Paul Plummer, certified athletic trainer and supervisor of St. Vincent Sport Performance Physicians in Indianapolis, will share his lecture “Life Lessons Learned through Athletic Training” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in the McCareins Auditorium of Northern Illinois University’s Yordon Center.
His presentation will mark the 7th year of the Roger Kalisiak Lecture Series. This annual event provides students, alumni, faculty, staff, and the general public a chance to learn about athletic training from professionals in the field.
The lecture series was established by athletic trainer and NIU alumnus Roger Kalisiak and his wife, Cathy.
The couple’s intent is to provide students with practical information and advice for their future careers. “We hope that the students will take away a message that they will be able to incorporate into their daily professional and personal lives,” Kalisiak said.
Past years have proved beneficial for students.
Students have made networking connections leading to internships and employment, Kalisiak said. The students have also gained confidence and inspiration by hearing from some of the positive leaders in the field.
Roger Kalisiak
Kalisiak’s own leadership in the athletic training field is being honored this year.
“To be recognized by one’s peers is a very humbling experience,” Kalisiak said. “One only tries to make things better for others because that is the nature of the [athletic training] profession.”
For the future, Kalisiak said he hopes to “stay active as much as I possibly can. The students challenge me and their energy is contagious.”
Also, he added, “we want to continue to contribute and make the lecture series grow with the help of others.”
Grant funds will support the project “Integrating Math and Science with Content, Pedagogy, and Technology (IMSCPT).”
IMSCPT has also established a partnership with Motorola Mobility Corp. and Suzlon, a leading international wind power company.
The project is designed to help teachers create a foundation for and to become familiar with the recently adopted nationwide standards known as the Common Core Standards. Forty-four states have adopted these standards; all schools within these states will be required to abide by these standards.
For the duration of the project, Kelter and Miller will be collaborating with sixth- and seventh-grade teachers in the U-46 School District, which includes Elgin and surrounding communities. The focus for the first year will be supporting teachers in becoming familiar with the common core standards for math.
“Teachers are reasonably unfamiliar with these standards because they are newer,” Kelter says. “The purpose of the grant is to familiarize teachers with the common core in math, its usefulness, and its integration with science and world sustainability issues.”
IMSCPT will use the partnerships with Motorola and Suzlon to achieve their goals.
The teachers will use Xoom tablets from Motorola to integrate various applications pertaining to math in the classroom. Participating teachers will design curriculum reflecting their tour of a nearby Suzlon facility; more specifically, related to wind mills, which will involve math and science.
The end goal for the first year of the project is to create a group of trainers for the common core standards.
IMSCPT refers to this concept as “trainers of teachers.” The teachers will be able to assist educators statewide in understanding how to incorporate the common core standards into their pedagogy.
If granted the funding from the ISBE for a second year, the project will continue to evolve.
At the end of the second year, the trainers will be recognized as “master teachers” of the standards and teaching materials. The master teachers will implement a plan for assisting educators statewide, helping fellow educators to understand and familiarize themselves with the new common core standards.
Kelter believes that because the U-46 School District is a high needs school district with large percentages of English Language Learners and students on free and reduced lunches, the teachers will be more prepared to understand a variety of situations in implementing the goals for the second year of the project.
A four-week workshop will begin the training process for the U-46 teachers, and there will be a follow-up workshop in the fall.
“Our instructional practice is not taught at people; it’s a multi-way street. We always involve the teachers in the learning process through activities and discussions,” Kelter says. “These teachers are professionals; they know what they are doing. Our goal is to make order out of the occasional chaos of ideas.”
Kelter, who has been working with teachers for more than 30 years, has worked on numerous grants. So has Miller, a longtime high school teacher before coming to NIU. They will draw on those experiences to make the most of IMSCPT.
“Past grants have allowed us to design workshops that teach (educators well, respect their professionalism, and help them learn what they need to know to be maximally effective,” Kelter says.
by Janey Kubly
Date posted: April 6, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Professors from two colleges win grant to help educators adapt to Common Core Standards
Its focus is to help students at the elementary level develop their vocabulary and love for reading. Over time, the project has become a way for bilingual students to learn English in a fun and interesting way.
Chris Carger, director of Project ROAR, has a team of undergraduate students who tutor at elementary schools in the DeKalb School District.
The tutors meet with the same two to four students once a week to perform three tasks with the children: read a specific story out loud to the children; practice vocabulary related to the literature by playing a game; and create an art project that connects to the story.
