Kudos to these faculty, staff and students
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Northern Arizona University was honored with the Winter 2015 Models of Excellence recognition by University Business. The Models of Excellence program, sponsored by Higher One, recognizes innovative approaches to encouraging and nurturing student success on campus. The magazine cited the university’s Peer Jacks program that “creates a strong community amongst its students and fosters relationships that serve all involved parties: mentors, mentees and the university they belong to.” Established in 2010, Peer Jacks is designed to assist first-year, out-of-state students as they transition to university life and connect with other students. In addition to pointing freshmen to the many available academic resources on campus, Peer Jack mentors also schedule social events and trips designed to forge personal relationships that impact degree persistence. NAU is one of 17 colleges and universities to receive the honor.
Maiah Jaskoski, assistant professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs, is a co-editor of a recently published book titled American Crossings: Border Politics in the Western Hemisphere. In the book, nine scholars consider the complicated modern history of borders in the Western Hemisphere, examining borders as geopolitical boundaries, key locations for internal security, spaces for international trade and areas where national and community identities are defined.
Patrick Enking, associate clinical professor of physician assistant studies, is the recipient of the 2015 Clinical Education Award from the Physician Assistant Education Association. The award was presented during the organization’s November education forum in Washington, D.C. As director of clinical education at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, Enking is responsible for students’ medical practice rotations, a critical component of their education. At NAU, more than half of the clinical rotations Enking has established are located in clinics and hospitals in rural and underserved areas and more than 50 percent of the program’s first graduating class accepted positions in rural or underserved communities.
Cynthia Conn, Sue Pieper and Kathy Bohan attended the annual Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation conference in October and presented a workshop that focused on performance assessments used for evaluating student-teacher candidates in NAU programs. The model presents evidence for meeting accreditation standards and provides evidence that assessments are valid, relevant, authentic and fair. The model has the potential to be a leading example for other colleges and institutions in the use of a metarubric, student survey and content analysis to provide evidence of assessment validity. The workshop involved small groups examining and analyzing the model along with reflective discussion.
Cassandra Galentine, graduate student in the master’s in English literature program, had an essay titled “Colonized or Self-Colonizer: A Generational Journey Through Independence in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Thing” published in Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.
The post In the Spotlight: Nov. 20, 2015 appeared first on NAU News.