Author: iharrell

Levan Center to Host Inaugural Orbit Innovation Awards April 27

The Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation is hosting its inaugural Orbit Innovation Awards on April 27, 2023, a celebration of their first anniversary impacting the South Florida innovation community. The Orbit Awards are exactly one year from the Levan Center’s formal grand opening, and we want to honor those who have helped us along the way.

The event will have approximately 300 members of the South Florida community, and will honor 13 award recipients recognized for their support and contribution to the South Florida innovation ecosystem. The event will include food, drinks, entertainment, networking, a silent auction, and an awards ceremony. Tickets are available now for only $100 per person. Get yours today at bit.ly/TheOrbitAwards!

Posted 03/27/23

NSU Presents Off-Broadway Musical ‘Zombie Prom’ April 14-16

NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts presents “Zombie Prom.” This girl-loves-ghoul rock ‘n’ roll Off-Broadway musical is set in the atomic 1950s at Enrico Fermi High, where the law is laid down by a zany, tyrannical principal. Pretty senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy.

Family pressure forces her to end the romance, and he charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing and determined to reclaim Toffee’s heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the prom. The principal orders him to drop dead while a scandal reporter seizes on him as the freak du jour. History comes to his rescue while a tuneful selection of original songs in the style of 50s hits keeps the action rocking across the stage.

  • When: Friday-Sunday, April 14-16
  • Time: Apr. 14-15 at 7:30 PM and Apr. 16 at 2:00 PM
  • Location: Don Taft University Center, Black Box Theatre
  • Cost: Free event
  • Open to the public

For more information, contact Bill J. Adams at wadams@nova.edu

Posted 03/27/23

University School Students Visit NSU’s Neuroscience Lab

Students in our Psychology Internship visited Nova Southeastern University‘s Neuroscience Laboratory in the Center for Collaborative Research where they dissected a sheep brain. Led by NSU neuroscience faculty member Dr. James Muñoz, students learned how remarkably similar the anatomy of a sheep brain is to the human brain.

Using their knowledge gained in our AP psychology course, students were able to identify brain structures and functions in real time during the dissection. Students also learned about Dr. Muñoz’s exciting research on gene therapy and neural stem cells and their potential applications to cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

Learn more about NSU University School’s college preparatory program for students in Preschool – Grade 12 at www.uschool.nova.edu.

Posted 03/27/23

InterLACE Research Showcase Event Will Be on Zoom April 14

On Friday, April 14, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the InterLACE research showcase event will occur live via Zoom. This university-wide event features the “interdisciplinary” and “interprofessional” collaborative research efforts of NSU faculty, clinicians, students, and research staff.

Come learn from slide and poster presentations, participate in an interactive brainstorming and networking session, and hear the keynote address delivered by Dr. Timothy Tracy, CEO of Koru Biopharma, Inc. on the topic “Collaboration across Disciplines: A ‘Contact Sport’ for Improving Health.”

Posted 03/27/23

NSU Participates in International Women’s Day Event

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) celebrated International Women’s Day with a panel discussion led by Mathan M. Kannayan and Katherine E. Dookhan. This panel featured three accomplished female leaders in the NSU community.

The event brought together Dr. Andrea Nevins, Dr. Paula Anderson-Worts, and Dr. Michelle Clark to discuss their experiences as women in leadership roles. The panelists shared stories of their personal and professional journeys, as well as insights on how to empower and support women in all areas of life.

Attendees were inspired by the speakers and left with a renewed sense of purpose to continue advancing gender equity in their communities. The event was a resounding success and a reminder of the importance of celebrating and supporting women’s achievements.

The AAUW Executive board would like to thank all participants for making this event possible and for all the students, faculty, and staff that continue to support our mission to promote equity for women and girls.

Posted 03/27/23

Students Film Police Recruitment Commercial

A group of criminal justice students from NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice and members of NSU’s Sociodrama Club: Stage for Change, had the opportunity to take part in a unique project: filming a commercial.

The students, along with School of Criminal Justice Associate Professor, Grace Telesco, Ph.D., were asked by Davie Police department to film a recruitment commercial.

Telesco is no stranger to working on short productions, having worked on commercials while serving as an officer with the New York City Police Dept and produced the instructional film “Run, Hide, Fight” detailing what one should do when in a mass shooting situation for the NSU Community.

Telesco enlisted the help of several Sociodrama/Criminal Justice students, including Shannon Hetzel, Laila Horton and Alejandro Suarez, along with her work study students. She also enlisted the efforts of Dan Deien, who also helped with “Run, Hide, Fight.”

The theme of the video is “Live, Work, Play,” and includes beautiful shots of South Florida while demonstrating the day-to-day activities of Davie Police.

”We’re attracting, you know, a particular candidate to come to the police department to live here, where it’s beautiful and there’s so many things to do,” Telesco said.

The students are working in all stages of the creation: pre-production, production, and post-production.

“The writing of the script, the creation of the call sheets, location selection, site surveys – they are responsible for all of that,” Telesco said. “Scheduling all of the cops, scheduling and interfacing with the Davie Police Department, to get all of these cops on the set to do what we want them to do, so that it looks real not staged.”