Carger and her tutors work together to create and implement these weekly lessons.
“The kids enjoy our time with them,” says Allyce Leafbland, an elementary education major and a tutor for Project ROAR. “They don’t even think they are learning, but we see the rewards week to week.”
The teachers at the school recognize the significance of Project ROAR.
Because of the demand to focus on test standards, teachers are not able to read out loud to their students as often. Additionally, because of cutbacks, students do not engage in as many art projects.
Carger strives to select the best children’s literature that is available for the tutoring sessions. She asks the teachers for subject matter suggestions so that the tutor session will coordinate with what the students are learning in class.
“Often times,” she adds, “we try to use books that are culturally sensitive, so that (the students) see in the literature reflections of themselves or the places they may come from.”
Pictures in a book help convey meaning to the children who are learning English, Carger says.
In a recent session, the selected book was “Back of the Bus” by Aaron Reynolds. The book tells the story of Rosa Parks from a young African-American boy’s perspective. On one page, the boy is drawn beautifully; he is lying on a couch and his finger is playing with a marble that is rolling on the floor.
“If the students don’t know what a marble is,” Carger says, “they will now because of the picture.”
The art project to accompany the book consisted of assembling a bus from shoe boxes and construction paper.
After construction, the kids were asked to name their buses in a way that would reflect what they learned from the story, such as, no law exists that tells people where they have to sit on a bus. Her sample bus was titled “Freedom Riders.”
Leafbland notices the rewards of the art projects incorporated into the tutoring sessions.
“One student struggles with both English and Spanish; this student really enjoys the art project and is very talented,” she says. “The student includes elements of the book or vocabulary game in his art, so something is clicking.”
Carger and Leafbland agree that the children are most engaged when it comes to the art project: “The art project is significant for the bilingual children because it gets even the shy kids excited and participating in using their English words,” Carger says.
Supplies used for the art projects are purchased with financial aid received to support the program, such as grants and donations.
ROAR was rewarded an internal grant from NIU, known as a P-20 grant, and Carger received a $2000 grant from Target this past year. In addition to art supplies, the funds have allowed Carger to purchase new and larger books for the read out loud segment.
Chris Carger
“The bigger books are easier for the kids to see,” Carger says, adding, “I’m very grateful for the help ROAR receives from Target. Target is very supportive of programs that integrate literacy and the arts, and that is exactly what ROAR does.”
Over the years, ROAR has also received donations from parents and grandparents affiliated with students in ROAR.
One year, a ROAR tutor’s parents donated pumpkins for an art project. Carger uses pumpkins every year around Halloween. “It tends to be their favorite project,” Carger adds.
Besides helping the elementary teachers and students, ROAR assists participating tutors who are elementary education majors in learning about and working with English Language Learners (ELL), diversity in schools and multicultural education.
“I’ve learned a lot more by doing it than by hearing about it,” says Leafbland, who recalls a bilingual tutor who combined English and Spanish during the read out loud segment. “It was awesome to provide that experience for the students, and they loved it.”
While many of ROAR’s tutors are elementary education majors, any student can participate for undergraduate level credit. The course, LTRE 231, can be taken up to two times for undergraduate credit.
Carger believes that art, Spanish or business majors can also benefit from participating in ROAR. “Really, anyone who likes kids should participate,” she says.
Students interested in becoming tutors for Project ROAR should contact Carger at ccarger@niu.edu or (815) 753-9267.
by Janey Kubly
Date posted: April 6, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Undergraduate students make a local difference via enrollment in Literacy Ed’s Project ROAR
Not only does one get to achieve higher education, but one is also able to actively learn through cultural immersion in another country. Students are able to see and experience things they only dreamed of before studying abroad.
Suren Nersisyan and Vladimir Yelakov received the ultimate opportunity when they were awarded a Muskie Fellowship.
Nersisyan and Yelakov have not only experienced America’s culture through this Fellowship program, but they have actively engaged in the U.S.’s educational system while attending NIU, which is significantly different from their countries’ theoretic way of teaching.
The Muskie Fellowship is funded by the U.S. Department of State and is leveraged by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), which provides opportunities through the Muskie Fellowship program for international students interested in studying in the United States.
