Keleher, director of Integrative Studies, is excited about the degree program's growth opportunities from the recent General Studies track approval. UPCC voted to approved the track at its first meeting in late August. Keleher, along with Ree Howard, assistant director of Integrative Studies, worked diligently to prepare a proposal to ensure its passage at every curriculum level.

 
Keleher and a team of others began to identify KSU's "super seniors," those enrolled between Summer 2010 and Spring 2014 who are eligible to register but have stopped out and are not attending another college or

Michael Keheler
university. These students also meet the criteria of having 150 or more cumulative credit hours and a GPA between 2.0 and 2.99.

The goal is to encourage these "super seniors" to meet with an INTS advisor to determine if the new track is an appropriate path to graduation. Keleher and Howard expect there are other targeted populations who will be interested in the new Integrative Studies option.  

Constitution Week events promote civic engagement, sustainability
Carlton Usher, Michael Sanseviro, Carolee Larsen and Chris Ferguson
Keeping with last year's sustainability theme, both Constitution Week lectures focused on the issues of food in urban areas. Carlton Usher, associate professor of Political Science and co-chair of the American Democracy Project, organized both successful events.
 
The first, "Examining Hunger: Food Security from a Food Bank's Perspective" and presented by Chris Ferguson of The Atlanta Community Food Bank raised awareness about hunger and poverty issues.
 
The second event," Urban Aquiculture as a Catalyst to Revitalize the American City," presented by K. Rashid Nuri, the founder and president of Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW) addressed how we as a society can grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs in urban areas.

Constitution Week also included a voter registration drive coordinated by Michael Sanseviro. More than 100 individuals registered to vote in the general election. The last day to register is Oct. 6.
New SI Director shares recent success in reducing DFW rates
Nancy Burney
Nancy Burney has accepted the position of Directoof Supplemental Instruction in the Department of University Studies. Burney joined the faculty of Kennesaw State University in June 2009 as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and currently teaches Computer Applications of Statistics.  She became involved with the Supplemental Instruction Program as a SI Leader while pursuing her M.S. in Applied Statistics at Kennesaw State University.
 

In Fall 2010, Burney began serving as the Assistant Coordinator for Supplemental Instruction to help the already growing program continue to expand and flourish.

The SI program seeks to help students achieve academic success. Since the pilot program in Spring 2006, the SI program has grown exponentially. The Fall 2013 SI Summary Report confirms that the program has served approximately 72,136 students over the past seven years. The report also indicates the mean final grade of SI participants is 34 percent higher than non-SI participants.

 

According to Burney, the program helps students find success in courses that are historically difficult, those having at least 30 percent D's, F's and W's. When SI is included, the DFW rate is reduced significantly. 

 

New U Summer Bridge is taking shape 
Starting June 2015 First-Year and Transition Studies will implement the Admissions OWG's vision for a new summer bridge program for all conditional admits.
 
This interdisciplinary program is designed to offer incoming students a transitional experience from high school to college. The bridge students will experience college life prior to the fall semester while completing two courses. The six-week program will challenge students, give them more confidence, provide knowledge about the campus and help them develop student success strategies.
 
The new summer bridge program is a departure from the Early Start Bridge Academy, which has been offered through the college for several years. The new bridge program will be required for all conditional admits, allowing more students to get a head start on their college experience while completing a first-year seminar and a General Education course.

A team of campus representative, led by Nicoly Myles, is designing the new program, which will be offered in June 2015.
Quick Links
Faculty/Staff Spotlight
Nguyen receives publication acceptances
Shelbee Nguyen,
Shelbee Nguyen will be published in three upcoming journals even though she has yet to complete her first semester in the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies. The first article, "Learning about People, Places and Spaces of the World through Informal Pedagogy: Socio-(inter)cultural Constructions and Connections to Popular Culture" will appear in a 2015 issue of  Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy.

 

The next, "Revisiting the Literature on Study Abroad Participation in Adult and Higher Education: Moving Beyond

Two Decades and Two Percent" will be published in the January issue of   International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives. 

 

Nguyen's final publication, "Transformations Encouraged by Story-telling: Middle Eastern Adult Leaners Experiences Abroad" will appear in the next issue of Adult Learning.This article speaks to some of the powerful transformative learning that occurred while she was facilitating a study abroad course in Paris and Geneva.   

 

Nguyen joined the faculty in August and serves as the Course Coordinator for KSU 1111, "Tomorrow's World Today." 

Abdelsalam Sharkasi
Student awarded first Ed Brooks scholarship for     SI leaders 
 

Abdelsalam Sharkasi, a second year biology major is the proud recipient of the Ed Brooks scholarship award. The scholarship was established by Joseph Cook, a retired professor from Florida and one of KSU's newest supporters in honor of two individuals who impacted his life. One of those friends is Ed Brooks.

The Ed Brooks Annual Scholarship was created to support students pursuing degrees in science or math who also serve as Supplemental Instruction facilitators. This program is especially relevant for Cook, who led educational leadership programs to train college and university instructors throughout his career. 

Sharkasi has plans of going to medical school once upon completion of his undergraduate studies. He is currently working as an SI Leader for Chem 1211 and hopes to continue his work in the SI program to pave the way for providing students with efficient, yet effective techniques for mastery of course content. "As a former attendee of SI and now as an SI Leader, I believe that the program is one of the best avenues for student success in traditionally difficult courses," he explained.  

KSU's seminar text adopted by UWG again
 
The University of West Georgia will once again use a first-year seminar textbook written largely by KSU professors in the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies.

A Starting Point will use  seven of the 13 chapters included in Foundations of Academic Inquiry (6th ed), KSU's textbook.

This is one of the largest adoptions for the KSU authors Lynn Boettler, Deborah Mixson-Brookshire, Stephanie Foote, Ruth Goldfine, Kathy Lynn, Kathy Matthews and David Thompson.

The text will be used in UWG 1101,  a two-credit  first-year seminar course. It is West Georgia's largest first-year course option.
Kennesaw State University | (470) 578-3550  | [email protected] | 430 Bartow Ave. NW, MD 2401
Editor: Loretta Daniels, MSCM  - Communication & Marketing Director
University College
Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591