Slippery Rock University

Students in an electrical engineering class at Slippery Rock University are becoming less robotic in their learning by building robots from scratch. A semester-long project that combines several skills could have involved memorizing inputs and outputs of circuitry and computer code to program robots, but humans learning differently. A better approach is through competition and hands-on experiences.

Brooklyn Graham, a Slippery Rock University junior political science major from Kittanning, will be joining the SRU council of trustees as its next student trustee. Graham was selected to fill the one seat on the 12-member COT designated for a full-time SRU undergraduate student. The student trustee has the same voting privileges as other trustees. After a campuswide application and interview process, SRU President William Behre approved the Student Trustee Selection Committee's recommendation and forwarded it to the Office of the Chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education, with Graham's appointment approved by the state's board of governors at its April 14 meeting. Graham was officially sworn in during a ceremony, April 27, at Old Main.

Coming to a speedway soon: Rock Racing. No, this is not some competitive sport for cavemen, but rather a new club at Slippery Rock University that is preparing for a green flag to drop on an upcoming intercollegiate auto racing circuit. This venture will take at least a year, but the Rock Racing Club at SRU has taken an important step by acquiring a car that was purchased by SRU's School of Engineering.

Slippery Rock University's Office of Student Engagement and Leadership presented its 2021-22 Rising Star and Distinguished Leader awards, April 20, at the Smith Student Center. The Rising Star and Distinguished Leader awards are presented to students who positively influence change, effectively communicate, inspire others, delegate and empower their organizational members. Rising Star awards are given to underclass students, and Distinguished Leader awards are given to upperclass students. These awards are presented to students who successfully balance academic life and make the most of out of organizational leadership opportunities.

Many Slippery Rock University students have interesting life experiences encountering both adversity and advocacy. One such example of is Madalyn Mote, a junior early childhood education major from Gibsonia. In 2016, Mote's younger brother, Nicholas, was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease in which the body fails to produce blood cells, and he was in need of bone marrow. Mote then sprang into action.

The Slippery Rock Student Government Association recently elected its executive officers for the 2022-23 academic year at Slippery Rock University. Hannah D'Edigio, a junior dual music education and political science major from Industry, was elected SGA president. Student voting was conducted April 4-6 on CORE, SRU's online platform for student clubs and organizations, and nearly 800 votes were cast, the most since 2017.

There are many national debates that make their way onto college campuses, from the made-for-television events featuring U.S. presidential candidates to made-from-social-media memes that spark conversations in classrooms and dining halls. Meanwhile, a national debate quite literally occurred at Slippery Rock University last week as the Debate Society at SRU hosted the 2022 National Educational Debate Association National Championship, April 8-9.

Slippery Rock University hosted its annual Celebration of Achievement awards ceremony April 5, at the Smith Student Center, recognizing faculty and students for their outstanding contributions in the areas of academics, research, scholarship, creative activities and more. The highlight of the annual event is the announcement of SRU's finalist for the Syed R. Ali-Zaidi Award for Academic Excellence, which is given to a graduating senior in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education who exemplifies academic excellence and involvement. SRU's 2022 finalist is Emma Yoder, a senior mathematics major from Marietta, Georgia.

Bachelor of Fine Arts dance majors at Slippery Rock University will close the book on their research by finishing the epilogue, that is, presenting at "The Epilogue: a BFA Senior Dance Concert," 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., April 23, at the Stoner West Dance Studio Theater. The concert, hosted by the SRU Dance Department, will feature choreography and performances by nine senior BFA dance students as well as work set by Atlanta-based choreographer Lashonda Johnson. Tickets are $10 for general admission, and they can be purchased online at sru.universitytickets.com.

On a typical Thursday morning, Asher Myers would be sitting in his Principles of Industrial Hygiene class at Slippery Rock University. But on March 24, Myers and 20 other junior cadets from SRU's Army ROTC unit found themselves in a very different type of classroom: strapped inside a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, 2,500 feet above campus. . Four Black Hawks departed SRU's campus from the intramural practice fields along Harmony Road, carrying cadets to their Combined Field Training Exercise, or CFTX, at Camp Garfield Joint Military Training Center in Ravenna, Ohio, where they met up with other ROTC units from the region. But the Frontier Battalion, which consists of cadets from SRU and Clarion University, was the only unit to make an entrance on Black Hawks.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer are well known for making vaccines that protect people from COVID-19, but those same companies need to be protected from all sorts of risks as well. That protection is now becoming well known to Slippery Rock University students who are benefitting from two internship agreements between Pfizer and SRU's Homeland and Corporate Security Studies Department.