According to the IREX website, “The Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program brings emerging leaders in key professional fields from Eurasia to the United States for one to two years of graduate study at institutions across the United States.” The intent of the program is to build relationships between the countries, build civil society, and gain a better understanding of democracy.
The Muskie Fellowship is open to students throughout Eurasia and is a highly competitive program. Nersisyan was one of 15 and Yelakov was one of 10 to be accepted into the program; there were thousands of applicants overall.
Both Nersisyan and Yelakov are completing graduate degrees in higher education in the Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education (CAHE). Now in their final semester, the study abroad experience has left both Nersisyan and Yelakov with an engaged understanding that has prepared them for new opportunities upon their return home.
“The degree will change a lot (for me). More doors will be open,” said Nersisyan, a fine arts professor at an Armenian university. He looks forward to potentially working for the government in an educational administrative position.
Yelakov, a foreign language teacher at a university in Kazakhstan, taught English and enjoys teaching. “Sometimes work is strenuous, but it’s an important job,” Yelakov said. “I would like to continue teaching but maybe in some other area related to administration.”
Barbara Johnson
“Vladimir and Suren have brought an international perspective to the classroom that is valued by faculty and students alike. Our department has a long history of engaging in study abroad opportunities, but now more students are able to learn about the educational system of other countries from our two Muskie Fellows,” CAHE Chair Barbara Johnson said.
“It has been a win-win for everyone involved, and we hope that we are able to host future Muskie Fellows.”
Yelakov recognizes that his educational experience in the United States was not necessarily easy but very valuable.
“(Studying here) has been a great challenge for me because the educational system is different, and it took me some time to get used to it,” he said. “I like that classes (in the United States) concentrate more on practical aspects and students’ personal experiences. It provides a good opportunity for students to express themselves, including their ideas, thoughts, feelings, or considerations about a particular topic they studied.”
Nersisyan agrees that their coursework has been challenging yet highly rewarding.
Nersisyan and Yelakov agree that their time spent at NIU has broadened their ideas of education and administration; additionally, they see parallels between the Muskie Fellowship goals and their experience.
Their NIU professors were more accessible than they would have been in their home countries, demonstrating a way to build relationships. Similarly, the method of teaching in the U.S. is more discussion based, or democratic. “The educational systems still resemble the Soviet system … theoretic and no discussion,” Nersisyan said.
Additionally, digital access such as NIU’s Blackboard or WebBoard does not exist in their countries. Consequently, utilization of these teaching tools could perhaps be introduced by Muskie Fellows when they return home.
Both Muskie Fellows agree that change is slow to take place in their countries and that corruption remains an issue for funding progress. In regard to the theoretic school systems, Nersisyan said, “now they are changing; now they are adapting the system with western education.”
And, because of the experience and education acquired through the Muskie Fellowship Program, Nersisyan and Yelakov are returning home after graduating this May with a vision for implementing further change.
by Janey Kubly
Date posted: April 4, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Muskie Fellows from Armenia, Kazakhstan completing graduate degrees in higher ed
Members of the NIU teaching community who are interested in developing relationships with community partners for student learning experiences are invited to learn more at a brown-bag lunch.
The event takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, April 2, in the Blackhawk West.
For more information, call Castle at (815) 753-4430 or email ncastle@niu.edu.
Date posted: March 27, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Nancy Castle to lead April 2 brown-bag lunch, offer tips for developing community partners
Ned Eckhardt, professor of radio, television and film at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., shared the good news that the project they had originally proposed more than a year ago received grant funding of $200,000.
Their first application had been turned down by one organization, but the second submission had been accepted by the Wyncote Foundation of Philadelphia.
“In that intervening time, everyone goes on with their lives, you know,” Vazquez says. “Ned takes on the responsibility of rewriting the grant, and gets it funded.”
“Laura was selected because she is committed to the documentary form and believes in the power of social problem documentaries to provide young people with the awareness they need to make the right decisions in times of danger and temptation,” Eckhardt says. “She is a proven teacher and just the kind of motivated, engaged teacher/documentarian the project needs.”
The grant will allow five universities to collaborate on student-produced documentaries that address the problem of sexual assault on college campuses. Each group will create a short-form film (10 to 20 minutes each) that tackles different aspects of the issue.
The multi-phase project will officially start in June at Rowan University, where members of the group will meet and talk about the project with nationally recognized social problem documentarians Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (directors of “Jesus Camp” and “12th and Delaware”). At NIU, the research part of the course will take place in fall 2012, with the production phase beginning in spring 2013.
