Category: Kudos

The Office of Disability Services would like to recognize and thank the student note-takers who shared notes with students who have a note-taking accommodation. These note-takers have worked diligently to help their fellow Shockers.

Please join us in recognizing the following students: Allison Campbell, Cadence Davis, Elizabeth Dickerson, Jorge Godinez, Sabrina Gooch, Madison McClain, Jaycie Nelson, Thu Nguyen, Jaden Nola, Grace Peterson, Megan Reuter, Justin Swafford, Kyran Crist, Katelyn Williams and Ivanka Mukadi.

The Graduate School would like to congratulate the winners of the fourth Three-Minute Thesis competition which was held on Nov. 12. Fariha Tanveer, a master’s student in biological sciences, placed first with the presentation “Developing a Human Patient ‘Avatar’ System Particularly Relevant to Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC). Tanveer’s advisor was William Hendry. Tanveer will go on to represent WSU at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools’ 3MT competition this spring.

Michael Okwori, a doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering, was runner up with the presentation “Application of Machine Learning Models and Feature Engineering to Predict Genomic Phenomena.” Okwori’s advisor was Ali Eslami.

Photos of the competition can be found at the Wichita State Graduate School’s Facebook page. Thank you to all our participants who showed the wonderful research occurring at WSU and congratulations Tanveer and Okwori!

Kansas English, edited by Dr. Katherine Cramer, professor of English Education in the School of Education, and published by the Kansas Association of Teachers of English on Wichita State’s Open Journal Systems, has been named a recipient of the 2021 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Affiliate Journal of Excellence Award, given by the NCTE. This is the second year in a row that Kansas English has earned this distinction.

Established in 1995, this award honors outstanding affiliate journals and their editors who demonstrate excellence in these publications. The winning affiliate journal must be a magazine-type publication—print or online—and provide members with scholarly articles on issues and topics related to English language arts teaching. The journals are judged on the following: content, organization, scholarly exploration, appeal to different groups within the affiliate, coverage of important issues in English language arts education and inclusion of other types of writing (e.g., poetry, affiliate news, book reviews).

The Affiliate Journal of Excellence Award winners was announced at the 2021 NCTE Annual Convention during the affiliate event Sunday, Nov. 21.

On behalf of the Offices of Financial Aid and Diversity and Inclusion, we would like to thank the students who attended our FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Fun Financial Aid workshops.

We would also like to congratulate Oscar Maturino and Austin Helgerson for receiving the FAFSA FUN Book Scholarship.

As a reminder, FAFSA’s priority completion date for Wichita State is Dec. 1. Please make sure to complete it as early as possible for priority consideration for financial assistance.

The Faculty and Staff Senate would like to thank Wichita State employees for the monetary and food donations made during the Stock the Shocker Support Locker Challenge in September and October. Congratulations to WSU staff for leading the competition this year!

There was a 25% increase in food donations this year. A total of 439 items were donated and $945 was collected. The top three collection sites were Morrison Hall, the Ablah Library and the Office of International Education. The Faculty and Staff Senate like to extend a special thank you to University Police Officers Madison Smith, Mike Colvin and Wyatt Pulver for transporting donations from 12 collection sites on campus to the support locker.

The Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learner’s Project Education for All (CETARL) won $25,000 at the United Way of the Plains Impact on the Plains Social Innovation Competition on National Philanthropy Day, Nov. 15. This was the United Way’s first ever shark-tank style social innovation competition.

Dr. Mythili Menon is the director of CETARL and assistant professor of Linguistics. Dr. Karissa Marble-Flint is the co-director of CETARL and assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. They both represented CETARL at the competition.

During the competition, Menon and  Marble-Flint made a pitch for Project Education for All in the live competition. The $25,000 award will be used to support Wichita-area refugee families, children and USD 259 classroom teachers who will beta-test the prototype of the platform.

A proposal by Drs. Mythili Menon and Karissa Marble-Flint was selected by the United Way of the Plains for the Impact on the Plains Competition in the area of education. Their proposal is one of the top two in the finals for the competition.

Menon is the director of the Center for Educational Technologies to Assist Refugee Learners (CETARL) and assistant professor of Linguistics. Marble-Flint is the co-director of CETARL and assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

As part of the competition, Menon and Marble-Flint will give a “Shark Tank-style” pitch for CETARL’s digital educational platform, LingoLabs, Nov. 15. If successful,  Menon and Marble-Flint will be awarded $25,000 for CETARL to support Wichita area refugee families, children and USD 259 classroom teachers who will beta-test the prototype of the platform.

Veterans Upward Bound (VUB), one of the TRIO Programs hosted by Wichita State, recently won the PBS Kansas Foulston Siefkin Veterans Coming Home Distinguished Business of the Year Award. The Director of the program, Stacia Lyday, accepted the award.

Veterans Upward Bound is a grant-funded program designed to assist Veterans with entering post-secondary education. VUB provides tutoring, computer literacy workshops, financial literacy workshops, resumé workshops, mentoring, academic advising and more. All  VUB services are free.

For more information, please visit www.wichita.edu/vub or contact 316-978-6742.

Congratulations to Stephanie Cockrell, who was been named the assistant director for Student Success’ First-Year Programs. Cockrell will begin this position in January 2022 and will oversee orientation and transition programs for undergraduate, degree-bound domestic students, transition mentors and peer coaches, and other first-year retention initiatives in Student Success.

“We are excited to have Stephanie in this new role,”  Kim Sandlin, director of Student Success said. “Her passion for student success and higher education has been evident throughout her service as a success coach, and we are excited to bring her talent and experience in event planning and advising students to our new Shockers to help us reach our student success goals.”

Fifteen members of the Epsilon Tau Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) volunteered at Exploration Place Oct. 23 for their Boo’reakfast event which benefitted both children and adults.

Founded in 1919, Beta Alpha Psi is an honor organization for financial information students and professionals. There are over 300 chapters on college and university campuses with over 300,000 members initiated since Beta Alpha Psi’s formation.