Just like on the reality television show "Dancing with the Stars," where celebrities learn to dance and compete with one another while partnered with a professional dancer, there's a similar event at Slippery Rock University. The dancers are students, and the "celebrities" are, well, at least well-known professors to those taking their classes who could achieve greater fame if they win the SRU competition, 7 p.m., March 23, at the Dance Studio Theater in Stoner West. "Dancing with the SRU Stars" is an annual fundraising event hosted by the National Honors Society for Dance Arts' SRU chapter. The event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased online, $10 for general admission and $5 for students. Proceeds benefit the NHSDA Rising Sophomore Scholarship and the student who is part of the first-place couple will be awarded a $500 scholarship funded by the Eliott and Deb Baker Scholarship at SRU.

Studying the plank is a much better fate than walking the plank, as exercise science students at Slippery Rock University can attest. The plank hold is a popular strength exercise comparable to the pushup or situp for its simplicity and use of a person's body weight. Planks are done in a pushup position but instead of moving up and down, a person holds their body for a duration of time while keeping their forearms on the ground. It's something that a faculty-student research team at SRU is studying by comparing the plank to other types of exercises that engage the core muscles.

As the world follows Russia's invasion of Ukraine, students in an introductory political science class at Slippery Rock University are role-playing what they would do as world leaders. Nicholas Spina, assistant professor of political science, is using an online simulator called Statecraft in his 100-level International Relations class to help students better understand the interdependencies of nations, especially in a time of military conflict.

Slippery Rock University's council of trustees conducted its quarterly business meeting, March 4, at the Smith Student Center. Executive actions taken at the meeting included a resolution to honor Samantha Hawk, an SRU senior political science major from South Park, with a commendation of service. Hawk has served as a student trustee since June 2020 and her term will end when she graduates this spring. In addition to serving as a trustee, Hawk has been involved in several leadership positions at SRU. She is the current president of the SRU Honors College and a former national communication coordinator for the Association of Residence Hall Students and former parliamentarian and vice president of operations for the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Hawk plans to pursue a career in state-level politics after she graduates.

Food is much more than sustenance that keeps people alive. It sustains cultural traditions, strengthens social and emotional ties, and feeds conversation. Or, as a faculty and student group at Slippery Rock University has observed, food is how people relate to one another and nourish their souls.

The Slippery Rock University Music Department will welcome musicians from local middle and high schools for its annual collaboration with the SRU Flute Studio Ensemble, as they host the 2022 SRU Honors Flute Ensemble Concert, 7 p.m., Feb. 27 in the Miller Theater at the Performing Arts Center. The concerts culminate three days of workshops and rehearsals where at least a dozen middle and high school flutists will learn from SRU students, as well as guest performers and clinicians.

When Megan Kaufman was in high school, she took specially designed classes for students with higher intellectual ability compared to their peers. These students and classes are labeled "gifted" and the designation is important for helping students reach their full potential. But now, as a Slippery Rock University education major, Kaufman is questioning what that even means as she is conducting research that could help schools optimize their gifted programs.

The use of consumer electronics continues to rise as people rely heavily on batteries instead of hardwired devices or equipment that burns fossil fuels. With advances in smartphones and the emergence of electric vehicles, it's easy to forget that batteries must also keep up with the technological demands. Researchers at Slippery Rock University haven't neglected this. A faculty-student research team has started to analyze the performance degradation of electric batteries.

To children on the autism spectrum, a visit to the hospital or a doctor's office can be overwhelming. That's why faculty and students from Slippery Rock University's physician assistant program are equipping health care providers in Butler County with tools to make to make patients' experiences more calming. Funded by an SRU Student Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Grant, a group at SRU is gathering items for 12 kits intended to provide sensory intervention to decrease anxiety for children with autism spectrum disorders who visit places such as emergency rooms and pediatric and family practice clinics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in every 44 children has an autism spectrum disorder, which refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

After Jordan Grady became executive director of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce in 2019, he started noticing what other chambers were doing to promote their local businesses. Videos began popping up on social media, especially during the pandemic, with fewer and fewer in-person events occurring. Grady, a Slippery Rock University alumnus, figured he could do that for businesses in Butler County. But instead of grabbing his phone or a GoPro camera and shooting video himself - something he quickly found to be more challenging than he imagined - Grady reached out to his alma mater.

