SPRING 2009 Beaver’s 2008-09 basketball season in superlatives. Amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. History-making. Both the Nittany Lions continued on page 11 and the Lady Lionswon the Penn State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) Championship, the first time a campus has brought home both men’s and women’s trophies in the same year. And both teams made it into the Final Four of the United States Colle- giate Athletic Association (USCAA) Tournament, where the men finished sec- J.
Both the men and women were determined to go the distance this season, and that’s exactly what they did. Y ou can sum up Penn State Beaver’s 2008-09 basketball season in superlatives. Amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. History-making. Both the Nittany Lions and the Lady Lions won the Penn State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) Championship, the first time a campus has brought home both men’s and women’s trophies in the same year. And both teams made it into the Final Four of the United States Colle- giate Athletic Association (USCAA) Tournament, where the men finished sec- ond and the women finished fourth. Especially noteworthy was the fact that this PSUAC Championship was the Lady Lions’ second in as many years. Women’s basketball had been absent from the Beaver campus for decades but came back last year under the leadership campus update Dream teams danieL J. pincHot continued on page 11 SPRING 2009
Transcript
Both the men and women were determined to go the distance this season, and
that’s exactly what they did.
You can sum up Penn StateBeaver’s 2008-09
basketball season insuperlatives.
Amazing. Unbelievable.Incredible. History-making.Both the Nittany Lions
and the Lady Lions won the Penn StateUniversity Athletic Conference(PSUAC) Championship, the first time acampus has brought home both men’sand women’s trophies in the same year.
And both teams made it into theFinal Four of the United States Colle-giate Athletic Association (USCAA)Tournament, where the men finished sec-
ond and the women finished fourth.Especially noteworthy was the fact
that this PSUAC Championship was theLady Lions’ second in as many years.
Women’s basketball had been absentfrom the Beaver campus for decades butcame back last year under the leadership
campus
update
Dream teams
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continued on page 11
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Page 2 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Spring 2009
A Message from Chancellor Keefer
Last fall Penn State Beaver implementeda new strategic plan that is serving as a
guide for the campus through 2013. For aplan to be meaningful, it must be viewed as aliving document that’s used as the primaryblueprint for operations. To that end, ourcampus leadership conducts a semiannual re-view of our plan’s progress.
As we move toward the close of the 2008-2009 academic year, I’d like to share with yousome of the strategic initiatives that havebeen completed.
We’ve developed proposals to offer twonew baccalaureate programs in nursing andadministration of justice. The nursing pro-gram will be offered through a partnershipwith Penn State Shenango and is specificallydesigned for RNs. Our two campuses willwork with a local health care provider on thisprogram. The administration of justice degreewill be a joint offering by Beaver, Shenango,and New Kensington campuses.
Continuing Education has expanded itshealth care portfolio by being approvedthrough the School of Health and HumanDevelopment to offer the Health Care Man-agement Certificate.
To enhance the appreciation of other cul-tures, many of our students, faculty, and staffhave attended a variety of multicultural pro-grams, including a concert by Taikoza, aJapanese drum music group that provided afascinating combination of percussion andmartial arts.
The campus was also privileged to hostMr. John Bul Dau, known as one of the “LostBoys of Sudan” who was featured in a docu-mentary by the same name. The audience wasriveted by his stories of the atrocities he andothers faced during their childhoods in andescape from Sudan.
These and other events on campus arepart of our ongoing initiative to expand ourappreciation of other cultures and ways of lifethat are new to us.
Penn State is becoming a leader in explor-ing and resolving environmental issues, aprocess which included the completion of theGuaranteed Energy Savings Program at
Beaver campus. Through this yearlong initia-tive, lights were upgraded and automaticshutoff switches were added, faucets withtimed shutoffs were placed in restrooms, flowminimizers were placed on other fixtures, andprograms were installed in our computer labswhich automatically turn the units off whenthe labs are closed. These combined effortswill continue to result in significant energysavings for our campus.
This year the pool of scholarship fundsdramatically increased through the generosityof many donors. These scholarships continueto help students in need afford a Penn Stateeducation.
Particularly gratifying to me was the com-mitment of campus employees to establishthe Penn State Beaver Leadership EndowedScholarship which has already gathered morethan $50,000 in gifts and pledges. It’s a pow-erful message to potential donors to note thatmany campus employees have made such asignificant financial commitment to help ourstudents.
The literature tells us that students whoare employed on campus are much morelikely to persist in their studies. With that inmind, we set aside more than $30,000 in ad-ditional funding for student workers this year.Not only does this help our students, but weenjoy the opportunity to interact with them
in our offices. The strategic plan also made a commit-
ment to continue to enhance athletics. Ourteams have been very successful this year,highlighted by both our men’s and women’sbasketball teams winning the Penn StateUniversity Athletic Conference Champi-onship, a first for the conference. As a resultof their conference titles, they both receivedautomatic bids to the United States Colle-giate Athletic Association National Champi-onship Tournament, where the men finishedsecond and the women finished fourth.
Recently I received the Beaver campus re-sults of the 2008 Penn State Faculty/StaffSatisfaction Survey. One of our strategicplan’s main objectives is to promote student-centeredness at the campus, and I don’t be-lieve that’s possible without faculty and staffwho are satisfied and fulfilled in their jobs.
