Slippery Rock University

For the last 17 years, the Slippery Rock University Jazz Festival has brought some of the world's most acclaimed jazz musicians to campus. This year's event will continue the tradition, said Jason Kush, SRU associate professor of music and festival director.

Author Marcus Garvey once wrote, "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." In an effort to keep faculty, staff and students "rooted" to the institution's rich stories, Slippery Rock University Archives at the Bailey Library is teaming up with The Rocket, the independent student-run newspaper, to bring The Rock's history to light.

A team of 10 Slippery Rock University students will join nearly 150 students and administrators from the 14 universities that comprise Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education to visit the state Capitol April 9-10.

Typically, Slippery Rock University students in the Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communication Capstone course pitch marketing campaigns to local clients to help them drive sales. This year, however, two SRU groups developed campaigns to improve public services, and for one student, that meant pitching ideas to the same people who seven months earlier were risking their lives to save his family's home.

The Slippery Rock University council of trustees said goodbye to one of their own while celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of a variety of students today at their quarterly business meeting. The council bid farewell and commended Jairus Moore, a senior from Rochester and council secretary, who will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in safety management and a master's degree in criminology for his service on the council.

Taking a cue from the award celebrations in Hollywood, Slippery Rock University will roll out a red carpet for local "celebrities" when the 7th Annual Nonprofit Organization Academy Awards Dinner and Gala takes place at 6:30 p.m., April 24. The event, which takes place at the Russell Wright Alumni House will be hosted by the Student Nonprofit Alliance at SRU.

Nearly 100 research projects, art exhibits and live performances will be presented at Slippery Rock University's annual Symposium for Student Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., April 18 in the Smith Student Center. The event will showcase the very best student-faculty scholarly work SRU has to offer across all disciplines.

lippery Rock University will bestow President's Awards for Civic Engagement upon three individuals who promote civic engagement through their leadership and innovative practices. More than 15 nominees were received by the SRU's Office for Community-Engaged Learning, which recruited an independent committee of students, faculty and staff to review and select winners in three categories: President's Student Civic Leadership Award, President's Civic Engagement Ambassador Award and the President's Community Partner Award.

Throughout the academic year, hundreds of students filter through Slippery Rock University's Office of Career Education and Development looking for help in answering the age-old question: "What am I going to do after graduation?" For Angella Dipasquale, a sophomore dual fine arts and English writing major from Valencia, the answer is simple: keep on doing what she's doing. As the co-founder and co-CEO of Angella Di-Signs, a specialty apparel company that deals in uniquely designed canvas sneakers, hats and outerwear, Dipasquale has found what she believes to be her calling.

Whether they are attempting to discover a more effective procedure to diagnose depression or coming up with better ways to predict how petroleum will react under varying conditions, Slippery Rock University students are diving deep into research. Now, they get to share it. Eleven research projects authored by SRU students were selected for presentation at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, April 11-13 at Kennesaw State University. The 11 SRU students will be among more than 4,000 students at the NCUR, making the event the largest undergraduate research conference in the country.

Technology is rapidly changing the way teachers engage their students in the classroom, so before Slippery Rock University education students enter their field experience as student-teachers, they are oriented to existing practices and new technology they could encounter.

Michael Lugowski and Matthew Lugowski not only followed the same path in becoming students at Slippery Rock University, but they also entered into the Army National Guard and SRU's Army ROTC program together.

Slippery Rock University Theatre will bring Noel Coward's ghostly comedy, "Blithe Spirit," back to life through a variety of performances in the University Union's Multipurpose Room. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m., March 1-3 and 5-7; and 2 p.m., March 3.

What would Slippery Rock University look like if it were to become a more racially diverse community? That was a question asked at a recent event co-sponsored by the President's Commission for Race and Ethnic Diversity, an advocacy group that's looking to further develop its vision for diversity and inclusion for the University. Questions drive conversations - to ultimately arrive at answers - so having those thoughtful conversations is what the PCRED is putting an emphasis on, said Commission leaders.

A Slippery Rock University senior secondary education major from New Castle is the host of the Dirty History Podcast, a weekly podcast that covers historical topics that are more often than not overlooked by educators and academics alike, not because they are unimportant, but because they are, according to the show's description, "unpleasant, feminine, vulgar, unreasonably violent, shamelessly sexual or otherwise beneath standards of taste."

Anyone who's been to the Storm Harbor Equestrian Center at Slippery Rock University can see the benefits horseback riding has for children and young adults on the autism spectrum. Until recently, the evidence was based on the smiles on their faces, improved moods and other immeasurable indicators of reduced stress. But a recent study by a research team at SRU is helping assign empirical evidence to the value of therapeutic riding and equine-assisted activities.

