Top Ten Scholars Honored at Reception

The Boise State University Alumni Association will honor 10 of the university’s best and brightest graduating students at the annual Top Ten Scholars awards reception. The event is this afternoon in the Student Union Grand Ballroom; doors open at 3:30 p.m. and the program is from 4:30-6 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public; please RSVP to the Alumni Association at ext 6‑1698.

The keynote speaker is David M. Cooper, a 1971 Boise State alumnus. Cooper is managing partner for the regional accounting firm Cooper Norman.

Top Ten Scholars are chosen from among the top 10 percent of Boise State’s graduating class of more than 3,300 students for 2008-09. They are selected based on academic performance, recommendation from college deans, and extracurricular and research activities.

“These 10 students represent the very finest in scholarship and community service and are excellent examples of Boise State’s role in helping to shape our nation’s next leaders,” said President Bob Kustra. “If the examples they’ve set here on campus are any indication of what’s to come as they launch new careers or move on to other academic challenges, their future success is without question.”

Each Top Ten Scholar also honors a Boise State professor who was particularly influential to his or her success. This year’s award winners and honored professors are (in the order pictured above): Mallory Sullivan (Kristen Mitchell), Dane Vanhoozer (Lisa Brady), Landon Grange (Steve Barrett), Nicolás Diaz (Adrian Kane), Pankhuree Dube (Nick Miller), Jessica Verbanac (Roberto Bahruth), Dan Simenc (Chris Loucks), Hailey Wilson (Ed Baker), Wade Lanning (Megan Frary) and Emma McInturff (Don Warner).

 

In This Issue

  1. Top Ten Scholars
  2. Introduce Kids to Disabilities Through Literature
  3. Victims’ Rights Workshops Offered Next Week
  4. Find the Perfect Gift at Clay and Fire Sale
  5. Boise State Grads Rank Program High
  6. Get a Free Shopping Bag for Earth Day
  7. Student Achievement - Marketing & Engineering
  8. Defensive Driving Course
  9. Enhance Learning with Technology
  10. Health, Wellness and Counseling Workshops
  11. Campus Crime Log
  12. Faculty and Staff in Action
New Horizons in Education

Jim Messina

President Obama’s deputy chief of staff

Friday, 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. on NPR News 91

Reminder

Don’t miss the Farmer’s Market from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. tomorrow on the Quad. Vendors will be selling local produce, crafts and other products made or grown in Idaho. More Earth Week events are listed online.

CURRICULUM RESOURCE CENTER

Learn How to Introduce Kids to Disabilities Through Literature

Parents and educators are invited to join Boise State faculty and students in exploring how quality literature can introduce disabilities to young children. The drop-in event is from 4-6 p.m. tomorrow, April 22, at the Curriculum Resource Center on the second floor of Albertsons Library.

For details about a poster session, story time, a guest speaker, prize drawings and more, click here.

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Early Childhood Studies & Special Education and Albertsons Library. Inquiries can be directed to saraseely@boisestate.edu.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Victims’ Rights Workshops Offered Next Week

The Department of Criminal Justice will offer 48 hours of workshops over four days for students and the public to learn about the history of the victims’ rights movement, services for crime victims and the effects of crime on its victims.

Hosted during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the workshops will be presented by faculty members from Boise State, Idaho State University and University of Idaho, Boise State student affairs professionals and professionals from the community. Running from April 27-30, the panels will be held in various rooms in the Student Union Building. The sessions are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Lincoln Garage.

Lisa Bostaph, professor of criminal justice at Boise State and coordinator of the workshops, is particularly pleased with the evening events.

“We have a series of great panels and events set up in the evening, giving those who cannot attend during the day an opportunity to take part in some quality events,” Bostaph said.

For a full schedule of the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week panels click here or contact Bostaph at ext. 6-3886 or lisabostaph@boisestate.edu.

VISUAL ARTS CENTER

Find the Perfect Gift at Clay and Fire Sale

Discover a unique gift for Mom or anyone else on your list at Boise State’s semi-annual Clay and Fire Exhibit and Sale from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 9-11 in the Visual Arts Center Gallery 1, located in the Liberal Arts Building. Admission is free.