Survey results indicated that our employ-ees have a very strong affinity for Penn State.There were 45 questions on the survey. Ofthose, the positive responses from our facultyand staff exceeded the overall University aver-age for all but seven of the questions, a factthat tells me we have committed, engaged,and happy faculty and staff. I believe thesestrengths are evident to our students andserve as the bedrock for the public’s view ofPenn State Beaver as a strongly student-cen-tered campus.
Those of us at Beaver campus are appre-ciative of the fact that we’ve certainly enjoyeda very positive and productive year. I look for-ward to continuing to share our good newswith you. Your support of what we do for ourcampus and community is extremely impor-tant to us, and with your help, we can lookforward to many productive years ahead.
If ever I can be of assistance to you, pleasecontact me at [email protected]. Best wishes fora safe and happy summer.
Chancellor Gary B. Keefer
Survey results indicated that ... we have committed, engaged, and happy faculty and staff.
I believe these strengths are evident to our students and serve as the bedrock for the
public’s view of Penn State Beaver as a strongly student-centered campus.
Spring 2009 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Page 3
Life is a big picture, and there are puzzle pieces to collect along the way. My life
goal is to collect those pieces so I can step back and see the big picture.“”
He moved away from homewhen he was 14 years
old. At 19, he traveled aroundthe world.
He’s published two books andis on his way to number three.
He now attends Penn State Beaver.Meet Kyung Min Kim. You can call
him Kim.Born in Seoul, Korea, Kim grew up
with his parents and younger sister. With his father being a politician
and his mother running a meat com-pany, he comes from a well-to-do fam-ily. In hopes to challenge himself andgain a better respect for others and theworld around him, Kim decided to en-roll in the International SchoolBangkok.
“I was only 14, and I had to learn tospeak Thai. Of course I was afraid toleave,” Kim said. “People don’t like fear,but fear actually makes you humble. Ichose to cope with my fear and gainconfidence.”
After five years of schooling at ISB,Kim decided to take a year off andtravel the world.
On his own. Visiting countries such as Laos,
Brazil, Paraguay and South Africa, hementally prepared himself to continuehis education.
For his college, Kim searchedamong the top psychology schools inthe country. Enter Penn State Univer-sity.
“I didn’t know that Penn State hadover 20 campuses,” Kim said. “It has a
great psych major program, so I knewit was a good idea to apply.”
Kim was originally accepted toPenn State Erie, but there were nodorm rooms available. Fate?
He was given the option to attendthree other Penn State campuses:Beaver, Greater Allegheny or MontAlto. Beaver was his ultimate choice.
“I knew nothing of each individualcampus,” Kim said. “I had never seenor toured any of them. I chose Beaverbecause it had a cooler name.”
Like any other obvious challenge,Kim’s transition to a completely differ-ent culture left him fearful, yet excited.
Not to mention he needed to learnto speak English. But those aren’t theonly reasons college has been an inter-esting experience for him.
“There is much more freedom
here,” Kim said. “But with more free-dom comes more responsibility. Thiswas the first time I’ve ever had to gofood shopping, or even do my laundry.I didn’t even know how to do laundry!”
Simple chores weren’t the only set-back Kim has faced during his stayhere. In his first semester, various prob-lems with his roommate led Kim tomove. After a night involving a brokenmicrowave, smoke, a blaring fire alarmand the campus police, Kim called itquits, requesting a new roommate forthe spring. Kim was paired with hisnew roommate, sophomore ChrisReasner.
“The past few weeks of living withKim have been interesting,” Reasnersaid. “He spends most of his time
JuStin VoRBacH
Kyung Min Kim was given the option to attend any of three penn State campuses. “i
chose Beaver because it had a cooler name,” he says.
studeNt
pROFILe
all roaDs leaD
to beaver
continued on page 5
Page 4 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Spring 2009
Nine Penn State Beaver stu-dents traveled abroad over
spring break with Dr. Juliette Storr,assistant professor of communications,and Dr. Kay Wijekumar, associateprofessor of information sciences andtechnology (IST).
Storr took five students from herIntercultural Communications class toTrinidad and Tobago, where they spenttime at the University of the West In-dies (UWI) discussing cultural differ-ences with UWI students. UWIProfessor Tia Cooper invited theBeaver campus students to discussAmerican media and its influence onTrinidad and Tobago’s youth and cul-ture. While at UWI Storr delivered aguest lecture on her research about themedia and its evolution in theCaribbean.
One of Storr’s goals was to allowher students, four of whom are white,to experience what it feels like to bepart of a minority in Trinidad and To-bago, where the majority of the popu-lation is black or Indian. “Here, we arethe minority, and it’s noticeable,” saidsophomore Lisa Schnelbach. “It is notsomething that you can tell; you haveto live it yourself.”
The students toured Trinidad, visit-ing historic landmarks and churches,the zoo, the botanical gardens and anewspaper and television station. In
Tobago the students hiked to ArgyleFalls on the edge of the rainforest andsnorkeled on Bocca Reef.
