Month: September 2019

Fall 2019 NSU Write from the Start Writing & Communication Center Graduate & Professional Student Writing Group

Working on your thesis, dissertation, article, or grant? Take advantage of the Writing & Communication Center’s Weekly Write-Ins : a dedicated time each week where faculty, graduate, and professional students come together (in person and online) to write and work on independent projects.

When: Monday evenings starting Monday, October 7 from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST

Where: Alvin Sherman Library (room 430) or Online via GoToMeeting 

For more information, email wcc@nova.edu

Want one-on-one writing help and feedback? Visit https://nova.mywconline.com/ to schedule your appointment with a writing consultant today!

Sharks Serve as “Celebrities” at the 15th-Annual Cool Gear for the School Year

NSU’s Athletics Department assisted the Jason Taylor Foundation in their 15th Annual “Cool Gear for the School Year” event on September 16. Sixty young students were given $300 to spend on back to school gear at Old Navy. For the sixth-straight year, NSU student-athletes were invited to serve as “celebrity shoppers.”

Each year, the Jason Taylor Foundation hosts 60 disadvantaged middle school-aged boys and girls from Miami-Dade and Broward Counties at Old Navy for a “back to school” shopping experience.

During the event each child was allotted $300 to spend on back to school gear. In addition to the monetary allowance, the children received assistance from Jason, along with current and former Miami Dolphins players, cheerleaders, and local celebrities. The purpose of the program is to help build self-esteem and eliminate unnecessary distractions to allow each child to focus on his or her studies, and not attire, during the school year.

For the sixth-straight year, NSU student-athletes were invited to serve as “celebrity shoppers”. Women’s basketball’s Maria Bardeeva and Makenna Drabick, softball’s Sydney Lageyre, Tia Williams and Sam Sisco, men’s soccer’s Nathanael “Squeaky” Washington, and baseball’s Lucas Reid represented the Sharks. Here is what a few of them had to say about their experience:

Maria Bardeeva, Women’s Basketball- “I absolutely loved this event. I attended it last year so I wanted to do it again this year. It’s a great opportunity to help the kids from Miami-Dade and Broward counties as well as get inspired by what Jason Taylor has been doing for the community. I loved the kids, the atmosphere, and met many “celebrities”.

FULL RELEASE

NSU University School Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

NSU University School is proud to congratulate the 12th grade students who were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program! These are high school seniors who scored in the top percentile in the nation on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

  • Sofia Echeverry
  • Kaiana Kibler
  • Max Pinkiert
  • Ronnie Shashoua

Out of approximately 1.6 million entrants across the nation, only about 16,000 students qualified as Semifinalists! These NSU University School Semifinalists will have the opportunity to advance to the Finalist level and qualify for winner recognition as well as university scholarships.

NSU’S Writing & Communication Center Celebrates its 1-Year Anniversary

NSU’s Writing & Communication Center (WCC) celebrated the 1-year anniversary of its Grand Opening on Wednesday, September 18.

The grand opening in 2018 brought together over 100 administrators, faculty, students, and staff from across the university to celebrate the new writing and communication center. Attendees came to see the new space, learn about its unique design features, and hear about the exciting initiatives taking place at the WCC. George L. Hanbury, Ph.D., president and CEO of Nova Southeastern University, spoke about the important role the WCC plays in supporting all writers in the NSU community. WCC Executive Director, Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D., welcomed all attendees and thanked everyone for their ongoing support.

Since the grand opening, the WCC has conducted over 14,000 consultations to NSU undergraduate, graduate, and professional students across all NSU campuses. A few other notable accomplishments include:

  • Embedding writing tutors into all sections of First-Year Composition (including 96 sections in Fall 2019), Introduction to Biology (over 30 sections), as well as in classes such as Speech, Political Science Research Methods, Speech-Language Pathology, Business Law, and Theater.
  • Assisting graduate and professional students with one-on-one consultations, weekly writing groups, workshops, and by developing specialized programs for students in the Fischler College of Education, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Pharmacy, and Biomedical Sciences.
  • Helping instructors across colleges improve how they use writing as part of their teaching by hosting workshops and developing resources focused on providing high quality assignments and feedback, as well as innovative practices such as multimedia composing, flipping the classroom, and gamification.

The WCC is located on the 4th floor of the Alvin Sherman Library, Rm. 430. This space is designed for comfort and mobility, allowing consultants and students to work together in a variety of ways. This dynamic space has mobile furniture, whiteboards, and distributed technology that promote constant creativity and collaboration.

To learn more about the WCC, visit our website or follow us on social media at @nsuwcc.

Two NSU Professors Receive Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards

Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is proud to announce that two of its esteemed faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards. In particular, they have each received highly coveted Distinguished Fulbright Chair positions. Louis Nemzer, Ph.D., associate professor in NSU’s Halmos College of Natural Science and Oceanography (Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Biology), and Florence Neymotin, Ph.D., associate professor of Decision Sciences in NSU’s H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship (Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Entrepreneurship), have been selected to conduct research at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Prof. Nemzer’s project will focus on antibiotic resistant bacteria that could potentially be transmitted from farm animals to people. The overuse of antibiotics in the livestock industry has led to the emergence of “superbugs” that may pose significant threats to human health. During her tenure, Prof. Neymotin will focus on the creation and analysis of a Canadian Annual Business Survey as part of her research on entrepreneurship and small business formation.

The faculty members are among the more than 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research, and/or provide expertise abroad for the 2019-2020 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds and fields the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Fulbright awardees address critical global challenges in all disciplines, while building relationships, knowledge, and leadership in support of the long-term interests of the United States. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 59 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 84 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.

