Slippery Rock University

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 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.

A pair of global service-learning programs organized through Slippery Rock University's Office of Community-Engaged Learning will provide SRU students, faculty and staff a transformative experience that will outshine the Caribbean sun. A group of nine people representing SRU will travel to Jamaica, Jan. 3-13, while a second group of eight will visit Puerto Rico, Jan. 3-17, to conduct service projects, connect with natives to understand the issues they face and inspire civic action.

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.

Administration, coaching, communications, community relations, IT. The list goes on and on. There are almost as many areas of focus in a professional sports team's operations as there are teams themselves. And while Jenna Plutyk has already interned with the New York Yankees and will be doing a second internship next semester with the Charlotte Hornets, her internship focus has always been in the areas of marketing and sales. The Slippery Rock University senior sport management major from Saxonburg has yet to find herself involved with "game day" operations. However, after taking part in SRU's Sport Facility and Event Management class, Plutyk feels as though she's already got major league experience. What sets the class apart from others is how SRU students interact with alumni, businesses and organizations to offer tangible outcomes, like a facility risk assessment or hosting a golf outing.

Adrianna Bielby has wanted to go to Spain since she first took a Spanish class as a freshman in high school. Thanks to a faculty-led program at Slippery Rock University, Bielby and 20 other SRU students will have the opportunity to travel to Spain and teach schoolchildren while in country. Bielby, a senior early childhood-special education major from Monaca, would not typically have the opportunity to travel overseas during her final year at SRU because most faculty-led international programs are offered during spring break when many senior education majors are completing their student-teaching requirements. However, Sara Tours, assistant professor of elementary education and early childhood, recognized an interest for a winter break program and organized a trip to Barcelona and Valencia, Spain, Jan. 3-15, 2019.

When Slippery Rock University students travel abroad, they get the opportunity to meet all kinds of people, explore new places and sometimes help to make the lives of those they encounter a little better. Organizers expect that to be the case Jan. 12-20 when a group of SRU students joins with their counterparts from Harvard University for a medical mission to Peru. There, the group will work with local health care professionals to provide medical assistance to Peruvian residents in remote communities at mobile clinics.

All U.S. Army ROTC cadets studying at colleges and universities across the country, regardless of the size of their institution, are ranked among their class based on criteria such as grade-point average, physical training scores and serving in leadership positions. Slippery Rock University had two cadets ranked in the top 10 percent and an additional two cadets ranked in the top 20 percent this year out of more than 5,000 senior cadets nationwide, earning them National Distinguished Military Graduate recognition.

A group from Slippery Rock University is looking to remove and replace Cleveland Select pear trees along Main Street in Slippery Rock that have been affected by fire blight, a contagious pathogen that has rendered the trees' leaves brown and withered.

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -Slippery Rock University Theatre will bring Charles Dickens' classic holiday story, "A Christmas Carol" to life at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 30-Dec. 1 and Dec. 3-6. A 2 p.m. matinee is slated for Dec. 2. All performances are in the University Union Multipurpose Room. The production, adapted by David Skeele, SRU professor of theatre, will be a 70-minute, no intermission performance.

The Student Union for Multicultural Affairs, a student organization at Slippery Rock University, will host its eighth annual "Red Ribbon Monologues" at 6 p.m., Dec. 3 in the Smith Student Center Ballroom to help raise continued awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

When cadets in Slippery Rock University's Army ROTC program received an email from their cadre, Pauline Matthew waited anxiously to open hers. The email revealed the names of cadets selected for the U.S. Army Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency program, a highly sought-after assignment where cadets spend a month during summer studying abroad and learning from foreign military units.

Some issues related to cybersecurity can be resolved by updating or protecting a computer user's password, but others are more complex and affect a variety of touchpoints that often go unnoticed. An event at Slippery Rock University will bring to light a variety of cybersecurity issues as students from multiple disciplines will collaborate through debate, case-study presentations and live software demonstrations. Organized by SRU's Center for Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing, the cybersecurity event will take place 12:30-2 p.m., Dec. 4 at Spotts World Culture Building, Room 111.