Slippery Rock University Dance Theatre will begin the spring 2022 semester with the Emerging Artists Dance Concert in the newly renovated the Miller Theater, 7:30 p.m., Jan. 28, and 2 p.m., Jan.29. This artistic showcase includes the work of 46 student performers and choreographers who are part of Dance Theatre, a company within SRU's Department of Dance. Along with the choreography of junior and senior dance majors, the concert will also contain work from two additional guest artists, Cameron McKinney from New York and Teena Marie Custer from Pittsburgh.

When Jasmine Clark was going away to college, a child that she had been mentoring in her hometown of Canton, Ohio, was making a transition of her own to middle school. Clark, who is now a junior recreational therapy major at Slippery Rock University, is glad she continued the relationship through Big Brothers Big Sisters in Ohio despite having to make the nearly two-hour drive twice a month. Clark was named the 2021 Big Sister of the Year by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Summit, Medina and Stark Counties.

Slippery Rock University has announced its dean's list for the fall 2021 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.

Slippery Rock University's Office for Student Engagement and Leadership recognized individuals and organizations associated with Greek Life on campus at the 2021 Celebration of Excellence in Fraternity and Sorority Life, Dec. 1, at the Smith Student Center Ballroom.

'Tis the season for holiday music, and Slippery Rock University is coming through with a new concert. SRU is hosting its Holiday Concert, 7:30 p.m., Dec. 4, at Miller Theater inside the Performing Arts Center, featuring SRU's Symphonic Wind Ensemble. The event will be the first public performance of the entire SRU Symphonic Wind Ensemble in the newly renovated theater, a 753-seat facility that was part of a recent $33 million expansion and renovation project of SRU's Performing Arts Complex. The event is open to the public and admission is $5 will all proceeds benefiting SRU scholarships.

Stories are powerful and writing them can boost wellbeing and provide healing, especially for people living the harrowing tale of addiction. That's why students in a creative writing class at Slippery Rock University are harnessing the power of storytelling and writing to help people in Butler County overcome substance use disorders. As part of a program funded by SRU's Office for Community-Engaged Learning, called "Rediscovering Your Story," faculty and students in a Writing Community Stories class have partnered with the Institute for Nonprofit Leadership at SRU and the Butler County Drug and Alcohol Program.

Live, in-person theater is not only coming back to Slippery Rock University after a 20-month hiatus, but it's returning in a newly renovated facility. The SRU Theatre Department will host its production of "Techies," with daily shows Nov. 18-22, at the Miller Theater in the Performing Arts Center, a 753-seat facility that was part of a recent $33 million expansion and renovation project of SRU's Performing Arts Complex. This will mark the department's first in-person theater performance since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Show times are 7:30 p.m., Nov. 18-20 and Nov. 22 and 2 p.m., Nov. 21. Tickets are $12 for SRU students with a valid student ID and $15 for general admission. Tickets can be purchased at the door within one hour of start times, or in advance online at sru.edu/tickets or at the Smith Student Center information desk.

Broadway-style cabaret will liven up the stage at Slippery Rock University as the Musical Theatre Society at SRU will perform two shows, 8 p.m., Nov. 5, and 2 p.m., Nov. 7, at the Swope Music Hall. The two showings of the production titled "Fall Broadway Cabaret" are MTS's first live events in nearly two years. Forty-four students from a variety of majors and experience levels will perform in the production that features 20 popular Broadway musical theater songs, including selections from "Hamilton," "Dear Evan Hansen" and "Mean Girls."

Twenty-six Slippery Rock University students will compete in SRU's 29th annual Chad Williamson Memorial Vocal Scholarship competition, 4 p.m., Oct. 30, at Swope Music Hall. Each student will present two selections, a classical piece and a piece of their choosing, and the first-, second- and third-place winners will receive scholarships of $750, $500 and $250, respectively. The scholarship honors the late Chad Williamson, a Slippery Rock Area High School graduate who planned to study music at SRU but was killed in a traffic accident prior to his freshman year. Williamson's mother, Karen Legato, a 1991 SRU communication graduate and former SRU employee, and father, the late Fred Williamson, started the scholarship in 1992.