In conjunction with the documentaries, a social media campaign will support the project.
This campaign will include a website containing student and teacher resources, social media sites, webinars, college radio documentaries and PSAs, expert commentary and downloadable applications. The films and social media tools will provide colleges and high schools with resources they can use to get the information out to young adults. Grant money will be used for travel and production support.
As the students’ guide in this project, Vazquez is planning a two-semester course composed of graduate and undergraduate students.
“The first semester will be about understanding the problem . . . the second semester will be the making of the film. Students need to understand the scope of the problem first; this is not an easy subject to cover. The students will do everything – write, direct, edit and so on.”
Vazquez says making the film and working with students will pose difficult challenges.
“How do we talk about it without being alarmists? How do we get students to make intelligent choices? Survivors of these crimes are embarrassed and scared. They need to know the law. NIU has a policy about interpersonal violence that is very, very strict. I think students need an education about [laws and university policies] in order to make intelligent choices,” she says.
“If we can find someone who will talk about an experience – a young woman or a young man – how do we talk to them so they aren’t being further victimized by it?” she adds. “Student filmmakers need to know about how to do this to make a good film. It’s my hope, my goal that they’ll learn.”
Donna Schoenfeld, director of Health Enhancement, calls this interaction the “Power-of-the-Peer Voice.”
Pause Off!
“We’re hoping that voice is loud in the prevention of sexual assault,” Schoenfeld says.
“The collaboration between academic and student affairs staff reflects the message that the prevention of sexual violence and services for survivors is a campus-wide initiative,” she adds. “Pause Off! students communicate as peers with other students – like the film students will with their documentary. It is the best kind of interaction with students because it resonates.”
Statistics about rape are startling.
According to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), 80 percent of people who are assaulted are younger than 30 (women between the ages of 18 and 25 are at the highest risk), 90 percent of incidents are linked to alcohol (especially vulnerable are people who are separated from a group), and 84 percent know their attacker.
Men are also victims of these crimes. RAINN reports about 3 percent of American men (1 in 33) have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA) reports that an estimated 90 to 95 percent of males who are assaulted do not report the crime.
by Rachelle Korth
Date posted: March 14, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on NIU filmmaker Laura Vazquez to collaborate in documentary project on campus sexual assault
Version 2.0 of NIU Mobile hit Android and Apple app stores this week and adds some highly anticipated new features to the university’s free smartphone application.
“One of the top requests we had is to bring the Advanced Geospatial Lab’s Huskie Bus Tracker to the app,” said Jennice O’Brien, director of Web Communications. “Now, with the Transit module, students can get real-time bus information on their phones in a mobile-friendly format. The location of the buses is updated every three seconds.”
“Mobile Applications that can run on Apple, Android and Blackberry are the next logical step for the Huskie Bus Tracking System,” said Phil Young, director of the Advanced Geospatial Lab.
“Through recent enhancements, we can now track buses in real time, which gives mobile users more up to date information. The Transit module will enhance the overall use of the NIU Mobile applications, and should be a welcome addition for NIU students who use our bus transportation systems.”
In addition to location information, Transit also delivers information on Huskie Bus routes, stops and schedules.
The Places module provides easy access to dining information on and around campus.
Users can access information on residential dining, the Holmes Student Center restaurants and Huskie Bucks merchants. Each venue includes information on menus, operating hours and locations. Huskie Bucks merchants are sorted by types of cuisine.
“App users can even view a dining venue’s location on a map relative to their current location on campus and get an estimate of how long it will take to walk there,” O’Brien said.
Tickets provides a link to NIU’s mobile Ticketmaster page to purchase tickets for Convocation Center and Athletics events.
Another enhancement to the app is a Tours feature available in the Maps module with directions and locations for several campus walking tours.
For those with iPhones using iOS5, the app includes a new feature called “Augmented Reality” that uses the device’s camera, GPS and compass to identify campus buildings in a 3D, interactive view. iOS5 users also can customize the location of the icons on the app’s springboard by “long-pressing” an icon until it wiggles, then dragging it to a new location.
The update is available as a native application for bothiOS (Apple) and Android devices. A mobile web-friendly version for other devices, as well as an update to the app on the BlackBerry platform, should be available in the next couple of weeks.
NIU Mobile debuted in app stores last summer and is developed in partnership by University Relations and Information Technology Services.
