Truman State University’s Athletic Training Program continues to maintain a perfect pass rate on the BOC (Board of Certification) exam for Athletic Training. Fall 2014 Graduates Courtney Meyer (left) and Erin David (right) passed their exams to make seven semesters in a row with a 100% first time pass rate. Congratulations Courtney and Erin, as well as the Athletic Training Faculty/Staff!
The Judevine Center for Autism will be opening in Kirksville in early 2015. Please look at the application for the Judevine Kirksville Coordinator to see if this job opportunity interests you.
The city of Independence, MO has an immediate opening for a Health Coach at their On-Site Employer Clinic. The clinic’s address is: 111 E Maple Ave., Independence, MO 64050. Please read through the attached information. If interested in applying, follow the directions at the end of the article.
Truman was recognized as the 30th smartest public university in the nation in Business Insider’s 2014 school rankings, “The 100 Smartest Public Colleges in America.”
Truman was one of three Missouri schools to be featured on the list. In order to determine a school’s overall smarts, researchers analyzed the standardized test scores that schools report to the U.S. News.
“The 100 Smartest Public Colleges in America” is a spinoff of Business Insider’s original list “The 600 Smartest Colleges in America,” where Truman also ranked in the top 25 percent.
If you were on campus on Wednesday, Oct. 1, you certainly noticed a big surge in traffic around the Truman campus because of the Fall Career & Grad School Expo. The Student Union was filled with 110 exhibitor tables and more than 175 representatives, and recruiters greeted more than 700 students, representing 85% of Truman’s majors. Several recruiters stayed over the next day and conducted 166 student interviews for internships and jobs with their organizations.
Career Week is planned and coordinated each semester by the Truman State University Career Center. The entire week was filled with career development opportunities including mock interviews, an etiquette dinner, a Volunteer Fair showcasing local agency opportunities, company presentations, and a LinkedIn consultant, co-sponsored by Delta Sigma Pi and Alpha Kappa Psi, who offered advice on building a strong on-line presence on this professional networking site. Student participation in all of the activities was exceptional.
The number of alumni returning to campus to represent their organizations is always impressive and we certainly welcome you to join in the fun. Spring Career Week will be February 23-26, 2015, with the Career & Grad School Expo on Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
If you would like to recruit Truman students or have any questions about the event, please contact Polly Matteson, Assistant Director, Truman State University Career Center at pollym@truman.edu.
Several Truman alumni will be recognized at the Homecoming Celebration Banquet at 6 p.m. Oct. 10 as part of the Homecoming 2014 festivities. The 2014 Homecoming honorees are listed below:
Alumni of the Year: Mike McClaskey (’85) & Janet (Yearns) McClaskey (’84) Young Alumni of the Year: Ryan Shreve (’02) & Lauren (Rase) Shreve (’03) Distinguished Service Award: Cynthia M. Spiker (’93) Homecoming Parade Grand Marshals: Robert Dager & Jane Dager Bulldog Forever Volunteer of the Year Award: Michael A. Wilson (’91) Alumni Chapter of the Year: To be announced Homecoming weekend Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees: Kristina Bredbenner (’01), Sam Lesseig, Sam Nugent and Cory Parker (’00)
The Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame will induct Softball All-American Kristi Bredbenner, Women’s Golf coach Sam Lesseig, Baseball coach and Assistant Athletics Director Sam Nugent and Men’s Basketball All-American Cory Parker during Homecoming festivities on October 10-11.
The Classical and Modern Languages Department will host an alumni panel from 10:30 a.m.-11:20 a.m. Oct. 10, 2014, in the Student Union Building Down Under.
The panelists will talk about life after Truman and discuss ways to re-vision careers in foreign languages. The three speakers are Ashley Adams (’13), Laura Provance (’07) and Erin Flannery (’11).
Congratulations to Truman State University graduate Chris Holmes who teaches English and journalism at Hazelwood West High School in Hazelwood, Mo., for being selected as the 2014 Missouri Teacher of the Year by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
Chris Holmes (’90)
Holmes received a bachelor’s in education from Truman in 1990 and has been with the Hazelwood School District for eight years and an educator for 13 years. The Teacher of the Year announcement was made during an all-school assembly. Holmes had no idea he had won the award until it was revealed during the assembly.
Holmes is the Hazelwood School District Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014 and was named the 2009 Educator of the Year by the Governor’s Council on Disability. He was also the recipient of the 2011 Special Ambassador Award by the Special School District of St. Louis County and helped start Project WALK three years ago at West High. The program identifies students at risk of dropping out of school and intervenes to assist students graduate. He will now represent the state of Missouri in the National Teacher of the Year competition.
Check out the most recent issue of the Truman Review alumni magazine were Holmes was featured along with several other Truman alumni at
Truman students pursue everything that intrigues them, like Conor Gearin, who stepped outside the walls of the classroom for an internship experience in Maine that connected his interest in science with his passion for writing.
Conor Gearin, a senior at Truman State University, spent this past summer in a learning environment that elicited hands-on participation studying the water chemistry of ephemeral wetlands in Maine known as vernal pools. The internship was a natural extension of his chemistry class at Truman, which featured an environmental science lab. Gearin, who had studied dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus in a creek as part of his classwork, found he was well-prepared for the internship at the University of Maine-Orono.
Gearin notes that crucial wildlife habitat is not always a large river delta or grassland. “The vernal pools are small, but they have an importance disproportionate to their size,” says Gearin. These pools, which fill up with snowmelt in the spring and dry up by the fall, are critical to the life cycle of several amphibian species — including frogs and salamanders — which depend on the vernal pools for breeding.
Working with his research team, Gearin explored these important wildlife habitats taking water samples at vernal pools across an urban-rural gradient, sampling at urban sites in Bangor, Maine, and relatively remote sites in Hancock County. He also made use of his dual biology-English major by becoming a writer for the project’s blog, “Of Pools and People” (http://ofpoolsandpeople.weebly.com/blog).
Through his participation in the project, Gearin saw first-hand how important it is for researchers to build up a relationship with the public. “The faculty and graduate students at the University of Maine have spent years cooperating with residents of Maine who own the land containing vernal pools,” says Gearin. “They have done an excellent job of explaining the importance of vernal pools to landowners and creating practical but effective conservation strategies,” says Gearin.
He also discovered that, when working the field, mosquitoes and blackflies can be vicious. “We wore mesh bug jackets and vinyl gloves in the field to protect ourselves,” says Gearin. “If we took these precautions, we could avoid most bites.”
Gearin’s internship was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Coupled Natural and Human Systems (NSF-CNH) program, and while these positions can be quite competitive, Gearin thinks they are worth pursuing. “You get to work outside studying wildlife or the environment, doing a small part to improve our understanding of the changing natural world,” says Gearin, who also enjoyed having a chance to work with other undergraduates, including a civil engineering major. “Completing an internship in a field outside your major can help broaden your experience and perspective on your career,” says Gearin.
Internships often nurture a student’s excitement for the field, and Gearin, who plans to pursue a career in science education and communication, hopes his internship experience will lead to more opportunities to do field work. “The research and science writing experience I gained have reaffirmed that I want to work on science questions that directly impact people and to help in communicating scientific discoveries to the public,” says Gearin.