Held each spring and fall for more than 35 years, the Clay and Fire Sale has become a tradition for many in the Treasure Valley. The sale features hundreds of high-quality ceramic pieces, ranging from elegant to exotic, made by students, faculty and alumni. A portion of the proceeds benefits Boise State’s Visiting Artists in Ceramics program, which brings world-class artists to campus to teach students.

For more information, call ext. 6-1230 or visit the Department of Art’s blog.

EXECUTIVE MBA

Boise State Grads Rank Program High

Boise State’s Executive MBA program has earned high marks in an independent exit survey of its graduates by the international Executive MBA Council. About 96 percent of the graduates gave the overall program the highest possible rating. The average for participating schools worldwide was 83 percent.

Moreover, Boise State’s program achieved these high standards during its first session. The Executive MBA Council, an organization comprised of Executive MBA programs worldwide, hired an outside firm to conduct the exit survey with Boise State’s 2008 Executive MBA graduates, the first to graduate from the 3-year-old program.

Graduates noted in the survey that after completing the program they are more creative, more strategic in their problem solving and decision making, higher contributors to their company’s success and overall more effective leaders.

“We worked on solving real business issues,” said Greg Hanmer, an IT director with Hewlett-Packard, adding that he and fellow EMBA participants examined HP’s forecasting and supply chain processes and outlined opportunities for material savings. “The program gave us the academic tools we needed in today’s business environment and access to business professionals throughout the valley.”

More than 65 percent of Boise State’s Executive MBA graduates thus far have received promotions or otherwise advanced their careers as a result of their participation in the program.

read more

BOOKSTORE

Get a Free Shopping Bag for Earth Day

Help the Bookstore keep the Earth “green” and celebrate Earth Day by stopping by a table in the Student Union atrium from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Learn what the Bookstore is doing to reduce its carbon footprint; if you also share what you’re doing, you’ll receive a free re-usable Chico shopping bag. While you’re there, check out the Bookstore’s assortment of “green” merchandise, including recycled T-shirts, paper, pens and books about becoming and staying earth friendly.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Marketing Students Win Awards at Regional Competition

A team of Boise State students brought home three awards and a second-place overall win in the Regional National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) held in Spokane, Wash., April 17. The “Blue Away Marketing” team won awards for best creative, best overall presentation and best promotions and was the only team to come away with three awards.

Team members are Marketing 401/402 students David Andrews, Sara Byrne, Lisa Frazier, Sarah Gridley, Kamile Ishiyama, Evan Novelanko, Jennifer Stemple and Jamie Chaffin; team adviser/professor is Jay Longwell. Students competed against teams from nine other universities, including first-place winner Portland State University, University of Oregon and Washington State University.

NSAC is the American Advertising Federation’s premier college advertising competition, providing more than 3,000 college students with real-world experience by requiring a strategic advertising/marketing/media campaign for a corporate sponsor. Schools from each district are selected to present their campaigns to a panel of industry executives.

This year’s teams were challenged to create an integrated communications campaign to address the problem of binge drinking on college campuses on behalf of the Century Council.

Team members will present their campaign to the Boise Advertising Federation in late May. In addition, Boise State’s Health and Wellness Center has expressed an interest in implementing parts of the campaign on campus.

Engineering Grad Student’s Paper is Tops at International Conference

Matt McCrinkMechanical engineering graduate student Matt McCrink’s paper “Design and Analysis of a Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic Micro-Combustor” has been awarded the distinction of Best Student Paper of the 2009 Ceramic Interconnect and Ceramic Microsystems Technologies Conference, put on by the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS).

McCrink is expected to present his work at the conference in Denver, Colo., April 21-23, where he will receive a cash prize of $1,000 from The Microelectronics Foundation and be featured in Advancing Microelectronics Magazine, the premier publication for technical and business-related information on the microelectronics and electronic packaging industries. McCrink expressed his gratitude to thesis adviser Don Plumlee, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering.

IMAPS is the largest society dedicated to the advancement and growth of microelectronics and electronics packaging technologies through professional education and currently has more than 4,000 members in the United States and more than 4,000 international members around the world.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Defensive Driving Course – National Traffic Safety Institute

Risk Management and Insurance is pleased to announce a four-hour Defensive Driving Course (DDC) sponsored and taught by the National Traffic Safety Institute (NTSI).

When: 8 a.m.-noon Thursday, May 7
Where: Academic Technologies (SMITC) 210
Registration Deadline: Monday, May 4
Cost: Free
To Register: E-mail HREmployeeLandD@boisestate.edu or register online.