For more information, email NIUMobile@niu.edu. Suggestions are welcome.
Date posted: March 9, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Huskie Bus Tracker, dining menus debut in new Version 2.0 release of NIU Mobile app
The theme for the 2012 Engineers Week was based on the projected world population of 7 billion people.
With that many citizens, the many challenges facing our world requires immediate engineering solutions. CEET is poised to address these issues by extending STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields to the youth of our region and by educating our undergraduate students in an environment where they can bridge educational concepts with practical application.
The week began with the Second Annual CEET College Bowl, where students joined teams and competed in a “Jeopardy”-like competition of wits and humor. Questions came from all four CEET academic areas, and also included more humorous movie and popular culture topics.
About 100 students, faculty and staff members joined for dinner and to cheer on the winners. From a pool of 10 teams, the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) team took top honors and won scholarship money for their victory.
Most companies were looking from paid internship positions as well as full time employees as the region sees growth for its engineering and engineering technology workforce.
John O’Kelly, an engineer from PM Mold Company Inc., was particularly impressed with the CEET students he met. “The students just kept coming, and each one was as impressive as the next. I am blown away by the talent here.”
Sharing his sentiments, Sven Bley, from Made to Measure, took the time to call CEET after the fair was over to again recognize the quality of CEET students.
“I just wanted you all to know that I had so much fun meeting your students,” Bley said. “I am impressed, will be back and am already starting interviews next week.”
The job fair is also essential to the growth of our engineering students and most understand how important it is to develop the soft skills necessary to land a job after graduation.
“(I gained) networking experience and exposure” by attending the fair, said Matthew Sirek, a mechanical engineering student.
The week’s festivities came to a close with Cliff Mirman, chair of the Department of Technology, hosting a bridge-building competition for 200 Rockford-area high school students in partnership with the the Rockford Public Schools and Rock Valley College.
Teams of four students each competed to build wooden bridges in less than one hour, then watched as they were tested to see how much weight they could hold.
All student teams were given the same materials, typically quarter-inch-by-quarter-inch balsa wood sticks and super glue. The winning bridge was able to hold 150 pounds.
Mirman said this simple event is just the kind of activity that gets students interested in engineering.
“These are great events because it shows how engineering can be fun, and how anyone can be an engineer,” Mirman said. “The students come from all different backgrounds and levels and they build bridges and compete; no one knows what the materials will be ahead of time, and everyone has a fair chance to win. It is really exciting to see the kids work on the bridge and then watch in silence as they are tested.”
by Amanda Carrier
Date posted: March 1, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on National Engineers Week offers fun for all ages
Community-building is a concept associated with people living and working in close proximity to one another.
Technology, however, has transformed the reality of community-building into a process that can be shared by people regardless of where they live, work or study.
Successful building of online communities of students whose members communicate freely to share ideas and create projects lies in the strength of the faculty members who design and facilitate the online courses.
“I was almost hesitant to get into a technology program at first because I considered it so impersonal,” said John Cowan, an assistant professor in ETRA and a lead faculty member in the department’s online programs, “but the reality is that it opens up gateways to incredible communication. If you are not moving ahead in this field, you are falling behind.”
Cowan has been working in the field of online learning since receiving his master’s degree at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque in the mid-1990s.
While earning his degree, he worked as a public school teacher. It was during this time that the first world-wide website was created, and the advent of computers in the classrooms was just beginning. He became his school’s first technology coordinator because he was the only teacher who had computer experience, as little as it was.
After earning his master’s degree, Cowan was asked to teach the cohort that followed his. He has been involved with online education ever since.
Darryl Draper
Darryl Draper, the latest addition to ETRA’s online faculty, worked in the business world for 25 years prior to entering academia. Her corporate expertise focused on development of e-learning programs, organization development and human performance technology.
Academics offered a natural and welcome transition for Draper. “I wanted to be in an environment where I could make the most impact in the field and mentor students,” she said.
The varied backgrounds and experiences of people such as Cowan and Draper and others who work in ETRA contributed to the acknowledgement from U.S. News & World Report, Cowan said.
“If you are in this program, you are being taught by tenured track professional faculty,” he said. “That fact is a commitment to a quality education. It’s a quantitatively and qualitatively different experience to have people with the diversity of backgrounds that we have here.”
There is great power that can be created in online cohorts, he said.
