Graduate Student and Department News

English Students Attend NAAAS Conference

Four graduate students from the English Department (Laya Jack, Bola King, Haley Thompson, and Jewon Woo), along with two undergraduates (Nikki Filippelli and Mark Turnage), attended the 15th annual conference of the National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates (NAAAS) in Baton Rouge, La. All six students presented academic work developed at UNI, and the group's directors were once again impressed by the presentations.

The trip also included a visit to Mardi Gras museum in New Orleans. The trip was funded in part by the English Department, the Provost's Intercollegiate Academic Fund, and the Dean of CHFA.

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Geography Students Present Conference Papers

UNI geography graduate students have been gaining national and international exposure with their research in the field.

Scott Larson is presenting is paper entitled “Predicting Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Mosquito Vectors for West Nile Virus” at URISA’s GIS 2007 Public Health Conference, May 20-23, 2007 in New Orleans, La.   

Nick Phillips presented his paper entitled, “An e-Learning Approach to Remote Sensing,” at the AAG Annual meeting in San Francisco.

Matt Voss traveled to Paris in April to present at the Urban Remote Sensing Joint Event, April 11-13.  His research involved using high-resolution hyperspectral aerial data and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) elevation data to identify tree species on the UNI campus.

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Vagina Warrior Named

During V-Week Amanda Freking in Communication Studies was named a Vagina Warrior during the UNI V-Week campaign, an international project to stop violence against women worldwide. Vagina Warriors are volunteers, activists, sponsors, media, and supporters who work worldwide to end violence against women and girls in their communities.

Freking was nominated by Professor Karen Mitchell for her work on SAVE (Students Against a Violent Environment). Over the past six years, Amanda has facilitated workshops across the campus and the country to prevent gender violence and promote healthy relationships.

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MSW Program Earns Reaccreditation

The Masters of Social Work program was "reaccredited" for the full eight years by the Council on Social Work Education. The site visitors look at all aspects of the program including curriculum, faculty, student development, budget, and internships. This accreditation is critical to the graduate program and helps qualify graduates to sit for the State of Iowa Licensing Exam.

I/O Psychology Takes Top Honors at Consulting Challenge

First year Industrial/Organizational psychology graduate students competed in the Consulting Challenge, April 18-20 in Minneapolis, Minn. This year two UNI students made it to the final round of competition. UNI’s Rakhi Patel and her team member from Minnesota State, Mankato took first place in the competition, while Katie Kuker from UNI and her team members from St. Cloud and Minnesota State, Mankato took second place.

The nature of the Consulting Challenge is similar to the popular television show, The Apprentice. First year Industrial/Organizational psychology graduate students from UNI, Minnesota State, Mankato, and St. Cloud compete in the challenge. The students are divided into groups and provided with information from a large company in Minneapolis. This year the company was Target. Target provided the students with a request for proposal and a data set. The students had two days to prepare a presentation and create a proposal to increase the job satisfaction levels and retention rates of Target’s Technology Division employees.

Students from UNI typically do very well during the Consulting Challenge because of they have extensive practice giving presentations and feel comfortable fielding questions and responding in non-technical terms. The Consulting Challenge provides an excellent opportunity to use these skills and gain consulting experience.

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CSBS Conference Graduate Student Poster Award

Clinical psychology graduate student Qijuan Fang won the Best Graduate Student Poster Award at the 14 th Annual UNI College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Student Research Conference, April 21. Her poster entitled, “Cross-cultural Study of Relationship Aggression” was co-authored by Jennifer Bumgarner and faculty advisor Cathy DeSoto.

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Women’s History Month Celebrated

The Women's and Gender Studies Program celebrated Women's History in March, highlighting the 30th anniversary of the program.

The month long series of events included:

- Brown bag discussion “The Early Years at UNI” presented by Elaine Pfalzgraf, Lora Rackstraw, and Donna Thompson

- Xavier Escandell presented “From Bolivia to Spain: Gendered Opportunities and Transnational Narratives of Loss”

- Amanda Breeden presented her research on romance novels, entitled "Neo-Romance: The Renegotiation of Gender and Sexuality in Harlequin Romance"

- Women’s and Gender Studies faculty discussed “Readings That Changed Our Lives: WGS Faculty Discuss Influential Texts”

- “The Intervening Years: Women’s and Gender Studies at UNI” panel included Victoria DeFrancisco, Martha Reineke, Susan Hill, and Annette Lynch