Slippery Rock 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

Fifteen Slippery Rock University student vocalists will take the Swope Music Hall stage at 6 p.m., Nov. 2 when they compete in the 27th annual Chad Williamson Memorial Vocal Scholarship competition.

Slippery Rock University's Dance Department will host its annual Faculty and Guest Artist concert at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Oct. 20 at Butler County Community College's Succop Theatre. The Faculty and Guest Artist concert is a collaboration of SRU dance and art students, faculty and nationally and internationally known guest artists.

Michael Shimmel, a Slippery Rock University senior political science major from Philipsburg, and Janco Swart, an SRU senior political science major from Oil City, have been selected to participate in the prestigious The Harrisburg Internship Semester program. THIS provides students the opportunity to work in all areas of state government while earning a full semester's worth of credits. Students also receive a $3500 stipend to assist with living expenses while they reside in the Harrisburg area. THIS invites students from each of the State System universities to participate.

Slippery Rock University will look to encourage more than 1,000 attendees to think beyond common environmental protection practices - such as reusable water bottles - and to become agents for change when it hosts the "Beyond Plastic: Can't Reuse it? Refuse it!" Symposium and Product Expo, 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Oct. 24, on the third floor of the Smith Student Center. The event, co-sponsored by SRU's President's Commission on Sustainability and the League of Women Voters, is intended to help students find alternatives to using plastics in daily life as well as empower them with education.

Slippery Rock University Theatre will bring the spirit of revenge to its season-opening production, "Medea in Methland." Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 11-12 and 15-17 and 2 p.m. Oct. 13. All performances are in the University Union Multipurpose Room.

Nicole Dunlop, a Slippery Rock University junior corporate security major and president of the Slippery Rock Student Government Association from Latrobe, was sworn in Oct. 9 as a member of the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. Dunlop is one of three student leaders selected from Pennsylvania's 14 public universities to represent students on the board.

Few people would confuse Shawn Davis for fictional billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, but like the DC Comics fictional superhero, the Slippery Rock University assistant professor of parks, conservation and recreational therapy also spends some his time playing the role of a "Batman." A cofounder of a collaborative called the Climbers for Bat Conservation, Davis is bringing together a unique combination of groups - rock climbers, land managers and bat biologists - in an effort to better understand the furry flying mammals. As part of his efforts, Davis will speak to rock climbers tomorrow, Oct. 5, at Natural Bridge State Resort Park, in Slade, Kentucky, in the first meeting of the CBC east of the Mississippi River.

Nature's restorative effects on the human brain is not a recent discovery. Many college students have cleared their minds by taking a walk outside before returning indoors to write a term paper or study for an exam. However, a collaborative research project at Slippery Rock University is using science to back up a nature-based wellness intervention known as ecotherapy.

When student teachers instruct a class as part of their "college-supervised instructional experience," their professors or other supervisor will visit the host school to observe the instruction and make sure instruction is being delivered effectively. These periodic reviews provide student teachers with valuable feedback. But what about their supervisors? How can they provide better feedback? Those are questions being asked by a faculty-student research team at Slippery Rock University, led by Monique Alexander, assistant professor of elementary education and early childhood. The group is conducting a study titled "Supervision as Inquiry: A Self-Study of Evolving Supervisory Practices."