Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

While most students are "buzzing" about campus preparing for midterms, a group of Slippery Rock University theatre majors can be found rehearsing for their production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" with performances at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 28-29 and March 3-5 and a 2 p.m., March 1 matinee.

Two Slippery Rock University students will put their lessons in civil discourse into practice this week as they prepare to debate counterparts from the Japanese National Debate Team at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 27 in the Vincent Science Center Auditorium.

As Sydney Kresconko reads aloud from the pages of children's books while leading "Story Time" at the Slippery Rock Community Library, none of the children know that she recently turned the page on a scary conflict in her own life: overcoming State 4 lymphoma. Now cancer-free, Kresconko is interning at the SRCL as she prepares to be a child life specialist.

A team of Slippery Rock University students are working with a software engineer to secure robot operating systems in response to companies that are rushing to stay ahead of the demand for products that use artificial intelligence.

Fifteen Slippery Rock University Flute Studio students will be taking stage with a group of junior and senior high school students when the SRU Music Department host the 6th Annual Honors Flute Ensemble concert, 7 p.m., Feb. 23 at Swope Music Hall.

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- "Growth Through the Years" is a fitting theme for the 2020 Slippery Rock University Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Mini-Convention. The SRUAHPERD Mini-Convention, a professional development conference for health and physical education teachers, will celebrate the event's 50th anniversary, March 25 at Morrow Field House.

Slippery Rock University dance student Olivia Barner studied the dance technique of improvisation after receiving a grant to attend the Creative Process Research Winter Intensive, Jan. 6-10, at New Dialect, a professional contemporary dance company in Nashville, Tennessee.

While most students used winter break as an opportunity to relax and recharge, a group of Slippery Rock University dancers were on the move with a variety of rehearsals in preparation for the SRU Winter Showcase, "State of Being." Performances are at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Feb. 9 at Butler County Community College's Succop Theater.

Danielle Blide has the opportunity to continue giving back to the community as one of five freshmen in the Bonner Leader Program at Slippery Rock University. Bonner students receive a scholarship and are paid to lead a community-service partnership for the University.

A group of Slippery Rock University students had an eye-opening experience in Costa Rica learning about the Central American country's social and environmental issues and taking in its picturesque beauty. Seventeen SRU students traveled to Costa Rica, Jan. 2-12, as part of the Leadership Abroad program led by the Office of Student Engagement and Leadership.

A faculty-student research team at Slippery Rock University are conducted a study to see how the use of weighted blankets affects the anxiety levels of college students. Weighted blankets have gained popularity as an alternative to medicine for treating anxiety and for people seeking a restful night's sleep.

January is National Mentoring Month, providing an opportunity to recognize Slippery Rock University students like Carol Weber who serve as peer mentors in the Emerging Leadership Experience program.

College classes aren't all fun and games. But some of them can be. At Slippery Rock University, faculty and students are putting a lot of thought into a role-playing game as a way to help students learn. Aksel Casson, assistant professor of anthropology, is leading a project that has students developing a role-playing game called Meet the Neanderthals for anthropology and archeology classes. Casson and his students began developing the game after Casson studied active learning pedagogies alongside SRU history professors last year, some of whom are creating role-playing games based on a concept called Reacting to the Past.

Slippery Rock University has announced its dean's list for the fall 2019 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.

Unstable. That's one way to describe the first years of Melissa Lopez's life. Born in Troy, Michigan, to Mexican immigrants, Lopez was barely old enough to remember the day her father was deported, but she does. It was her mother's birthday. Fearing further family separation, the family moved several times seeking refuge and a reliable income. To hear her describe that part of her life now seems a contradiction to the stable environment she's found at Slippery Rock University. She's not one to complain. In fact, Lopez looks at her past more as a guide to help others rather something that happened to her.

Usually, the only places one can access old yearbooks are from a library or, for alumni, by rummaging through storage bins in the attic or at a flea market. That will soon change at Slippery Rock University. Bailey Library is scheduled to digitize the entire collection of the Saxigena, SRU's former yearbook, and make them available online by the end of the spring 2020 semester.

When walking through downtown Pittsburgh, most people are accustomed to the sounds of roaring crowds emanating from PNC Park or Heinz Field, the hissing of the Point State Park Fountain and generations of Pittsburghese. However, if one were to take stroll near the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh on select Saturday mornings, they would hear music being made by Slippery Rock University students and faculty as part of the museum's "Music Maker" sessions. The program, introduced in the fall, seeks to enrich the lives of children, and provide developmental support for them, through music.

