Interesting stories about and for our students.
In his nomination letter, Dr. Gockenbach noted that, “Mr. Clark is a dynamic and innovative classroom teacher, and he has been a leader among both graduate students and faculty in promoting a thoughtful approach to teaching improvement.”
David is a PhD candidate in mathematical sciences, and is advised by Professor Vladimir Tonchev.
This is the inaugural year of this award. Full details on the nomination procedure are available online.
The Tech Theatre Company, the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra and a large cast of local actors, students, faculty and production crew bring Rodgers and Hammerstein’s epic musical “South Pacific” to the Rozsa Center stage at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 14-16.
James A. Michener’s exotic “Tales of the South Pacific” come to life in this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic. The musical takes audiences on a romantic journey to two islands in the South Pacific during WWII. The song “Bali H’ai” sets a mysterious tone, “Cockeyed Optimist” will charm one and all, and “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame” will get everyone’s toes a’ tapping.
According to Patricia Helsel, production director, “This is the first large-scale musical we’ve done at Michigan Tech for some time.” Choral Director Jared Anderson is the vocal coach and music director. Assistant Professor Joel Neves will conduct the KSO pit orchestra. Students and faculty have committed their talents to the design and production of what promises to be a phenomenal musical spectacle.
Mark Oliver, a seasoned community actor, is playing Emile. Chemistry senior Tanya Johnson plays Nellie. Christopher Schwartz, PhD candidate in biological sciences (research area: exercise science), plays Lt. Cable. Michigan Tech student Kiersten Birando, also a graduate of Houghton High School, plays the role of Liat. Alesha Fumbanks, a chemical engineering major, plays Bloody Mary. Chip Rohrer, a theatre and electronic media performance major, takes the role of Luther Billis.
1940’s haircuts are courtesy of Hairsmiths Inc. Bicycle props are from the Bike Shop. Portage Health sponsors the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.
Ticket prices are $15 for the general public, $7 for students, and free for Tech students with ID. To purchase tickets, contact the Rozsa Box Office at 487-3200, the Central Ticket Office (SDC) at 487-2073, or go online at www.tickets.mtu.edu .
No refunds, exchanges or late seating, please.
submitted by Visual and Performing Arts
Published in Tech Today
Professor Blair Orr (SFRES) was featured on the White House website in a story highlighting Peace Corps volunteers through the years. Orr is director of Tech’s Peace Corps Master’s International programs. He served in the Peace Corps from 1978 to 1981. To view the article see http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions .
Published in Tech Today
Michigan Tech once again has more Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) graduate students actively serving as Peace Corps volunteers than any other college or university in the nation. The University has 32 PCMI students currently on assignments. There are also a number of students on campus fulfilling the academic portions of their master’s degrees.
The national Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., announced today that the University has earned the top spot for the sixth consecutive year. Tulane University placed second, and the University of Washington was third.
“Michigan Tech’s PCMI program is successful because it spans such a wide range of opportunities that Tech has available,” said Professor Blair Orr (SFRES), director of PCMI programs. “We have a large international community on campus and a wide range of activities that complement the Peace Corps. Groups like Engineers Without Borders, NOSOTROS (a Hispanic-Latin cultural organization) and Global City add breadth across campus and make this a good place to be in a Peace Corps Master’s International program.”
Tech has many faculty and staff actively involved in the eight PCMI programs, as well as community members and the graduate students themselves, Orr continued. “The students are interested in more than one academic discipline, and we see them taking classes outside their home departments. They know those courses will benefit them while they are in the Peace Corps and over the course of their entire careers.”
Michigan Tech became a PCMI partner in 1995, eight years after the program began. Offering eight distinct programs in eight different departments, Tech also has the largest number of Master’s International programs in the country. They include applied natural resource economics, biological sciences, civil and environmental engineering, forest resources and environmental science, mechanical engineering, natural hazards mitigation (geology), rhetoric and technical communication and science education.
Over the Peace Corps’s 50 years, 185 Michigan Tech alumni have served as volunteers, more than half from Michigan. PCMI graduate students have served all over the world, including Armenia, Belize, Bulgaria, Fiji, Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nepal, Paraguay and Zambia, to name a just few.
The Peace Corps partners with more than 80 colleges and universities across the nation to enable graduate students to earn a master’s degree while serving in the Peace Corps. PCMI students begin their graduate studies on campus, serve overseas for two years, doing volunteer work on projects related to their graduate studies. Then they return to school to complete their graduate work.
PCMI programs attract top-notch students and help the Peace Corps meet the worldwide demand for highly skilled professionals by providing countries in need with qualified volunteers.
“Every year, hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers pair meaningful service with graduate studies through Peace Corps’ Master’s International and Fellows/USA programs,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams. “After completing Peace Corps service, volunteers return to the United States as global citizens, with leadership, cross-cultural understanding, and language and technical skills that position them well for a successful graduate school experience.”
Fellows/USA is a program that provides scholarships, academic credit and stipends to volunteers who have already completed Peace Corps service when they decide to enroll in a graduate program.
President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. Throughout 2011, Peace Corps is commemorating 50 years of promoting peace and friendship around the world. Historically, more than 200,000 Americans have served to promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of 139 host countries. Today, 8,655 volunteers are working with local communities in 77 countries.
by Jennifer Donovan, director of public relations
Published in Tech Today
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International has extended the accreditation of the School of Business and Economics for five years.
AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education. It has been earned by less than five percent of the world’s business schools. Today, there are 620 business schools in 38 countries that maintain AACSB accreditation.
