Author: Caelin Bragg

Wichita State nursing students on the WSU and Kansas State University campuses celebrated their Nightingale nursing commitment ceremonies on March 3. Students recited and signed the modern Nightingale pledge as a commitment to uphold the standards of the nursing profession. The milestone affirms the student’s dedication to the study of the discipline of nursing. The two ceremonies took place simultaneously in Wichita and Manhattan and were live streamed to include both locations.

The event’s speakers included Dr. Voncella McCleary-Jones, associate dean of the College of Health Professions, and Dr. Debra Pile, chair and associate dean for nursing practice, who gave opening remarks. Kris Hammer, recent graduate of the accelerated bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program, followed as keynote speaker. Dr. Theresa Cooper, assistant teaching professor, acted as moderator and Dr. Maryon Habtemariam, associate teaching professor, led the reading of the pledge. Members of the Nurses Honor Guard attended both ceremonies.

This was the first Nightingale Ceremony for WSU nursing students on the KSU campus, which included the inaugural BSN class. The WSU nursing program is part of the dual-degree Pathway to Nursing program with KSU.

The INSPYRE research lab, directed by Dr. Samantha Slade, is recruiting undergraduate mentors for a three-hour course in the fall 2023 semester.

Mentors spend lunch and recess with an elementary school student twice each week. In return, mentors receive three hours of course credit. Recruitment is open to students of any college or major.

Mentor requirements:

• Pass a background check
• Have reliable transportation to and from the elementary school
• Have lunch availability from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at least twice a week
• Be available for training at the beginning of the semester

The class, PSY 608 – Special Investigations, does not meet regularly like a traditional class. The student’s time spent mentoring takes the place of class time.

Mentors will receive training at the beginning of the course and a grade at the end based on attendance and completion of assignments.

For more information, contact the INSPYRE research lab at inspyre@wichita.edu.

The Shocker Career Accelerator will be closed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 22 to host the Health Professions Career Fair.

Any questions can be sent to sca@wichita.edu.

Looking for more opportunities to volunteer or to become more involved in the community? The Office of Engagement is excited to announce a list of events for the rest of the semester:

• March 23: Engaged Series – Business
• April 1: Touch Up Shocker Neighborhood
• April 7: Common Ground Pop-Up Market
• April 16: Open Streets ICT at WSU and Shocker Neighborhood
• May 5: Common Ground Pop-Up Market
• Aug. 23-30: Good Neighbor Week
• Aug. 23: Neighborhood Walk – Redbud Trail
• Aug. 30: Brush Up! Shocker Neighborhood

For more information about specific events, check out the Office of Engagement’s Facebook page closer to the event date.

Cody Charvat, operations officer for Sedgwick County Emergency Management, will conduct a training session for chief emergency building coordinators (CEBC) and emergency building coordinators (EBC) from 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday, March 23 in 142 Rhatigan Student Center.

The training session is for new EBCs or any current coordinators wishing to attend a refresher session.

Those interested can sign up for “Emergency Building Coordinator (EBC) Overview” in myTraining.

Over spring break, 31 students visited Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New York City for a civil rights trip sponsored by Housing and Residence Life. The trip was spearheaded by Omarian Brantley, a resident assistant. He and a group of dedicated committee members were given the tools, resources and support to plan a Black history trip for the university.

During the break, they visited many locations, including the following landmarks:

• Obama’s home
• The Church that held Emmett Till’s funeral
• Ida B. Wells’ home
• South Side Community Art Center
• Nat King Cole’s home
• DuSable Museum (the nation’s first independent museum dedicated to Black history)
• Louis Armstrong’s home
• Monument to the Great Migration
• The Belmont Mansion
• 1985 MOVE bombing site
• The Stenton House
• Apollo Theater
• African Burial Ground
• The Gate of the Exonerated
• Howard University
• National Museum of African American History and Culture
• The Lincoln Memorial
• Martin Luther King Jr monument

The group also got a chance to eat at African and soul food restaurants to support Black owned businesses.

The Society of Women Engineers student organization is hosting a Mother Daughter Day event for local middle school girls and their adult female role models. The event will run from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 25 in the John Bardo Center lobby.

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in four STEM activities designed to introduce different types of engineering, including aerospace, mechanical, electrical and biomedical engineering. Attendees will also meet and interact with female students from the college, which will help middle school girls envision themselves in the field.

In addition to mothers and daughters, other adult female role models of middle school girls, such as grandmothers, aunts, sisters and mentors, are welcome to attend the event.

Since the summer of 2020, KMUW has led an effort to collect, digitize and preserve audio and video materials from across Kansas. The goal of the Kansas Public Media Archive Project — dubbed Save the Waves — is to save historic recordings from obsolete formats before deterioration makes preservation impossible.

The software used to transcribe these files is not perfect, and that’s where KMUW needs volunteer help. KMUW is looking for volunteers to help correct grammar, spelling and punctuation on the digital transcriptions. Torin Andersen, KMUW’s digital archivist, will be available to answer any questions and can meet via Zoom to get those interested familiar with the project. Contact archives@kmuw.org to learn more.

These historic television and radio programs are accessible on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website at the Library of Congress.

Largely unseen and unheard since they were first broadcast, the materials digitized through Save the Waves are the first from Kansas added to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at the Library of Congress. The Kansas collection consists of programs produced by KMUW, High Plains Public Radio, KPR, KPTS, KRPS, KHCC and Vietnamese Public Radio. Andersen collected and organized the material, and he continues to oversee the transcription process of the thousands of items from across the state.

Join MathWorks and the Advanced Virtual Engineering Laboratory at NIAR-WSU for a technical MATLAB and Simulink seminar for faculty, students, researchers and staff, co-presented by Dr. Gerardo Olivares and MathWorks engineers, at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 28 in the NetApp building.

• Application of MATLAB and Simulink for digital engineering and digital twin aerospace applications: This technical talk highlights the use of MATLAB and Simulink in digital engineering and digital twin activities to simulate aerospace systems.
• Introduction to data analysis and machine learning with MATLAB: In this session, MathWorks engineers will show participants how MATLAB can be used to visualize and analyze complex data, perform numeric computations, and develop algorithms in the areas of data analytics and machine learning.

Admission is free, but seats are limited.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering within the College of Engineering will host Dr. Nadia Kianvashrad, a post-doctoral associate from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, from 10:15 to 11 a.m. Friday, March 24 in 209 Wallace Hall.

Students, staff, faculty and industry partners are invited to attend Kianvashrad’s talk, “Prediction of Aerothermodynamic Loading and Flight Control Using Energy.”