As part of her IST 440W capstonecourse, Wijekumar took four of herstudents to the International Technol-ogy, Education, and DevelopmentConference 2009 in Valencia, Spain,where the students conducted researchand presented their findings on low-fi-delity prototypes.
The research project is part of anongoing initiative in IST to providestudents with experiences abroad,where they learn how to communicate,solve problems, and interact with peo-ple from other cultures and countries.
Wijekumar requires her students tosynthesize the skills they’ve learnedthrough coursework to solve a real-life
problem. This semester’s themes werelocal and international. The localgroup designed, developed, and will in-stall a complete web portal for theFriends of Beaver Creek State Park.The international group worked onpilot testing measurements for diver-sity disposition among local and Ger-man students.
While abroad, the students ex-plored their surroundings by visitingthe old town of Valencia as well as thecoastal beach and the new Aquariumand Science Center. In Barcelona, theysaw the famous sights of the SagradaFamilia, La Rambla, Mountjuc, andthe Olympic Stadiums.
penn State Beaver Roar staff writeralexa Farrell and dr. Wijekumar con-tributed information for this article.
beaver stuDents
abroaD
top left, the aquarium and Science center in Barcelona features a fish-shaped build-
ing.top right, Kay Wijekumar and her iSt students nate campbell, deric Bolland, Jes-
sica d’amico and paul James in Spain. above, Juliette Storr’s students Joe carpenter,
Lisa Schnelbach, Kellie Morrison, alexa Farrell and Joshua Bernhardt with a local stu-
dent in trinidad.
Spring 2009 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Page 5
studying and reading books in the room.”Kim is experienced at adapting to his
surroundings. He has already been ex-posed to enough cultures to rival an inter-national spy. Others haven’t.
“He has strange things in our fridge,like squid and other Korean dishes,” Reas-ner said. “But he also likes to sing a lot. Idon’t really understand what the songs areabout, mostly because they’re in Korean.
“Did I mention he does Tai Kwon Do?It’s pretty cool.”
Kim has always gotten along well withhis instructors, and that hasn’t changed atBeaver. Of his instructors here, Kim men-tioned two in particular, art instructorDavid Todd and philosophy instructorIrene Wolf.
“I’ve never taken an art class before oreven engaged in painting or drawing,”Kim said. “I love Professor Todd’s classand his instruction. We get along verywell.”
Kim works hard at his studies, but hishard work extends far out of the class-room. Having published two poetry booksalready, Kim is setting out to publish histhird book, which is written in prose.
“With this book, I hope to write moreabout human emotions,” Kim said. “Peo-ple become unstable because they can’t ex-press emotion. I want to break that habit.”
Kim expects to have his new bookpublished in Korea by this summer.
Following the two-year Penn Statecampus program, Kim will transfer toUniversity Park in the fall of 2010 to con-tinue his studies toward a psychology de-gree.
“Being a psych major, I want to usethat degree in the future to become a clin-ical psychologist,” Kim said. “I intend towrite books about psychology.”
Kyung Min Kim is a student of PennState Beaver with a unique story to tell.
“Life is a big picture, and there arepuzzle pieces to collect along the way,”Kim said. “My life goal is to collect thosepieces so I can step back and see the bigpicture.”
this article, written by freshman communi-cations major ian Sweeney, originally appearedin the Roar, penn State Beaver’s student news-paper.
The Nittany News is a publication of the Penn State Beaver Office of
Campus and Community Relations. Please direct all inquiries about this
newsletter to 724.773.3815 or [email protected]. This publication is avail-
able in alternative media upon request.
U.Ed. BR 09-09
Amanda Brobeck ’08 Com is alayout editor for the BeaverCounty Times, designing the Tues-day through Saturday editions ofthe Ellwood City Ledger, which isowned by The Times.
Cynthia Hamlin ’95 Bus, a resident ofToronto, Canada, is a fraud investigator, con-sultant, auditor, and financial accountant. Sheserved two terms on the Penn State AlumniCouncil, chaired the group’s Diversity Com-mittee, and led the Metro Washington, D.C.,Chapter of the African American AlumniOrganization for seven years. Hamlin is alsoan alumni volunteer for Penn State Under-graduate Admissions.
Eric Mamajek ’98 Sci is an assistant pro-fessor of physics and astronomy at the Uni-versity of Rochester in New York. In 2008 hemarried Eleonora Canales in Santiago, Chile.
Cheryl Ann Mandia ’93 H&HD is direc-tor of case management at Professional CaseManagement in Denver, Colo.
Brian K. McClelland ’70 Sci is semi-re-tired from teaching and serves as an adjunctinstructor in astronomy and geology at theCollege of Eastern Utah. He is married withtwo daughters and four grandchildren.
Andrew Michael ’08 Com is marketingmanager for Allfon, where he conducts re-search and assists with the design, implemen-tation, and communication of clients’marketing campaigns.
Susan Grau Orochena ’79 A&A is a loanofficer assistant for SunTrust Mortgage inRockville, Md. She lives with her husband
and three sons in Potomac, Md.Heather Papinchak ’07 Ag, Bus
is in the Master’s in Public Healthprogram at the University of Cali-
fornia Berkeley, with a concentrationin environmental public health and an em-
phasis in industrial hygiene. She plans to pur-sue the M.D. /Ph.D. program associated withU.C. Berkeley and U. C. San Francisco withresidency in environmental medicine and oc-cupational health.