When John Rindy became director of career education and development at Slippery Rock University seven years ago, he estimates that his office saw about 150 students per semester for services such as resume reviews. Charged with increasing visibility and value, Rindy and his staff have increased their interactions more than tenfold. They scheduled more than 1,900 student appointments in the 2018 fall semester.

When animal-assisted intervention students at Slippery Rock University were told there would be a surprise in a class last week, they figured a professional therapist would be bringing in a four-legged assistant. After all, it's common to see a real-life Lab -- that is, a Labrador retriever -- in the recreational therapy lab. Instead, students were introduced to a therapeutic robot made to resemble a baby harp seal and interact with patients as an alternative to animal therapy.

Slippery Rock University's partnership with the Butler VA Health Care System to grow stronger thanks to a new Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership initiative. Through VITAL, Butler VA representatives will make regular campus visits to better serve student-veterans and refer them to VA services.

Slippery Rock University honored the success of its Panhellenic fraternities and sororities in the areas of leadership and philanthropy at its second annual Celebration of Excellence in Fraternity and Sorority Life Award Ceremony Feb. 5 at the Smith Student Center.

Twelve Nobel Prize winners worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Sixteen elements on the periodic table were discovered there. The lab was the birthplace of more than 600 isotope discoveries, more than any other lab in the world. Now, it can count three Slippery Rock University students among its researchers. The trio is helping scientists from around the world discover better ways to use supercomputers.

Her Rock education is taking a Slippery Rock University graduate student a long way at the Little Rock Zoo. She was recently promoted to a curator position after completing an internship working alongside the zoo's director. Hannah Baker, an online graduate student majoring in environmental education from Maumelle, Arkansas, began her internship at the 33-acre zoo last May, adding education to her regular duties as the zoo's senior keeper of education animals.

The walk to work or class is typically a time when many people put in their earbuds, stare at their shoes or smartphones and block out the world. But a recent encounter at a Pittsburgh bus stop by a Slippery Rock University student provided an important reminder: always be aware of your surroundings. And, be ready to lend a helping hand if needed. Intervention by Antoine Stribling, a sophomore secondary education major from Pittsburgh, prevented a potential kidnapping Dec. 21, 2018, in Pittsburgh.

When Ryan McClaren was pulled out of the passenger side of an inverted Nissan 370Z on a back road near Kent, Ohio, last May, he was unconscious and covered in gasoline with multiple injuries that included a lacerated spleen. Lucky to survive, McClaren would have his medical charts pulled up by countless health care professionals in the following weeks, so it would seem far-fetched in the following months for his name to appear on class rosters at Slippery Rock University, let alone the deans' list.

An idyllic image of college life often includes images of students sitting cross-legged underneath a large canopied tree reading their textbooks, cheering on sports teams or tossing a Frisbee back and forth. At Slippery Rock University, those activities are commonplace. Frisbee, and iterations that spawned sports like disc golf and Ultimate Frisbee, is part of the culture at SRU. The University hosted the Professional Disc Golf Association world championships in 2015 on a course that snakes through campus and is still used as the site of a PDGA-sanctioned tournament each May. Ultimate Frisbee, once an intramural sport at SRU, is beginning to take flight once again with the creation of a club team last year.

January is Music Therapy Advocacy Month, which strikes a chord, literally, with students and faculty in the music therapy program at Slippery Rock University, as well as the 100 clients per week who benefit from services offered at the Sue Shuttleworth Music Therapy Clinic in SRU's Swope Music Hall.

Slippery Rock University's Dance Theatre will present "RISE," a showcase of original choreography by SRU dance majors, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., Feb. 2 at Butler County Community College's Succop Theater.

Slippery Rock University has announced its dean's list for the fall 2018 semester. The dean's list consists of SRU undergraduate students who earned an adjusted semester grade-point average of 3.5 or higher, based on a schedule of at least 12 newly attempted and earned credits.

The Rocket, the independent, student-run newspaper at Slippery Rock University, has earned seven awards in the 2018 Gold Circle Awards for outstanding collegiate journalism. The Columbia Scholastic Press Association sponsored the competition.

The holidays are often a time for people to gather around a table, share a meal and nourish a sense of community. This semester, students at Slippery Rock University learned just how important food is to overcoming economic and social barriers. For the first time in recent memory, an entire class of SRU students attended the monthly Community Dinners that are hosted by area churches and members of local service clubs at Center Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock.