Honors Course Immerses Students in Korean Cuisine

Honors students enjoy Korean lunch.

On Monday, November 28, 2022, students in the Farquhar Honors College reading seminar enjoyed authentic Korean cuisine in honor of their course text—Grace M. Cho’s Tastes Like War. Funded by the Honors College, the meal allowed students to experience firsthand some of the dishes Cho writes about in her powerful memoir about food and family.

Course instructors Leanne Boucher, Ph.D., professor in the College of Psychology (COP), Kelly Anne Concannon, Ph.D., associate professor in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, and William Collins, Ph.D., professor in COP, planned and hosted the lunch for students in their section of the reading seminar.

The honors reading seminar is offered every semester and allows students to engage with and lead discussions on a chosen text that changes each semester. Tastes Like War, the selected text for the second term of the fall semester, documents Cho’s relationship with her schizophrenic mother, her familial and cultural history, and the importance of food to both of those relationships.

Posted 12/11/22

Five Win Provost’s Research and Scholarship Awards

Nova Southeastern University Provost and Executive VP for Academic Affairs Ronald J. Chenail, Ph.D., is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Provost’s Research and Scholarship Awards. The Provost expanded this year’s program to increase recognition opportunities for NSU faculty, and to improve accessibility to faculty from all academic disciplines and career stages.

The program now offers awards for early career and established faculty in two disciplinary categories. The winners of this year’s competition are:

Arts, Business, Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences

For the Assistant Professor Award, two faculty members will be honored in this category.

Justin Landy, College of Psychology, pursues research that is located at the intersection of social psychology and cognitive psychology, and he’s delved into how people form moral judgments of other people and their actions. He has received recognition as a leading scholar from national professional societies and has an impressive publication record in top tier journals and has authored five chapters in edited volumes from prominent publishers including Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. His expertise has been called on to serve as a reviewer and editorial board member by journals in his field, with recent promotion to Associate Editor for the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He has a demonstrated track record of mentoring students and preparing them to be scholars in their own right.

Emily Georgia Salivar, College of Psychology, is a fellowship-trained licensed psychologist whose research focuses on romantic relationships and online couples therapy. She has an impressive record of peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has achieved an h-index of 14 and an i10-index of 15. Her exceptional promise in the field of psychology has been demonstrated through research dissemination, national leadership positions and grant funding.  Her mentorship of students is exemplary; she created an NSU clinical practicum which provides intensive yearlong training to graduate students, meeting an important training and clinical need. In addition, she has an impressive track record of clinical supervision to NSU doctoral students.

Professor Award

Charles Zelden, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, is a nationally recognized political and legal historian with an outstanding publication record. He has garnered national media recognition and his areas of expertise include the history of voting and elections, presidential politics, civil rights and the constitution, and the American judicial system. His eclectic body of work includes a groundbreaking study of the disputed presidential election of 2000, a biography of pioneering Supreme Justice Thurgood Marshall, and a number of different studies of the intersection issues of race, voting rights and the courts. He has provided strong support and mentorship to many colleagues at NSU over the years, including helping others to navigate the world of academic publishing, media relations, and scholarship.

STEM and Health Medicine

Assistant Professor Award

Eben Gering, from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences,  exemplifies research and scholarly excellence by tackling scientific questions that  have not been well-studied. He pursues research themes that are carefully chosen to provide novel and general scientific insights, while abetting applied research into human health, conservation biology, and other pressing social and environmental issues. His work has been published in Nature Communication, National Geographic, and other high profile publications. Within his first two years at NSU he led pioneering studies of the Covid-19 pandemic, using wastewater to recover molecular signals of infection throughout Broward County’s 1.9 million residents and predict infection trends a week ahead of inbound data from nasal swab testing stations.