Dr. Joseph Polifroni ’78 Lib is principalmember of the research staff, Nokia ResearchCenter Cambridge (US), Boston, Mass.
Jamie V. Silicki ’08 Com is an assistant di-rector of admissions at the Education Man-agement Corporation (EDMC), Pittsburgh.
Roseann M. Simoni ’75 Com is a retailadvertising representative for the BeaverCounty Times. Previous positions at TheTimes included working as a columnist andin the legal/national advertising departmentand library.
David Walker ’03 IST and Lauren (Wil-harm) Walker ’04 Com recently moved fromApalachin, N.Y., to Beaver, Pa. David is asenior systems engineer for Lockheed MartinCorporation. Lauren was a public relationsspecialist for Guthrie Healthcare System inSayre, PA. They’ve been married since 2005.
Dr. Elizabeth (Foley) Zona ’02 Sci is athird-year resident specializing in anesthesiaat UPMC - Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh.Her husband, fellow Beaver alum Chris Zona’03 Bus, is a logistics representative for BayerMaterialScience. They were married in 2005.
aLumNI
update
www.beaver.psu.edu
office of campus and community RelationsRoss administration Building, Suite 201100 university driveMonaca, pa 15061
Page 6 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Spring 2009
I know that the high standards I was held to in the classroom and in athletics at Beaver
led me to develop a strong sense of leadership. “”
It’s hard to believe, but whenyou talk with Michael A.
Mooney ’76 H&HD, he’ll tellyou he was a complete knuckle-head (his word) when he enteredPenn State Beaver.
Today everyone can tell youthat’s not true and that’s not theperson they know as executive vicepresident and chief lending officerof Fidelity Bank, a position he’sheld since 1991 at the $750 millionfinancial institution.
“I say that about myself becauseI came to Penn State Beaver notknowing what I wanted to do,” Mikelaughed. “I didn’t understand what itwould take to be truly successful and Ifelt like I was drifting. I really didn’tknow what college was all about.”
But he learned, and quickly.Upon graduating from
Penn State, Mike decided tobegin a career in bankingand became a managementtrainee at Equibank. He leftthere as an assistant vice presi-dent of community banking to moveto Landmark Savings, where he wasvice president of retail banking for 34branches. From there, he moved intohis current position at Fidelity.
Mike’s mom encouraged him to at-tend Penn State. “She told me I’d get agreat education close to home atBeaver campus,” said Mike, a native ofBellevue. “She was right. My experi-ence at Beaver was outstanding. I hadgreat fun and adventures every day, and
made lifelong friends. The academic aswell as athletic programs were incredi-ble and really shaped who I am today.”
“I knew Penn State was myhome away from home,” Mikesaid. “I felt safe and welcomedand enjoyed tremendous socialopportunities, but also found
the academic side of the house tobe especially demanding.”In his freshman year, Mike played
varsity basketball and also enjoyedplaying intramural sports, includingfootball, softball and basketball. Henoted that intramural sports were verycompetitive during his time at Beaver.
“I was constantly challenged in theclassroom as well as on the playingfields,” he said, “and I welcomed thatbecause I knew that the professors andcoaches were there to ensure that Isucceeded, no matter what ups and
downs came along. That’s a great feel-ing because you know that these peo-ple, these mentors, are as anxious foryou to succeed as you are.”
“I know that the high standards Iwas held to in the classroom and inathletics at Beaver led me to develop astrong sense of leadership,” Mike said.“In addition to establishing a greatrapport with my professors andcoaches, I began to realize that Ishould have confidence in myself andmy work, and that I could do anythingthat I really wanted to do if I workedhard enough.”
Mike fondly remembers Dr. JackCiciarelli ’67 MS, ’71 Ph.D. EMS, re-tired assistant professor of earth andmineral sciences as well as retiredcoaches Eldon Price ’61 H&HD, ’67
beaver experience
breeDs success
aLumNI
pROFILe
catHy BenScoteR
Mike Mooney talks with junior communications major Jennifer Hain after speaking
to prospective students at an admissions event in February.
continued on page 7
Spring 2009 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Page 7
Despite the difficult economic times wecurrently face, I’m happy to report
that Penn State Beaver is pleased with thesuccess we’ve had to date with our develop-ment campaign, For the Future: The Cam-paign for Penn State Students.
Our campaign is still in the “quiet phase,”which means we’re actively discussing thecampaign with donors, alumni, and friends aswell as soliciting and receiving gifts as weseek to make people aware of how greatlytheir financial support is needed to help usreach our goal. In April 2010 the campaignwill go public with a kick-off celebration atPenn State University Park, and Beaver cam-pus will host its own kick-off in May 2010.
I’m proud to announce that so far in this71⁄2-year campaign, Beaver has raised almost$1 million, not an easy feat in these challeng-ing times. The generosity of alumni, donors,and other campus friends will continue tomake our dream for the betterment of ourstudents a reality.