As a U.S. Army veteran, Devin Kays knows about honoring a commitment. Having already completed his service in honor of his country, he's now honoring a promise he made to his family by graduating from Slippery Rock University. Kays, a senior safety management major from Grove City, is unlike most of the 525 students receiving degrees at SRU's winter commencement ceremony, 11 a.m., Dec. 14, in the Morrow Field House. Kays, who is already employed and not seeking a new career, will receive his bachelor's degree to keep a promise he made when his sister, Megan Kays, passed away nearly seven years ago.

Slippery Rock University's Elf Project is an annual service project that provides holidays gifts for Butler County families in need through a partnership between SRU's Office of Community-Engaged Learning and the Butler Salvation Army.

Slippery Rock University' Martha Gault Art Gallery will host a trio of senior capstone exhibitions Dec. 2-12 as part of Art Department's biannual Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition. An opening reception for the artists is from 6-8 p.m., Dec. 2. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the community.

Senior cadets from Slippery Rock University's Army ROTC program recently received their branch assignments, including Logan Thrush, who was ranked fourth in the nation on the Army's Order of Merit List, which is used to determine the cadets' order of preference.

Select dance majors and minors at Slippery Rock University will take the stage to perform original dances at the Dec. 7 Fall Dance Concert in Swope Music Hall. There will be two performances at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The performance is under the artistic direction of Ursula Payne, professor of dance and chair of SRU's Department of Dance. Jennifer Keller, professor of dance, is the production coordinator.

A class project for three Slippery Rock University students resulted in an unlikely connection between two groups of disadvantaged people, giving a sense of purpose for older adults confined in a home to care for people who don't have a home.

The popularity of esports, multiplayer video games played competitively, is not only at an all-time high in terms of participation in and viewership of professional leagues, but in the proliferation of college-sponsored varsity and club teams. At Slippery Rock University, there's a professor presenting research about esports, administrators monitoring their growth, at least one recent alumnus working in the industry and, of course, students playing esports -- a lot of them.

Slippery Rock University Theatre will be stepping back in time, to the early '60s specifically, with its final fall semester production of "Dogfight." Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 20-23 and 2 p.m., Nov. 24. All performances are in the University Union Multipurpose Room.

When more than 220 Slippery Rock University students sang happy birthday to Cassie Bruno the week of her 14th birthday, it wasn't a celebratory party that brought the group together. Rather, the contingent of future health care professionals had gathered to listen to Bruno's mother, Jennifer, share her daughter's story and answer questions about their lives. The students were using the occasion, an Interdisciplinary Case Presentation hosted by the SRU Interprofessional Education Committee, to learn how best to work together across multiple disciplines to provide better care for patients, especially those like Cassie with unique needs.

A body of research dating back nearly three decades shows that self-esteem issues for children, especially for girls, surface when they are in elementary school. Four Slippery Rock University students are doing something to set local girls in the community on the right path -- and by doing so, are paving a way for their own careers in health professions.

It's common for college students to hear a lecture from a professional in the legal system or tour a correctional facility as part of a criminal justice class. But students at Slippery Rock University are taking that real-world approach a step further: they're meeting with inmates. Led by Yvonne Eaton-Stull, assistant professor of public health and social work, three groups of students from her Forensic Social Work course are partnering with psychologists from the State Correctional Institution in Mercer for a unique participatory learning experience. Both students and inmates meet in the prison for a project that organizers have dubbed "Learning Dialogues."

Slippery Rock University was represented both on the field and off at last week's World Series. In the dugout of the champion Washington Nationals was former SRU student-athlete Matt Adams; in the Nationals Team Shop was current SRU student Hunter Malseed, a sophomore sport management major from Harrisburg. Malseed worked Games 3, 4 and 5, Oct. 25-27, in the Washington Nationals Team Shop during Major League Baseball's marquee event.

Slippery Rock University will celebrate its annual Military Appreciation Week, Nov. 11-15. The week will begin with the SRU Veteran's Center hosting a Veterans Breakfast, 9 a.m., Nov. 11 in the Smith Student Ballroom. At 11 a.m., the Office of Alumni Engagement will host a Veterans Day Ceremony at the Russell Wright Alumni House. Both events are free and open to the public.