Penn State's University Park community honors the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a simple yet powerful message to "Stand Up!" during its 27th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration. The commemoration will be highlighted by a performance by Barry Scott, an authority on the life and works of King whose one-man play "Ain't Got Long to Stay Here" dramatizes the Civil Rights era. Scott recreates numerous figures of the era, capturing differing opinions and personalities that King faced. He will perform at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 16 at Eisenhower Auditorium. Journalist and social activist Jeff Johnson will be keynote speaker for the Evening Celebration scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at Schwab Auditorium. Johnson is an award-winning journalist and commentator in national media who is committed to fostering broad-based communication about issues of race, politics, popular culture and socioeconomics. (more)
An international reporting class in the College of Communications will allow student journalists to focus on, and travel to, Brazil during the spring semester.
"Brazil is an emerging economic giant. It's the largest country by population and land mass in Latin America, and a major competitor to the United States in several commodity exports, mostly agricultural," said Tony Barbieri, the Foster Professor of Writing and Editing in the College of Communications. He created the international reporting class and has led the previous trips to South Africa, China and Mexico. (more)
Cheryl Cheek, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State Mont Alto, and 10 of her students have developed a "retro room" for dementia patients at the Quincy Village Retirement Community in Quincy, Pa. The project was part of a senior-level class on aging.
Cheek said the retro room is intended to help dementia patients recall a time when they were most comfortable -- in most cases, the 1950s and 1960s. While the concept has been practiced with success in Europe, it has not yet been applied in the United States. "I thought it would be a perfect project for the aging class I teach," she said. (more)
When Elaine Tanella attended her first Penn State dance marathon during her freshman year, she went to the Bryce Jordan Center to cheer on the hundreds of students who would be on their feet for 46 hours for a good cause. Thirty hours later, she was still there and still standing.
That weekend inspired the Schreyer Scholar to be more involved the next year. Her enthusiasm and determination paid off: As a sophomore, she was selected to be on THON's communications committee and chosen as one of the dancers representing Atlas, an independent fundraising organization started by students in the Schreyer Honors College. Now, she is the public face of THON 2012. This year, Tanella was selected to be the overall chair, a role that includes outlining ideas and goals for this year's dance marathon and helping some 15,000 volunteers to implement them. (more)
In today's tech-savvy world, it's no longer enough for museums to display collections, says Penn State's Dana Kletchka. Museums must reach out to visitors wherever they are, allowing them to access information via their computer or other digital devices. (more)
Kristin Meyer, a 2002 alumna of the Secondary Education program, always knew she wanted to be a teacher, but it wasn't until she took Jacqueline Edmondson's "Teaching Reading in the Elementary School" class that she realized being a teacher could make her an agent for social change. (more)
Barbara Gray, professor of organizational behavior in the Smeal College of Business, and Anthony Baratta, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering in the College of Engineering, recently traveled to Japan to spread the message of their work on the Three Mile Island disaster recovery efforts. They met with residents and government officials affected by the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami and shared methods they developed for restoring trust and alleviating worry in the wake of nuclear disaster. (more)
Women with careers in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (collectively referred to as the STEM fields) have greater job security and higher incomes than women in other occupations -- 33 percent higher, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Economics and Statistics Administration. Yet women hold only a quarter of these lucrative jobs.
For 15 years, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has been encouraging early exploration of the STEM fields through its Math Options Career Day. During the annual daylong event, 250 seventh- and eighth-grade girls from 40 schools in rural northwestern Pennsylvania are invited to the college to build motors, design bridges and conduct experiments in hands-on workshops taught by faculty members and STEM professionals from the Erie area. (more)
How much force does it take to send a ball flying four feet through the air? How does the shape of a sail affect the way a sailboat moves? These are some of the questions children might think about as they interact with exhibits contributed by engineering students at Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania, a local children's science museum.
The final projects from John Lamancusa's Design Methodology class are on display at Discovery Space, which opened earlier this year in downtown State College, Pa. To see photos related to students' designs, visit http://live.psu.edu/flickrset/72157628502629103 online. (more)
Justin Kauffman let his love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors guide him to the right Penn State major and to a meaningful internship helping to protect natural resources. The York, Pa., native graduated from the College of Agricultural Sciences in December with a degree in Environmental Resource Management and a minor in Watersheds and Water Resources. He interned with the Conewago Creek Initiative, a collaboration between Penn State Extension and environmental groups aimed at improving water quality in the Conewago Creek watershed. (more)