This campaign focuses on our current andfuture students’ needs, including scholarships,global involvement, academic opportunities,and enriching the overall student experience.As part of educating our campus friendsabout the need for financial support, wehosted an informal meeting in April designedto provide information about the campaign ina personal, friendly, one-on-one atmosphere.
I’d like to take a moment to thank just a
few of our donors for the gifts they’ve madeto support Beaver campus students.
l The Penn State Beaver Alumni Societyhas pledged $60,000 to be added to their cur-rent endowed scholarship. Funds from thisfall’s upcoming Society Golf Outing will beused to partially fulfill this pledge.
l The Penn State Beaver campus hascome together to form the Penn State BeaverLeadership Endowed Scholarship, which hasalready gathered more than $52,000 in giftsand pledges through an ongoing faculty/staffappeal.
l Beaver alumnus Scott Noxon made astock transfer gift of $30,000 toward his$50,000 pledge for an endowed scholarship.
l Frank and Carin Batchelor, longtimecampus friends and supporters, made a gift of$25,000 to provide assistance for studentswho want to study abroad.
l Beaver alumnus Carl Bartuch made astock transfer gift of $10,000 for a scholar-ship.
It’s important to note that gifts in anyamount are truly appreciated and gratefullyreceived. Donors and their gifts vary greatly,but every single penny is counted and wel-comed. No matter what the amount, your giftcounts.
Also, please note that when a gift is madeto Beaver, the entire gift amount stays atBeaver. Funds are not sent to Penn State Uni-versity Park or any other arm of the Univer-sity. Your donations stay here to support ourcurrent and future Beaver campus students.
I love meeting old friends and makingnew ones and I’m always happy to talk withyou about the opportunities provided byBeaver campus. If I can be of assistance toyou in any way, please contact me [email protected] or 724-773-3558. I look for-ward to working with you on this excitingcampaign.
With best regards,
Diana L. PattersonDirector of Development
Gifts big and small help studentsDonors and their gifts vary greatly, but every single penny is counted and welcomed. No
matter what the amount, your gift counts.
MEd Edu, who was also the campus athleticdirector, and Jim Karwoski. “The discipline Ilearned from them and the expectations theyhad of me combined to make me want to suc-ceed, to get ahead in every way,” he said.“Their belief in me built my own self-confi-dence and self-esteem. They were determinedto see me succeed, and that increased my de-sire to achieve, to get ahead and to makethem proud of me. They were wonderfulmentors and teachers who helped me set
goals and understand what it takes to getwhat you want out of life.”
Mike’s son, Shane Mooney, is a freshmanat Beaver. “Beaver helped me prepare well forthe real world,” Mike said, “and I know myson will have the same experience. He’s agreat hockey player, which has taught himdiscipline, but I also see increasing signs ofmaturity and responsibility. Those will con-tinue to bloom at Beaver campus and carryhim into his future.”
“I hope he’ll learn the value of independ-ence, as I did at Beaver, and find his place inthe world,” Mike reflected. “He already un-derstands the importance of hard work so I
hope he has some of the same kinds of expe-riences I did at Penn State. If he does, he’llcome to understand that the wisdom of oth-ers often leads you to understand yourselfmuch better than you ever thought you wouldor could.”
Not exactly the thoughts and words of aknucklehead.
Mike, who laughs at his self-description,agrees.
“I’ve come pretty far, I guess,” he said. “Iworked hard and played hard and I still do.It’s a winning combination that can really getyou somewhere in life, especially when PennState’s with you all the way.”
Mooneycontinued FRoM page 6
Page 8 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Spring 2009
Kevin Bennett, instructor in psychology,presented a paper, “Sibling Support in theEvent of an Infidelity: Brother or Sister,” atthe American Psychological Society inChicago.
Dr. Cassandra M. Miller-Butterworth,assistant professor of biology, co-authored“Isolation and characterization of microsatel-lite loci in the Japanese pipistrelle (Pipistrel-lus abramus)” in Conservation Genetics. Shealso co-authored “Isolation and characteriza-tion of microsatellite loci in the long-fingeredbat Miniopterus fuliginosus” in MolecularEcology Resources and “Sequence Variation inthe Primate Dopamine Transporter Gene andIts Relationship to Social Dominance” pub-lished by Oxford University Press on behalfof the Society for Molecular Biology andEvolution.
Dr. John R. Chapin, associate professor ofcommunications, had an article, “Third-Per-son Perception and Racism,” published in theInternational Journal of Communication 2(2008), 100-107. Chapin also co-authored“Optimistic Bias: What You Think, WhatYou Know, or Whom You Know?” for theNorth American Journal of Psychology, 2009,Vol. 11, No. 1, 121-132. In addition, Chapinauthored “Youth Perceptions of their SchoolViolence Risks” which appeared in Adoles-cence, Vol. 43, No. 17, Fall 2008.
Dr. Zhongyuan Che, assistant professor ofmathematics, wrote two articles, “ForcingFaces in Plain Bipartite Graphs” and“Uniquely K-Pairable Graphs,” that werepublished in Discrete Math. She also wrote“Odd-Angulated Graphs and Cancelling aFactor of Box Products” for The Journal ofGraph Theory and gave a presentation on“Uniquely Pairable Graphs” at the AmericanMathematics Society in San Diego.