This course is again being offered to employees and students who drive university-owned or -leased vehicles. The Office of Risk Management and Insurance administers the program and the instructors, Curt Crum and Larry McGhee, are NTSI trained and certified and have been teaching the course for the Idaho State Police.

The content of the class will focus on defensive driving of passenger vehicles, driver behavior, van safety and life safety. Included in the course is a one-hour segment that will address van safety and operation of 12-person vans and will certify those participants, age 20 and up, to drive university-owned 12-person vans.

This course is pursuant to university policy 6825-C. In addition, the university receives a $20 liability insurance premium credit from our State Insurance Administrator, after course completion, for all university employee participants who drive university vehicles on a regular basis.

Please bring your driver’s license and a pen or pencil to the class. Questions concerning the course should be directed to Sybrina Bobo, Boise State Risk Management and Insurance, ext. 6-3610 or e-mail sybrinabobo@boisestate.edu.

ACADEMIC TECHNOLOGIES

Learn to Enhance Learning with Technology at Summer Institute

Want to encourage collaboration and improve communication among your students? Explore alternatives to traditional methods of assessment? Infuse your teaching with active-learning strategies? Technology can help you do all of that and more. Find out how at the 2009 Summer Institute, a wide-ranging selection of workshops about technology, teaching and learning.

The free “Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Technology” program runs in two installments: May 18-21 and May 26-29. Come to as many or few of the workshops as you like. Refreshments will be provided, along with numerous opportunities to explore teaching with technology with staff from Academic Technologies and your colleagues.

Powerful interactive technologies are creating new models of instruction that enhance our ability to communicate and collaborate, create and manipulate, model and simulate, calculate and analyze, and visualize and present while cost-effectively easing the barriers of distance, place and time. Conducted by Boise State faculty and staff from Academic Technologies, 2009 Summer Institute workshops will introduce you to technological tools, explore the pedagogical implications and considerations of using such tools, and provide hands-on practice in applying the tools to teaching and learning.

Workshop titles include:

Schedules, full descriptions of workshops and registration information are available on the Academic Technologies Web site. To ensure a hands-on, individualized experience, enrollment in most workshops is limited to 10 or fewer, so register soon. Call Kevin S. Wilson at ext. 6-4260 for more information.

HEALTH, WELLNESS AND COUNSELING

Workshops Announced

What: Grocery Store Savvy Tours
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: WinCo, 110 East Myrtle Street, Boise
Instructor: Dietician
Fee: None
Registration: www.boisestate.edu/healthservices/events

Have you ever wished someone could take you grocery shopping and show you how to spend your money to create a healthy diet? Sign up now to learn about smart grocery shopping on a tight budget at a tour offered by Health, Wellness and Counseling Services and WinCo Grocery Stores

What: Optimal Health Screening
When: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, April 22
Where: Student Union Farnsworth Room
Fee: None
For more information: Contact Karla West, kwest@boisestate.edu

This screening opportunity will bring together the best practices in integrative medicine today to inform employees and students about how to take responsibility for their health care. A holistic lifestyle assessment, strengths and weaknesses assessment and referrals to a variety of wellness programming also will be available. Employees and students will find that the information, video and activities provide pragmatic steps to improving their health.

CRIME LOG

Crime SceneWeekly Crime Log

Boise City Police and Campus Security present the weekly crime report.


Faculty & Staff In Action

Heidi Reeder, associate professor of communication, was quoted in a KIVI Channel 6 report about deciding which parent should stay home to care for the children. The report was part of the station’s “He Said, She Said” series.

Charles Honts, professor of psychology, recently presented his paper titled “Polygraph Examiners Unable to Discriminate True and False Juvenile Confessions: Reid Training Detrimental” at the 2009 meeting of the American Psychology Law Society in San Antonio, Texas. Co-authors are S. Kassin and K.D. Forrest.

Andrew Giacomazzi, associate professor and chairman of the Criminal Justice Department, was selected as the Administrator of the Year by the Idaho Association of Educational Office Professionals (IAEOP) and was honored at the association’s annual spring conference April 2-4 in Idaho Falls.

Local News Sources:

The Idaho Statesman - The Idaho Press Tribune - The Boise Weekly - The Arbiter - Boise State Radio

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