The work doesn’t stop there. The students have helped in other aspects of the commercial as well, including sound, lighting, flying drones and even acting cameos.

Many are just learning this for the first time. The students all volunteered for the duties and despite the hard work, they are enjoying the process.

“We’ve had a lot of an awful lot of fun, but it’s been an awful lot of work. It’s early hours, get up call is at 8 in the morning, go all the way until 4 with very little breaks and they aren’t getting credit,” Telesco said. “They love working together. They like working with me. We get excited about a lot of stuff so that’s why they’re in it.”

The commercial is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Honors Student Spreads Autism Awareness at Conference

Farquhar Honors College student Varun Kota presented his research spreading awareness of autism in black and brown communities at the 2023 Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC). Completed as part of his honors thesis, the research focuses on the reasons for the underdiagnoses of autism in African American communities in South Florida and methods for increasing proper diagnoses.

Kota, a senior biology major, became interested in this research after learning about delayed diagnoses of autism and its impact on children and their families in the honors course Autism Today: The Individual and the Family. His research highlights how the lack of accessible resources and understanding plays a significant role in delayed diagnoses of autism and how education and advocacy are possible solutions.

“Heading a project such as the honors thesis was an opportunity to expand and hone my leadership and management skills,” said Kota. “My overall knowledge of ASD, the diagnostic process, services surrounding Autism, and its overall impact on African American families has grown tremendously. I have used this education to improve my professional writing, [research], and public speaking skills. Disseminating and presenting information regarding the project [also] enabled me to understand the publication process.”

Upon graduation, Kota plans on pursuing work in psychology and computational artificial intelligence to create a system to help people suffering from mental health issues receive the help they need.

Posted 03/27/23

Fischler Professor Publishes Paper on Special Needs Patients

Maria Levi-Minzi, Ph.D.

Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice Professor Maria Levi-Minzi, Ph.D., has recently published a paper focusing on the dental treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder and other special needs.

The paper, called “Parent Perception of Child’s Behavior during the Initial Dental Visit among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Cross Sectional Study,” came out of a study that was done by two pediatric dental residents.

“Children with special needs have different sensitivities and it can be hard to get any child to sit in a chair,” Levi-Minzi said. She gave some examples of the things these patients may struggle with, including sensitivities to tastes, smells, and sounds, as well as the tools shoved in their faces.

Levi-Minzi serves as a program evaluator for grants funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The grants supported the study which examined if parents knew how to best manage their child during the first dental visit. Researchers looked at two different outcome measures and an analysis score. They would then try to complete a certain number of tasks during every dentist visit, such as cleaning, and would look at those scores to see if a certain patient or parental characteristic was associated with a higher or lower score.

“We’re really just trying to understand if there were certain types of patient or parental characteristics that contributed to doing better at a dental appointment,” Levi-Minzi said. “If we could find out more information about that, then maybe we could try to help providers to better understand how to prep people for the appointment.”

According to the research, it was revealed that Hispanic individuals completed fewer tasks during dental appointments, something that made researchers question whether it was part of a language barrier or cultural aspect. Something else researchers picked up on was that the older the child is, the better the child did in the dental appointment. With information like this, the hope is to train dentists for more successful visits.

Currently, Levi-Minzi is working on two other papers related to special needs children.

To read the full paper, click here.

Posted 03/14/23

Sharks Sports Teams Are Thrashing the Competition

NSU men’s basketball team celebrate their regional championship after beating Alabama Huntsville.

In case you haven’t been watching, Nova Southeastern University sports programs have been taking a big bite out of the competition.

The undefeated Sharks Men’s Basketball Team (33-0) – in a repeat performance from 2022 – advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Division II Tournament after defeating Alabama Huntsville 87-62 Tuesday night at the Rick Case Arena. The team, led by SSC Coach of the Year Jim Crutchfield, will now head to Evansville, Indiana, for a chance to capture the NCAA Division II title. The quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship games will be played at the Ford Center on March 21, 23 and 25.

The Sharks Women’s Basketball Team (21-8) also enjoyed a strong season, advancing to NCAA Division II Championship Tournament. However, the No. 7 seed NSU women’s basketball team lost in a tight contest on March 10 against No. 2 seed Eckerd 79-73.

Meanwhile, for the first time in program history, the No. 1 ranked NSU Sharks Women’s Swimming Team took home the NCAA Division II National Championship. The Sharks, led by Head Coach Ben Hewitt, went wire-to-wire during their title run and led from the championship meet’s first event on Tuesday, March 7. No. 1 Nova Southeastern ended the NCAA National Championship meet with 536.5 points and Emily Trieschmann’s dominant performance led NSU to the title, as the sophomore brought back five national titles – 800-free relay, 1000-free, 200-medley relay, 500-free, and 1650-free – to campus. Overall, the No. 1 Nova Southeastern Sharks women’s swimming team earned 11 NCAA individual national championships en route to the program’s first team title.

NSU’s women’s swimming team celebrate their NCAA national championship with NSU President and CEO George L. Hanbury II.

Learn more about the Sharks’ athletic accomplishments.

Posted 03/15/23

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