Dr. JoAnn Chirico, senior instructor insociology, authored a book called ObservableEffects: Meaning in the Global Age, whichwas published by Sage/Pine Forge. She alsopresented a paper, “Seeking Simplicity: Soci-ety, Self, and Globalization,” at the Interna-tional Sociological Association in Barcelona.
Dr. Patrice Clemson, instructor in infor-mation sciences and technology, presented apaper, “Info2Go: Campus Vodcasting,” at the
Annual Conference of the American LibraryAssociation in Anaheim.
Dr. W. Timothy Few, assistant professorof business, presented “Competitor Identifi-cation: Integrating the Categorization, Eco-nomic, and Identity Perspectives” at theAcademy of Management in Anaheim.
Dr. Talha Harcar, associate professor ofbusiness, wrote “Lifestyle Orientation ofRural U.S. and Canadian Consumers: AreRegio-centric Standardized MarketingStrategies Feasible?” for the Asia Pacific Jour-nal of Marketing and Logistics. His work, “For-eign Products Images and EthnocentrismAmong Consumers in Five Latin AmericanCountries: An Analysis of Their Similaritiesand Differences,” was published in the Busi-ness Review, Cambridge.
Dr. Kristen Olson, associate professor ofEnglish, wrote “From Margin to Milieu: TheAuthorship of Le tombeau de Marguerite deValois, Royne de Navarre” which was publishedin a journal, New Ways of Looking at Old Texts:Papers of the Renaissance English Text Society.
Dr. David Paoletti, assistant professor ofcomputer science, received an in-kind gift of$67,635 in software, hardware, and licensesfrom Altera Corporation, San Jose, Califor-nia. The gifts, a Quartus II Design Suite v8.0and an Altera DE2 Development and Educa-tion Board, will be used in computer engi-neering classes. Paoletti also presented apaper, “Inferring the Number of Contributorsto Mixed DNA Profiles,” at the Seventh An-nual Science of DNA Profiling Conference inDayton, Ohio.
Dr. Carol Schafer, associate professor oftheatre, integrative arts and women’s studies,received the Achieving Women Award fromthe Penn State Commission for Women. Theaward recognizes Penn State women whohave shown leadership, supported the Univer-sity’s diversity and equal opportunity efforts,and contributed to human causes and publicservice. Schafer also directed a play, The Fu-neral, by Cory Tamler for the Pittsburgh NewWorks Festival.
Dr. Juliette Storr, assistant professor ofcommunications, wrote an article, “GenderSwitching — Repositioning the Distaff: AHistory of Women in Bahamian Media,” for
the Journal of Caribbean Studies. She alsowrote “Cultural Proximity, Asymmetrical In-terdependence, and a New NWICO: A CaseStudy of Bahamian Television 1977-1997”that was published in the International Com-munications Bulletin.
Dr. Robert Szymczak, associate professorof history, authored “The Vindication ofMemory: The Katyn Case in the West,Poland, and Russia, 1952-2008” in The PolishReview published by The Polish Institute ofArts and Sciences of America. He also gave apresentation, “The Quest to Keep the KatynCase Alive, 1951-1990,” at the 66th AnnualMeeting of the Institute in Philadelphia.
Dr. Kay Wijekumar, associate professor ofinformation sciences and technology (IST),has received a $3 million grant for four yearsfrom the U.S. Department of Education for agrant titled “Efficacy and Replication Re-search on the Intelligent Tutoring System forthe Structure Strategy: Rural and SuburbanSchools Grades 4, 5, 7, and 8.”
Wijekumar will be working with approxi-mately 30 school districts and over 10,000children from 2009 to 2011 to improve read-ing comprehension by using the Web-basedIntelligent Tutor System built at Penn StateBeaver. Former Beaver campus graduatesworking on the project include JamesSpielvogel ’05 IST, Lori Johnson ’04 IST,Kathryn McQuade-Shurmatz ’04 IST andDustin Felix ’03 IST, consultant.
In addition, Wijekumar presented a paper,“Improving Reading Comprehension in Mid-dle School Students Using a Web-based Tu-torial System for the Structure Strategy,” atthe world conference of Educational Multi-media, Hyper Media, and Telecommunica-tions in Vienna, Austria.
Irene Wolf, instructor in philosophy, gavea presentation, “How to Walk in Beauty andLive a Virtuous Life According to Greeks,Navajos, and Buddhists” at the InternationalConference of Arts and Humanities in Hon-olulu.
Courtney L. Young, associate librarianand associate professor of women’s studies,was elected to a three-year term on theAmerican Library Association ExecutiveBoard, effective July 2009.
FacuLty
update A sampling of faculty publications and presentations over the last year
Spring 2009 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Page 9
THE ROAR/ERIC HAMILTON
They’re just starting to shape their identities, and it’s fascinating to have them do this
with another culture that is so stereotypically opposite of western culture.“”
Students are seated at theirdesks sharing gossip and
venting about history homework. A girl is brushing her hair
while another applies more pow-der. Two boys are turned aroundin their seats, laughing.