Professor Award

Jeff Kibler, College of Psychology, has an impressive history of publishing in prestigious high impact academic journals, and he has developed a solid, sustainable research program.  The high quality of his scholarship is demonstrated through success with external research grants; he has received over $1.9 million in competitive funding from a range of agencies, including NIH and the CDC. Jeff has also made significant contributions in the realm of service to the scientific community. He is a member of an NIH/NHLBI panel of experts who met to develop novel research recommendations based on the latest evidence. Much of his research has contributed to a better understanding of the relationships between posttraumatic stress and cardiovascular health risks. Jeff is routinely selected as a chairperson and/or grant reviewer on national and international funding agency panels. In 2019, Jeff received the University-wide President’s Distinguished Professor Award after being named the College of Psychology Professor of the Year.

Posted 11/20/23

Education Professor Named FAMTE Mathematics Educator of Year

Hui Fang Huang (Angie) Su, Ed.D., professor with the Department of Education in the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Hui Fang Huang (Angie) Su, Ed.D., professor with the Department of Education in the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice has received new recognition from the Florida Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (FAMTE).

Su was named the state’s Mathematics Teacher Educator of the Year for 2022.

The Board of Directors for the FAMTE established the award, and the honor is given annually with recognition of the recipient at the annual meeting of FAMTE during the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM) yearly conference.

The award aims to recognize an individual for excellence in teaching, research, and service.

Su was nominated by Joseph Furner, a fellow mathematics education colleague at Florida Atlantic University.

“I have been impressed by her active involvement, excitement, and passion for improving mathematics instruction in our state over the years,” Furner said. “When I look at anything math or technology education-related, I always see Angie’s name on the board, and she is so active in doing so much in Florida for our discipline. She is the energizer bunny of math education! “

Su is no stranger to being recognized for her incredible work. In 2018, she received the NSU President’s Distinguish Professor of the Year. Also, she was named the 2013 recipient of the Visionary Award for Distinguished Leadership from the Florida Distance Learning Association.

Congratulations on your award Angie Su! Thank you so much for being an incredible professor and leader!

Posted 11/20/22

Halmos Faculty Named to Comparative Parasitology Editorial Board

Christopher Blanar, Ph.D.

Christopher Blanar, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), has been named to the Editorial Board of Comparative Parasitology, which is the journal published by the Helminthological Society of Washington. This is a highly specialized journal covering such topics as parasite diversity surveys, species descriptions, and phylogenetic analyses that other journals are less equipped to publish.

Blanar’ s research interests include parasitism in coastal habitatsparasites and migratory behavior in Everglades fishesbiocontrol of parasitic nematodes using engineered bacteria, and parasite community ecology.

Posted 11/20/22

Neuroscience Team Presents at ALS Conference

The Neuroscience Institute team recently attended the annual Northeastern ALS Consortium (NEALS), the largest ALS Conference in the country with more 700 attendees this year from Nov. 1 through Nov. 3.
Our work was selected for an oral platform presentation, which was one of only seven platforms.
Lauren Tabor Gray, Ph.D., assistant professor of the ALS Clinic and co-director of NSU’s Neuroscience Institute, presented NSU’s study “Improving Speech and Swallowing in ALS: Preliminary Evidence for Nuedexta Treatment,” which was funded by a grant I was awarded through the ALS Association.
Posted 11/06/22

Ninth-Grade Girls Get Hands-On STEM Experience

A group of 9th-grade girls is getting a hands-on experience in the world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Thanks to a team of professors from NSU’s Abrham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice and the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, 35 students at SLAM Palm Beach High School are getting in-depth sessions in topics of biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and various art forms.

The project is led by Hui Fang (Angie) Su, Project PI; Jia Borror, Project Co-PI; and Teri Williams, Project Co-PI. Also involved in giving some of the presentations are Julie Torruellas Garcia, Arthur Sikora, Yueting Wan.

Students’ STEM awareness and interest were measured at the beginning of the project. They will again be calculated at the end, along with their knowledge and understanding of the engineering sub-field of STEM.

One such activity hosted by Williams focused on Creative Thinking and tasked the girls with working together to design and make a paper airplane. The activity blended the worlds of art and science to create something distinguishable and functional.

Another activity focused on Botany and Painting, where the girls looked closely at the flowers and examined them as scientists before drawing and painting them.