The community formed during the learning phase continues even after graduation through career networking and support. These are individuals who must keep up with their fast-paced industry, he added. Having peers to contact for advice and input is crucial, and the cohort provides that lifeline.
“You bring people together in a community and build trust in that community. What bonds the community is both that trust and the mutual pursuit of some kind of knowledge,” he said. “It’s so great to be connected to other people, to know that you are not alone and to know that you can work together on things.”
Draper also focuses “on creating a sense of community” when she teaches her online students. “There’s an opportunity to share information,” she said, “and as a result of this, the students become more expert in what they do.”
The closeness that developed between Draper and her students in ETRA’s first online master’s in Instructional Technology Specialist cohort made their graduation bittersweet. “It was like sending your children off but wanting them to come back,” she said.
Her wish is coming true. Several alums of the first cohort are returning to NIU as students in ETRA’s doctoral program.
by Marisa Sanders
Date posted: February 29, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on College of Education faculty tap online courses to foster community-building among students
During his junior year, Fraley attended NIU’s geology Field Camp in South Dakota, where he gained hands-on experience related to his field of study. While there, he found a piece of quartz with something extra inside: a small fleck of gold.
With that find, Fraley says, he acquired “gold fever.”
Inspired in part by his success and his new-found interest, Fraley changed his focus to hard rock geology, which focuses on the study of igneous and metamorphic rock.
The following semester, Kendle began discussing his future with his professors to learn more about his options at NIU.
As a Midwestern university, NIU does not have the same reputation in the mining industry as more focused schools in Colorado, New Mexico and Montana; however, his professors were dedicated to providing the education and skills he would need to succeed in the industry.
“I was more than satisfied with my education,” he says, “but I had a thirst for more.”
In the fall of 2010, Fraley began looking for an internship at an active gold mine to help his career prospects after graduation. Through a department contact with a geology professor at Indiana University, he applied for an internship at Barrick Gold Corp., currently the largest gold producer in the world. After a successful phone interview, he was offered a summer internship.
Fraley spent more than 95 days in Winnemucca, Nev., working at a nearby gold mine.
“This wasn’t the kind of internship where I was sent to go get coffee,” Fraley says. “I worked hard and participated in many of the same tasks as staff geologists.” When he asked if he could get overtime, he was told, “As much as [you can] stand.”
Because the company was looking to expand the mine, there was plenty of work to be done. Fraley seized the opportunity and worked multiple 20-day stints. His typical workday consisted of a 4:40 a.m. bus ride through the Nevada desert, a 10-hour work shift doing the same work as full-time staff geologists and another 70-minute bus ride back to town.
It all paid off.
Not only did Kendle earn valuable experience and a paycheck, he also made an excellent impression on his employers, who recently contacted him to ask about his degree progress and employment availability. Moreover, Fraley recently completed and successfully defended his master’s thesis.
“NIU has been really good to me,” he says. “I’m thankful for the opportunities that have helped me succeed.”
His advice for other students? A strong work ethic and dedication. “NIU may not be Harvard,” he says, “but you can get a better education here if you put in the work.”
by Cameron Orr
Date posted: February 29, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Grad student finds more than gold in internship
NIU students with either freshman or senior standing are asked to participate in this survey as it plays an important role in shaping future student engagement experiences at Northern Illinois University.
As NIU embarks in the pursuit of becoming the most student-centered public research university in the Midwest, student participation in this survey is a key component in tracking the university’s strengths and weaknesses so that its leaders can continue to refine the engagement experiences of its students.
Check your student email to access the survey.
Also, as a reward for participating, students who complete the survey will have their names placed in a drawing for eight $100 prizes.
For more information, call (815) 753-8154.
Date posted: February 28, 2012 | Author: Jennice O'Brien | Comments Off on Freshmen, seniors encouraged to complete survey on student engagement experiences
This seminar is free and open to all undergraduate students interested in pursuing graduate degrees.
Check-in begins at 9:30 a.m. The seminar will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This seminar is packed full of valuable information regarding types of graduate school programs, building a graduate profile, admission requirements, financial aid options and more.
This event is supported across campus departments.
Several speakers and resources will be available for students to use when applying for graduate school programs. Bradley G. Bond, dean of NIU’s Graduate School, will kick off of the seminar by discussing the importance of finding the right graduate school fit.
Representatives from the major fields of graduate study will be joined by current graduate students to discuss what it takes to make it into highly competitive programs.