When the bell rings there is ashift in the room. Hair brushesand Cover Girl compacts are re-placed with pens and notebooks.The two boys face forward at theirdesks. For the next 42 minutes thisis college, not high school.
Kristin Oberg, Penn State Beaverlecturer in English, is standing at thefront of the room, ready to begin herlecture. The students seated before herare juniors and seniors at RiversideHigh School in North Sewick-ley Township. These studentsare enrolled in Oberg’s Eng-lish 15 course. Students en-rolled in the class must takeentry exams and provideteacher recommendations.
“I wanted to take the class to seewhat college would be like,” said 18-year-old senior Chloe Bartell of BeaverFalls.
Oberg said she enjoys teaching theclass because the students want to bethere. “I’m glad I took it. It’s a lot ofwork but I think the experience isworth it,” Bartell said.
Unlike the classes Oberg teacheson campus, the Riverside classes aremore culturally diverse, and not be-
cause of the enrolled students. Re-cently Oberg has added a twistto her syllabus.
Students enrolled in theRiverside courses are required
to post comments and discuss lit-erature on a virtual forum with stu-
dents from another school. Theforum’s content is a combination ofposts from students at Riverside HighSchool and Kuwait University.
Oberg has partnered with Dr.Hanan Muzaffar, an English languageand literature instructor at KuwaitUniversity.
Muzaffar and Oberg met at Indi-ana University of Pennsylvania whilethey were graduate students. The twohave remained friends since their time
at IUP. “We have very similar interests in
literature,” Oberg said about herselfand Muzaffar. “I thought it would begreat if we could somehow work to-gether, and this just fit.”
Muzaffar was already using a forumwhen Oberg approached her with theidea of bringing their classes together.
The theme of Oberg’s English 15class is identity. “They’re just startingto shape their identities, and it’s fasci-nating to have them do this with an-other culture that is so stereotypicallyopposite of western culture,” Obergsaid.
Students are required to make six
the kuwait
connection
FacuLty
pROFILe
continued on page 10
Kristin oberg, left, created a virtual discussion forum that connects her english stu-
dents with the class of Hanan Muzaffar, an english professor at Kuwait university, who
is shown with her children.
Page 10 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Spring 2009
posts to the forum throughout the semester.Students can post new comments and re-spond to posts made by other students.
Oberg said her students were pleasantlysurprised that the students from Kuwait hadsimilar ideas to their own.
“They expected bold commentary, andthat’s not what they got.”
“It’s really neat,” said 18-year-old seniorVeronica Umstott of Beaver Falls. “It’s cool to
see how they view the same piece of literaturethat we’re reading.”
“I think it’s really cool. It’s fun to talk tokids from another country,” Bartell said.
While most students have already postedseveral comments, Oberg has found thatsome are less eager than others.
“I haven’t used it yet,” said 18-year-oldJonathon McElwain of New Brighton. “It’snot that I don’t want to. I’m just lazy.”
Oberg is confident that the students arelearning about themselves through this expe-rience. Riverside High School Englishteacher Charlotte Householder agrees that
the forum is a great learning tool. “I think it’s fantastic,” said Householder.
“It’s promoting literature and the use of tech-nology. It’s totally 21st century,” she said.
Oberg has no definite plans to implementan international forum in any of her PennState Beaver classes, but she’s open to usingmore international contacts in the future.
“It’s fun to go down an unexplored av-enue,” Oberg said. “This is just the tip of theiceberg.”
this article, written by angela adams ’08 com,originally appeared in the Roar, penn State Beaver’sstudent newspaper.
Obergcontinued FRoM page 9
Penn State Beaver re-cently hired new staffmembers to fill va-cated positions.
Emily Cicconi ’05Sci was hired as amulti-campus career serv-ices specialist with an office atBeaver campus, but also willwork with Penn State Shenango,Greater Allegheny, New Kens-ington and Fayette campuses.
Previously she was a univer-sity events coordinator atCarnegie Mellon University andan assistant director of careerservices at Penn State Altoona.She is a member of the AmericanCollege Personnel Association.
Cicconi holds a master’s de-gree in student affairs in highereducation from Indiana Univer-sity of Pennsylvania and a bache-lor’s degree in chemistry fromPenn State, where she attendedthe University Park and DuBoiscampuses.
Anthony Budris ’03 Lib, ’04MEd and Jennifer Sharp were
hired as police service offi-cers.
Prior to his arrival atBeaver, Budris was apolice services officer at
Penn State Mont Alto, aresponse team member for
Securitas Security Services, Ship-pingport, and a security officerfor Allied Security, Pittsburgh.
A graduate of the IUP PoliceAcademy, he holds a master’s de-gree in education in teaching andcurriculum and a bachelor’s de-gree in history from Penn State.
Sharp, who was previouslyemployed as a part-time policeservices officer at Beaver campus,was also a police officer for theGrove City Police Department, aLawrence County corrections of-ficer, and a representative forKeefe Commissary Network inthe Lawrence County Jail.
She is a graduate of the IUPPolice Academy and holds abachelor’s degree in criminologyand an associate’s degree in soci-ology from IUP.
