Author: Cheryl Miller

Scott Stucky, retired senior judge of the Court of Appeals for the U.S. Armed Forces, will present “The value of a liberal arts and sciences education” at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 30 in 334 Woolsey Hall. 

Stucky graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Wichita State in 1970. He was appointed by Former President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2006 to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. His career accomplishments include having served as civilian counsel for the Department of the Air Force, as general counsel of the Senate committee on Armed Services, as a judge advocate Individual Mobilization Augmentee in the Air Force Reserve, and as an appellate military judge on the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. He became chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the U. S. Armed Forces in August 2017 and, upon the expiration of his term of service in August 2021, he was named senior judge.

Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ next Perspectives series will focus on pedagogy. This week’s Perspectives is on “Being an Ally in the Classroom.”

Occasionally students can make a statement or ask a question in class that is insensitive to classmates’ personal experiences. Panelists will discuss how to address such incidents in the classroom and include positive and negative examples. Dr. Andrew Hippisley, dean of the Fairmount College, will host, and Jean Griffith, associate professor of English and associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, will moderate the panel.

Each episode in the Perspectives series will be presented at 2 p.m. Tuesdays, through April 11 via Zoom. Recordings will be made available afterwards on the Fairmount College YouTube channel.

Want to know more about life in space? Join alumna Dr. Sarah Wallace as she talks about NASA experiments with microbes on the International Space Station. She will present “Microbes in space” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 28 in 209 Hubbard Hall and via Zoom. The ID for the meeting is 977 7689 8339, password is 574212.

The presentation is geared towards the general public. Wallace serves as a technical lead in the Microbiology Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center, which is responsible for mitigating infectious disease risk during human spaceflight. Her responsibilities include the assessment of microbial risk based on vehicle and mission architectures as well as crewmember, food and environmental monitoring. These assessments are used to develop requirements for NASA and commercial spaceflight vehicles, including the International Space Station.

In addition to her operational support of human spaceflight, Wallace leads new technology initiatives for her discipline with the goal of reducing Earth-dependence for complex sample analysis. She has served as the principal investigator for numerous spaceflight investigations, including those to increase off-planet molecular biology capabilities.

The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. The grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State Foundation’s endowment. For more information about this lecture series, contact Dr. David Eichhorn, associate dean for faculty development and research, at 316-978-6659.

Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ next Perspectives series will focus on pedagogy, sharing the best practices that faculty and GTAs have adopted in their instruction, teaching theories, feedback and assessments while delivering curriculum in the classroom. Dr. Andrew Hippisley, dean of the Fairmount College, will host the series.

Each episode will be presented at 2 p.m. Tuesdays, from March 21 to April 11 via Zoom. Recordings will be made available afterwards on the Fairmount College YouTube channel.

• March 21 – Supporting and Coaching GTAs in the Classroom
• March 28 – Being an Ally in the Classroom
• April 4 – Active Learning
• April 11 – Student Perspectives on Teaching and Learning

Fairmount College is seeking a business manager for its dean’s office. The position works in partnership with the dean for strategic financial planning regarding the college’s state, restricted use and Foundation funds.

Knowledge, skills and abilities required for the position:

• Understanding and navigating college budget operations.
• Creating and using spreadsheet and database programming.
• Managing billing, purchasing and travel operations.
• Managing Foundation account budget operations.
• Researching SRO funds, start up budgets and lab issues.
• Strong human relations skills, including oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to successfully work in a diverse team environment.
• Able to learn and utilize digital budgeting and related business management systems.

Elvira Valenzuela Crocker and Louis E. Sturns will be inducted into the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Feb. 7 in Wiedemann Hall.

Hall of Fame honorees are chosen because they exemplify the merits and advantages of a liberal arts and sciences education. Induction into the Fairmount College Hall of Fame is the highest recognition from the college of outstanding alumni who have had a significant impact on the region, nation and world.

Wichita State students wanting to earn a degree in American Sign Language may follow their dreams beginning with the fall 2023 semester.