Hosting one postseason sporting event is no easy task, with the competitors and the weather not known until a few days before it starts. Imagine the challenge of hosting six championships in one day. So, when SportsPITTSBURGH put in a bid to host the NCAA Division II Fall Championships Festival, officials from the sports division of Allegheny County's tourism promotion agency sought out a capable partner in Slippery Rock University to help win the bid and make the festival a success. Although all the sporting events will take place 50 miles south of campus in Pittsburgh, SRU is serving as the co-host institution for the festival, which will include six championships, Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

Emphasizing the person, not the disability, is one of the many topics being addressed by the Slippery Rock University President's Commission on Disability Issues. This includes the use of person-first language, such as saying the name of the student who has a disability and not referring to him or her as "that handicapped student."

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - When cadets in Slippery Rock University's Army ROTC program received an email from their cadre, Pauline Matthew waited anxiously to open hers. The email revealed the names of cadets selected for the U.S. Army Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency program, a highly sought-after assignment where cadets spend a month during summer studying abroad and learning from foreign military units.

Domestic terrorism, hate crimes and homegrown violent extremism are becoming more prevalent in America. A group of students in Slippery Rock University's Homeland/Corporate Security Studies Department is partnering with the FBI field office in Pittsburgh to enhance community awareness of potential behavioral indicators exhibited by violent extremists. They'll also look at some basic prevention and intervention strategies which family members, co-workers, peers and others can employ in an effort to prevent radical behavior before it occurs.

While the 17-day celebration of the University and the inauguration of President William Behre could be categorized as an extravaganza, an actual one is part of the planned festivities. The Planetarium Extravaganza, 4-5:30 p.m., Nov. 14 in the Vincent Science Center, will feature montages with wildlife, underwater and abstract visualizations, as well as a half-hour educational program about the mystery of dark matter in outer space. The event, cosponsored by Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, is free and open to the public.

Slippery Rock University's marching band, The Marching Pride, is ratcheting up preparations and fundraising to take part in the 2019 St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin, Ireland. The band was invited to make the March 14-21 trip by Brendan Carr, Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Two military veterans with strong ties to Slippery Rock University will serve as keynote speakers at SRU's Military Appreciation Week Veteran's Center sponsored breakfast and the annual Alumni Association sponsored Veterans Day Ceremony.

When a parent goes to prison, they are not the only person serving a sentence. So are their children, who have to cope with the stigma, separation and not having a personal connection with their parent. A program at Slippery Rock University called "Read to Me" is hoping to change that equation by uniting children with their incarcerated parent through video and the power of literacy and storytelling.

Among the activities planned for Slippery Rock University's celebration of the Nov. 9 inauguration of President William J. Behre are two processions, one with a bark and another with a bang. The Slippery Rock Student Government Association will kick off the 17-day celebration of SRU's 17th president by hosting "Paws for a Cause," which will include a Presidential Pet Parade, Nov. 1.

Reclined in a seat inside Slippery Rock University's planetarium, an awestruck second-grader points to video projected on the 30-foot-wide domed ceiling and tells a classmate how all the planets revolve around the sun. Their classmates later hold up fruits and vegetables that represent the size of the planets, like a cherry tomato for Earth and a watermelon for Jupiter. This was just part of the experience for more than 400 second-grade students from the Butler Area School District who visited SRU's Vincent Science Center, Oct. 19 and 24, where 50 SRU students from three classes taught the elementary school students as part of their courses' service-learning project.

As a budget-conscious college student, Kyle Lewis was more than ready to answer the call for free housing for his final semester at Slippery Rock University. But in doing so, he had to be prepared to also answer another type of call - the kind that comes in the middle of night - when the Slippery Rock community needs him as a first responder. Lewis, a senior safety management major from Butler, is the first SRU student to take advantage of a live-in program created by the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team last year. For the fall semester, Lewis is living in a 400-square-foot bunk room, just one of the amenities inside SRVFC's 5,500-square-foot Rescue Building that was built in 2015 near the corner of Elm and New Castle streets. The SRVFC provides his housing in exchange for Lewis remaining on call for four overnight duty periods per week.

Fourteen Slippery Rock University student vocalists will demonstrate their range at 2 p.m., Nov. 4 at Swope Music Hall when they compete for the Chad Williamson Memorial Vocal Scholarship as part of the 26th annual competition.