In addition to the various demonstrations, the girls will also get to tour NSU’s labs and campus.

The project’s overall goal is to use this experience to increase the high school girls’ perception and awareness of the STEM field and carry this interest into their college years and beyond.

Posted 11/06/22

Honors Medical London Course Takes Classroom to London

From unforgettable adventures in a city teeming with history and culture to friendships forged in the heat of exploration, the Farquhar Honors College’s Medical London, Culture and Context course offers Honors students a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience in the heart of London. Tracing the history and cultural context of medicine in London, this Winter 2023 course brings the curriculum to life during a week-long trip to the city of Charles Darwin, Alexander Fleming, and other great medical pioneers.

The Medical London, Culture and Context course is offered every winter semester exclusively to Honors students. The course facilitates interdisciplinary and experiential learning, allowing students to travel to London to study the history and development of Western medicine through various lenses. During the trip, students accompany course instructors Jeffrey Matthew Hoch, Ph.D., and Aileen Farrar, Ph.D., associate professors in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences (HCAS), on excursions to the city’s many medical and cultural sites.

“Everywhere you go [in London] is related to history in some way,” said Hoch, whose favorite part of London is the Bloomsbury neighborhood where the class will be staying, home to many of London’s most famous museums and inhabitants. “Walking down any street, you will see English Heritage’s Blue Plaques marking locations where important events took place or where important people lived. Every neighborhood was built during different time periods, and the varying architecture is another way to experience the history of London.”

The class gets a taste of London through its food, museums, and landmarks like Alexander Fleming’s Lab, the Olde Operating Theatre, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace, to name a few. During this year’s trip, the class will also explore Oxford for a day, a prominent seat of academia in the western world.

“As a literature professor, or simply as someone who just likes to read, it is captivating to see a place with so much history,” said Farrar. “We think we have accurately built the worlds in our minds that authors and artists have painted for us, but being there has left me with indelible memories that have expanded my imagination.”

Apart from class expeditions, students also have the opportunity to embark on independent journeys in London, exploring the city on their own whims and conducting research for their individual projects that will conclude their course experience.

Students return home not only with greater knowledge and cherished keepsakes from their time abroad but also with fond memories that will last a lifetime. From tales of Dr. Hoch’s quick wits while navigating London to dressing up in Victorian costumes at Charles Darwin’s house, the trip is never short of laughs and inside jokes that cement the course as a highlight in many students’ undergraduate careers.

“Through this trip, I was able to expose myself to the rich cultural and medical history in London, and I could apply the concepts I learned in class to the sites I visited,” said alum Jessie Young. “In addition to having this amazing learning experience, my class became like a family away from home. Typically, in the classroom, there isn’t much of a chance to form deep connections due to studying and assignments, but trips like this have this great balance between hands-on learning and developing long-lasting friendships.”

Learn more about the upcoming Medical London course.

Posted 11/04/22

Scholarship Is Game-Changer for Ukrainian Business Student

Maria Minenko sits with the statue of H. Wayne Huizenga.

As Russian forces assaulted her home country of Ukraine earlier this year, Maria Minenko’s dreams of an education at Nova Southeastern University were under fire as well.

With her father’s business struggling, Maria emailed the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship to alert administrators of her financial battle to stay enrolled.

“I was supposed to actually end my studies and take a gap year until further notice,” she said. “Because of the war and since my dad wasn’t able to pay for school now, I told the school that I was leaving.”

But the college would have other plans for the 20-year-old business management major.

A few weeks later, Maria would receive an email that would put her life back on course. She was notified that she had received the college’s Hall of Fame Scholarship and would no longer have to worry about her studies being interrupted.

“I was in shock,” she said. “I had to ask my mom, my sister, and my friends to read the email back to me because I couldn’t believe it was real. I felt like it was a dream or a joke of some sort. Everything turned around when I received the scholarship.”

###

When Maria was a little girl, things were different in Ukraine. Quite different. She was born in Odessa, the third most populous city in the country – a city known as the “pearl of the Black Sea.” Before the war, Odessa was also known for its majesty, relaxing environment, and safety.