Shockers will be able to tailor the Bachelor of Arts in ASL to their interests and needs by choosing one of three tracks: The Structure of Language; Language and Culture in Context; or Interpreting Methods.

As demand for certified interpreters increases in Kansas, Wichita State’s program will help grow the talent pipeline for the state. The degree is one of only two in Kansas where students can train to become certified ASL interpreters. Candidates wanting to take the Certified Deaf Interpreter Examination are now required to have a bachelor’s degree.

The new degree is a response to demand for qualified interpreters and the need to bring an awareness of signed languages as natural languages. ASL will be a sister degree to Spanish, French and German at WSU.

The major also meaningfully addresses Wichita State’s core value to make the campus inclusive and accessible for everyone. The program will be coordinated through the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. ASL courses attract more than 100 students who minor in sign language or take ASL to meet language requirements in Fairmount College.

It’s also expected that some MCLL majors will go the bilingual route; for example, French or Spanish plus ASL, making these students more valuable in the workplace with their expanded translation and interpreting skills.

First-generation students in Fairmount College are invited for Coffee, Cocoa and Conversation with Dr. Brien Bolin, associate dean of Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and faculty and staff interested in helping you succeed as a Shocker.

This come-and-go event is from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov 30 in the Dean’s Office Boardroom, 200 Lindquist Hall. Cookies and other light snacks will be available.

Stay as long as you want, or grab a cookie and run.

For more than 50 years, the Mikrokosmos literary journal has allowed Wichita State students to publish their creative writing in an esteemed journal, and they are accepting submissions once again.

First published in 1958, Mikrokosmos is seeking submissions for its 69th issue. Submissions close on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Students can submit work ranging from fiction and non-fiction short stories to poetry.

Jacob Workentine, a senior majoring in communication-electronic media, recently took home a first-place victory at the Wichita division of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge.

Space Apps is an annual, international hackathon for developers and creatives of all backgrounds. The goal of the event is to bring together individuals from various backgrounds to help solve problems in space and back home on Earth.

“I felt very lucky,” Workentine said when he was told he won first place. “Like, I stumbled upon this and got caught up with dumb luck, but I’m very happy and very excited.”

The challenge Workentine took on was “On the Way to the Sun.” His objective was to tell a creative story about the Parker Solar Probe’s mission to the Sun in a way that would be engaging to young audiences. The NASA challenge took place over two days, with roughly 36 hours available for participants to work on projects.

He took inspiration from the PBS children’s show, “Reading Rainbow” to create an illustrated video that humanized Parker as it sailed across the cosmos to touch the Sun’s surface.

“You never know where your next opportunity will be,” Workentine said. “Even if you don’t think you’re qualified, just give it your best shot. I was thinking to myself the whole time ‘even if I lose, I get six free meals and something to add to my portfolio,’ so just keeping an optimistic mindset when you’re trying to be creative and create projects is really important.”

After completing the project, Workentine was required to give a presentation to a panel of three industry professional judges from Flint Hill Resources, Solvay and Dassault Systèmes. They weren’t the only ones he impressed.

“Jacob won it by being the best at pitching his idea and being the best at starting from zero and ending up with a product which the judges loved and wanted to hear more about,” Dr. Andrew Hippisley, dean of  Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said. “So, am I surprised? In some ways not because this is what the Fairmount College does for its students.”

Participants at the event were encouraged to work in teams, but Workentine took the challenge on his own to clinch the first-place finish.

“The regret in some ways is that Jacob could have been in some other team and helped them win,” Hippisley said. “We have great engineers, we have great scientists, but we also have Jacobs as well who can enhance and enrich the experience for all and help a team go from second place to first place.”

Alongside a chance to pitch his idea to Dassault Systèmes in Boston, Workentine won a $500 gift certificate and a pair of Apple AirPods.

You can view Workentine’s final video project and his entire project submission online. Workentine will graduate in May 2023.