Education Alumna Named Michigan Teacher of the Year; Appointed to the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council

Cara Lougheed, M.A.

Cara Lougheed, M.A., graduate of NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice (FCE&SCJ), has been named the 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year by the Michigan State Department of Education and appointed by Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council.

She has taught English language arts and history for 21 years in Rochester Community Schools, beginning at Rochester High School in 1998. Over the years, Cara has been a social studies teacher leader, a building activities director, union building representative, and a national delegate representing Rochester at the NEA Representative Assembly each summer. She has worked collaboratively with colleagues and administrators over the years to create and write curriculum and to design an attendance incentive program for students.

Additionally, Cara is an advisory member of Oakland University’s (Rochester, Michigan) Vision 20/20 committee, which seeks the input of classroom teachers in making clearer connections and building relationships between the pre-k-12 and university communities. Currently, she is a student intern and mentor liaison to Oakland University and works in partnership with TeachingWorks and the Michigan Program Network (MiPN) to advance and improve teacher education in Michigan. This collaboration has led to the adoption by the Michigan Department of Education of “Core Teaching Practices” for teacher prep programs in Michigan.

Cara earned her M.A. in Teaching and Learning in 2001 with the FCE&SCJ.

Halmos College Alumna Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative Chair

Jamie Monty is the new (and a former) manager of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area (Coral ECA). She serves as chair of the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI) Team.

Jamie completed her master’s degree at Nova Southeastern University in coral reef restoration, using corals of opportunity, coral nurseries, and integrated stakeholder involvement. She started with DEP in 2005, assisting with the management of four aquatic preserves and revising the North Fork St. Lucie River Aquatic Preserve Management Plan. She joined CRCP in 2008 as the Fishing, Diving, and Other Uses coordinator, was promoted to assistant manager, and served as manager from 2012-2015. She was the lead developer of the Our Florida Reefs Community Planning Process.

Since her time with DEP’s CRCP, Jamie went on to serve as the section chief for Miami Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management (DERM) Restoration and Enhancement Section, where she oversaw the coral and artificial reef, beach renourishment, seagrass, water quality and coastal restoration programs. While at DERM, she served as a SEFCRI team member in a local government seat, and as vice chair of that stakeholder group. Most recently, Jamie worked as a senior project manager for the environmental consulting firm Coastal Systems International, where she led coral mitigation, coral disease and coastal resilience projects for government agency clients.

In addition to Jamie’s education, experience and dedication to the goals of DEP’s CRCP and SEFCRI programs, her genuine and warm nature when interacting with CRCP staff, SEFCRI Team/Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)/Vice Chairs, and the public make her an asset. The broader experience she brings to CRCP will surely assist both CRCP and SEFCRI in achieving their goals. Jamie is excited to be back at the helm and to have the opportunity to continue working with Coral ECA stakeholders to balance the use and protection of Southeast Florida’s coral reef resources.

Halmos Faculty Session Leader at International Earth Biogenome Project (EBP) Conference

This past August, Halmos faculty member Jose Lopez, Ph.D. was the session leader for the Global Invertebrate Genome Alliance/Community of Scientists (GIGA) at the broader Earth Biogenome Project (EBP) Conference. The conference session gathered experts who discussed their research and recent advances that included full genome sequencing of invertebrate taxa such as Cnidaria, Mollusks, Placozoa, and Planaria.

The annual conference was held at historic Rockefeller University in New York City and was designed to further advance the mission of the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP) and Earth BioGenome Project.

Additionally, for the first time during the Annual Meeting, the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) will partner with GIGA in a joint effort to engage and integrate with other large-scale genome projects, including previous G10K partnerships with B10K, Bat1K, GAGA and GIGA for non-insect invertebrates as well as other EBP-affiliated projects. The Earth Genome Project plans to eventually sequence all 1.5 million animals, plants and protists.

For more information: https://www.earthbiogenome.org/

Halmos Faculty Organize Tiny Earth Conference

This July, Halmos faculty member Aarti Raja, Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences co-organized the annual Tiny Earth symposium with researchers from around the world. Faculty members Aarti Raja, Ph.D. and Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D.  then traveled to the Tiny Earth National Conference at the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, Madison, WI. They were invited to present their research at the conference. Dr. Raja’s talk was entitled, “Tiny Earth at NSU: Journey from Classroom-based Research to Independent Research”. Dr. Torruellas Garcia’s talk was “Beyond Antibiotics: Targeting Bacterial Virulence Factors”.

Tiny Earth was launched in 2018, however it began six years earlier when Dr. Jo Handelsman (former scientific advisor to Barack Obama) founded a course—then called “Microbes to Molecules”—at Yale University with the goal of addressing both the antibiotic crisis and the shortage of science trainees. In short order, the course grew and became a part of a larger initiative until Handelsman returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and launched Tiny Earth in collaboration with its hundreds of partners worldwide.

FERPA Training for Faculty and Staff, Oct. 7

Protecting the privacy of students’ educational records is not only an ethical obligation but also a legal requirement for all NSU employees.

Did you know…

  • students can file complaints with the Department of Education,
  • NSU can lose federal funding, and
  • students can file lawsuits against the university and the person responsible can be held liable for a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?

If you are an NSU faculty member or an employee who deals with student records, brush up on your FERPA knowledge by attending a one-and-a-half-hour training session facilitated by the University Registrar on October 7, 2019.

Register for a Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus Session

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