EMILY CICCONI
ANTHONY BUDRIS
JENNIFER SHARP
staFF
update
name ________________________________
address ______________________________
city______________ State ____ Zip _______
phone ________________________________
email _________________________________
employer ______________________________
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years at Beaver campus ___________________
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aLumNI
update
of Head Coach Bert DeSalvo who took theteam to the top in theirfirst season.
In addition, theLions’ Head CoachMarcess Williams wasnamed PSUAC Coach ofthe Year and junior ZacFetchin and sophomoreHeather Sandusky werenamed PSUAC Playersof the Year.
Fetchin was alsonamed PSUACAll-Conferenceand, for the secondconsecutive year,was named USCAAAll-American.
Sandusky was named PSUACAll-Conference and USCAAHonorable Mention All-Ameri-can.
“I would never have guessedthat both of our teams would winthis year’s PSUAC trophy and thenadvance to and finish so well in theUSCAA,” said Athletic DirectorAndy Kirschner. “Both teams hada core of upperclassmen to lean on,and they also had added depthwith some very talented freshmen.Bert, Marcess and these studentsworked as hard as any group ofathletes and coaches I’ve everseen.”
The men won their PSUACchampionship when they defeatedPenn State Dubois, 80-69, andPenn State Hazleton, 86-70, at theBryce Jordan Center at Penn StateUniversity Park.
A week later, they headed toPenn State Fayette for the USCAATournament as the No. 2 seed. Inthe quarter finals, Beaver domi-nated Central Maine CommunityCollege, 85-76, and easily handledthe University of Cincinnati-Cler-mont, 74-55, in the semifinals.
In the championship game theyfaced off against defending na-
tional champion WilliamsonTrade School of Media, Pa.
After trailing for muchof the game, Beaver closedthe gap to one point with a
little over a minute left. Butthat’s as close as they got as they
were forced to foul, andWilliamson converted on many oftheir free throws to win theUSCAA Division II Champi-onship, 59-50.
“Any team would be disap-pointed. We came up short,” CoachWilliams said. “But we had a greatseason with great leadership and alot of talent.”
“Coming into this season, no-body expected us to do what wedid,” freshman Tony Houghtonsaid. “We were doubted to thefullest extent, but we did it.”
The Lady Lions won their sec-ond PSUAC Championship whenthey easily defeated Penn StateBrandywine, 91-63, and Penn StateSchuylkill, 75-58, at the Bryce Jor-dan Center.
“I felt like I was part of a dy-nasty,” sophomore Tasia McCargosaid.
A week later, the women en-tered the USCAA Tournament atPenn State Fayette as the No. 6seed. They defeated Central MaineCommunity College, 79-53, butfaced a tougher opponent in theNewport Apprentice School. Thegame went back and forththroughout, but the Lady Lionsmoved the ball the length of the
floor with under four seconds leftand won 59-58 with a 30-foot, 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The women’s luck ran out whenthey lost in their third tournamentmatchup against Spalding Univer-sity, 63-41.
“Spalding is a great team. Theyended up winning it all,” CoachDeSalvo said. The women lost theconsolation game to the Universityof Cincinnati-Clermont, 68-53.
“We finished higher than wewere seeded, and that’s an accom-plishment,” DeSalvo said.
Houghton was named USCAAAll-American and PSUAC AllConference Team. McCargo re-ceived Honorable MentionPSUAC All-Conference. Sopho-more Jasmine Green was namedPSUAC All-Conference andUSCAA Honorable Mention All-American. Senior MatthewFranitti was named HonorableMention PSUAC All-Conference.
“It was great seeing both teamsenjoy a special year together,”Kirschner said. “Even though thewomen had a great year last year, Ithink it was more exciting for bothteams this time around becausethey were able to enjoy theirachievements together. Both themen and women were determinedto go the distance this season, andthat’s exactly what they did.”
penn State Beaver Roar staffwritersBrian Krobot, Josh Lemesh and teresaFullwood contributed to this report.
Nasser A. Shahinhas been named headcoach of the Penn StateBeaver Nittany Lionsmen’s soccer team.
Previously Shahinwas the head soccercoach at South SideBeaver High School andwas also head coach forthe Olympic Develop-ment Program, where hetrained and promotedplayers to the UnitedStates Olympic Teamprogram for regionalcompetition.
In addition, he wasthe North United Clas-sic soccer coach, wherehe worked on technicalskills with teams. In2002 he was named thePennsylvania West Soc-cer Association BoysClassic Coach of theYear.
Shahin played pro-fessional soccer for theEl-Tersana NationalClub soccer team inEgypt.
He is currently en-rolled in a master’s de-gree program in sportsand leadership andholds graduate and spe-cial diplomas in educa-tion from Ain ShamsUniversity, Cairo, Egypt.Shahin holds a bache-lor’s degree in educationfrom Assiut University,Assiut, Egypt.
New soccercoach hired
Nasser Shahin
Spring 2009 Penn State Beaver Nittany News Page 11
TeamsFRoM page 1
mORe game
pIcs ON 12
eVan M. pincHot
tony Houghton soars for a layup during the second half of the pSuac
championship game against penn State Hazleton.
office of campus and community RelationsRoss administration Building, Suite 201