Maria and her father

Her family fared well in those times. Her mother, Illona, looked after Maria and her four sisters, while her father, Vitaliy, ran a family business in the hotel and shipping industry. Often Maria tagged along with her father, learning the ins and outs of various sectors of his operations. When not with her father, she turned her attention to the beach, spending time with family, school, studying languages, and acrobatics.

In the summer of 2015, Maria, her mother, and her sister Vilena moved to Miami. There she attended middle school and high school at NSU University School. Hooked on South Florida, Maria applied to college at NSU.

“The experience has been beautiful,” she said. “I love it – everyone is helpful, and I have learned a lot about multiculturalism and business as well as the world of writing.”

Maria and her mother

Maria credits her mother and father for what she sees as a foundation for her future success.

“I have been inspired by my mom to be strong, patient, and intelligent, and inspired by my dad to work hard in business and never give up no matter what obstacles come my way,” she said.

Overcoming obstacles is now a day-to-day mission for Maria’s father. His shipping and hotel businesses have ground to a halt, leaving him with saddled with high costs and no profits. Meanwhile, drones have been raining on the city around him.

Following in her father’s foot steps, Maria has focused her studies on management and entrepreneurship and says she feels that NSU is the right place to unlock her aspirations.

“I would like to focus on business,” she said. “I’m thinking of working in the hospitality industry and doing something similar to what my dad does with hotels and construction, but I’d also like to have a restaurant of my own. That’s the plan for now.”

While counting her blessings, Maria says the war continues to test her family. The last time she visited Ukraine was January, just before the invasion.

Maria and “Granny”

“It’s been a bit crazy because some of our family fled Ukraine when the war started, and thankfully we had some family in nearby countries that helped them escape like my siblings,” she said. “My dad and his business have been affected tremendously, since he’s basically using what money he has to maintain what he has left, and we don’t know what’s coming next.”

In addition to her father, Maria’s grandmother also has chosen to stay behind. Like many of the older Ukrainian residents, her grandmother has defiantly held her ground despite the unrest.

“She insists on staying, but I talk to her every day,” Maria said. “She’s my best friend.”

Despite her grandmother’s stubbornness, Maria says she still has one way to get her to South Florida.

“She’s promised to be my maid of honor at my wedding,” she said with a smile.

Posted 10/23/22

Halmos College Professor Publishes Article in Africana Religions

Amanda Furiasse, Ph.D.

Amanda Furiasse, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities & Politics published “Madagascar’s Green Gold: Nature Religion, Biotechnology, and the Global Race against Covid-19,” in the Journal of Africana Religions Fall 2022 Issue.

The article explores the historical significance of Africana religions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and offers unique insight into the varying ways in which we can harness technology to develop environmentally sustainable healthcare systems.

According to Professor Furiasse, “Writing the article provided me with the opportunity to meet with Malagasy leaders and researchers who are working to build a pluralistic healthcare system that restores the island’s biodiversity. While Madagascar often conjures images of lush forests and ring-tailed lemurs, much of this biodiversity has been lost or is severely threatened. This article explores how Malagasy communities are reimagining healthcare as a mechanism for redressing biodiversity loss and healthcare’s global role in ecological sustainability.”

Posted 10/23/22

USchool Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

We are pleased to announce the 10 seniors who were named 2023 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists and Commended Students!

Semifinalists are among 16,000 of the highest-scoring program entrants, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, who qualified for their exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. They will have an opportunity to continue in the competition to attain finalist standing and qualify for winner recognition as well as National Merit Scholarships.

Commended Students are among 34,000 of the 50,000 PSAT/NMSQT high scorers to receive Letters of Commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise.

Please join us in congratulating the following seniors:

  • Semifinalists: Sarah Guttman and Christian Cassamajor-Paul
  • Commended Students: Rocco Antoniou, Connor Donahue, Alexis Ellman, Bradley Ginsburg, Maya Gurevich, Jordan Margolis, Jonathan Newell, Enoch Wong

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

Posted 10/23/22

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