“I am very proud of our faculty and staff who continuously work hard to maintain this distinct level of quality in business education,” said Dean Darrell Radson (School of Business and Economics). “This accomplishment confirms our initiatives designed to meet the needs of business as we educate our students to be leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship and technology management to impact our nation and the global economy.”
The School of Business and Economics first received AACSB accreditation in 2001 and recently completed its second rigorous internal review and evaluation process. AACSB accreditation standards require a high-quality teaching environment, a commitment to continuous improvement and curricula responsive to the needs of businesses.
“This accreditation extension affirms the high regard that academic leaders have for Michigan Tech,” said President Glenn Mroz. “The School of Business and Economics has worked hard to achieve this level of quality instruction, scholarship and research.”
AACSB International, founded in 1916, is an association of more than 1,200 educational institutions, businesses and other organizations in 78 countries and territories. AACSB’s mission is to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation, thought leadership and value-added services. AACSB’s global headquarters is located in Tampa, Fla., and its Asia headquarters is located in Singapore. For more information, visit www.aacsb.edu .
Published in Tech Today
Students participated in the second annual Business Plan Competition Tuesday night, and great ideas were flowing in Fisher 139.
Sponsored by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the School of Business and Economics, the competition featured future businessmen and women promoting their ideas in front of a panel of judges, who had previously reviewed their written plans.
The five-minute pitches covered a broad range of business ideas, and the winning plan was Books With Purpose by Jodhbir Singh, master’s student in EE, and Aman Bamra, bachelor’s student in CS. “Books With Purpose would be India’s first nonprofit online bookstore,” Singh explained. “Thirty-five percent of India’s population is illiterate, and we would help address this problem by donating one book to under-supported schools for every five we sell.”
Singh and Bamra would approach India’s middle and upper classes to support their mission and their business, especially targeting rural areas, where illiteracy is more prevalent. They took home $1,500 in cash and $2,700 worth of local consulting services: logo, accounting and legal services for their winnings. Singh planned on returning to India after graduation to pursue the business.
See Tech Today for the complete news story.
Michigan Tech is one of a growing number of American colleges and universities to offer a Sahaja meditation program on campus. The free weekly sessions, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, in the Memorial Union, are open to everyone. This week’s meeting is in the Peninsula Room A.
Sahaja meditation can help relieve stress caused by studies or any other pressures, says Pranay Nagar, graduate student in mechanical engineering, who leads the sessions. “Are you anxious to feel more joy in life?” he asks. If so, he says, please check meditation.
No prior experience or knowledge of meditation and no special equipment or clothing are required to participate. The technique is not physically demanding, and everyone can move at his or her own pace, Nagar said.
For more information, contact Nagar at 906-281-4425 or pnagar@mtu.edu.
Published in Tech Today.
World Water Day was recently observed at Michigan Tech with a variety of events including a poster session. Several graduate students were honored with awards including:
Read more about the events and see photographs of the award recipients online.
When graduate students Kristina Denison, Callie Bertsch and Michelle Cisz left the wooded hills of the Michigan Tech campus to serve as Peace Corps volunteers, they headed to countries that couldn’t be more diverse: Zambia, Bulgaria and Paraguay. But the lessons they learned in Michigan Tech’s Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program were remarkably similar.
“I was going to Africa to change the world,” says Denison, who spent three years in Zambia, a landlocked little country in southern Africa, between Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I learned that you have to count the small steps, to be satisfied with planting a seed.”
Bertsch expected to bring “some great innovation” to the village of Gurmen in Bulgaria. But she soon realized she was having her greatest impact in a more subjective arena: people’s attitudes. “We’re so glad you came to live with us because you’re not at all like we thought Americans were,” the Bulgarian villagers kept telling her.
Halfway around the world, in the small South American country of Paraguay, Cisz was busy readjusting her expectations too. “I had big goals, but I had to take small steps,” she says. “It was a very humbling experience.”
All three women are working toward their Master of Science in Forest Ecology and Management. They wanted to travel, to serve and to learn by doing–the Michigan Tech way–so they joined a program that lets graduate students combine course work with volunteer service overseas in the Peace Corps. With eight PCMI programs in four different colleges and schools, Michigan Tech has more active Peace Corps volunteers than any other university in the nation.
See Tech Today for the complete news story.
Keweenaw Pride, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and ally (GLBTA) organization on campus, kicked off its annual Pride Week celebration last week. This week has been a work in progress for the organization since September, and it is a celebration of diversity, bringing together many people of many different origins and orientations in a week full of discussions and panels meant to open minds and break stereotypes.
The week began with a film about the controversial California Proposition 8 that was passed and put into effect in November 2008, and it was followed by a discussion panel that allowed attendees to share their opinions.
Following are the events for the week:
Tuesday, March 29
The annual event, “Guess the Straight Person,” will be at 7:30 p.m., in the DHH Ballroom. This event is meant to prove that not all stereotypes indicate a person’s sexual orientation. Come meet the panel and guess their orientation.
Wednesday, March 30
A presentation by activist JAC Stringer will be at 7:30 p.m., in the Memorial Union Ballroom. JAC is well known for his educational and entertaining presentations.
Thursday, March 31
Taboo Talk will be at 7 p.m., in the DHH Ballroom. Got a topic that is taboo in your community that you want to know more about? Come to this event.
Friday, April 1
The 11th Annual Michigan Tech Drag Show will be at 8 p.m., in the Rozsa Center. This year the show will feature the extraordinary talents of Joey Black, Tabitha Stevens, Cass Marie Domino, and, coming all the way from Las Vegas, DuWanna Moore. Seats fill up fast, so get there early.
For more information, see the Keweenaw Pride website, www.keweenawpride.org, or the Michigan Tech Calendar.
Published in Tech Today.