Community & Society
¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ has a history of passionate student activism. However, 2020 has really highlighted such efforts, both current and past, and its impact on the importance of students sharing their voices through voting. Efforts made by individuals, student-led groups, faculty members and ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ as a whole have led to an exceptionally high increase in voter engagement throughout campus.
The ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ Geauga and Ashtabula Campuses were awarded a $585,046 USDA Grant in January 2022 to bring rural Geauga and Ashtabula counties on par with the latest technological advancements in education, medicine, and workforce development. Ashtabula County entities that will benefit from the grant include Andover Public Library, Kingsville Public Library, Pierpont Township Board of Trustees, Grand Valley Local School District, Pymatuning Valley Local School District and SPIRE Institute.
Stefanie Moore, professor in the School of Media and Journalism, was featured on WFMJ-TV (Youngstown) to discuss the recent backlash Spotify had faced surrounding misinformation.
When planning one’s future, having a helpful hand providing guidance is a worthwhile connection. ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ’s Veteran Career Initiative, a partnership between the Center for Adult and Veteran Services and Career Exploration and Development, provides student and graduate veterans with valuable business and personal connections that help with translating military experience into a civilian resume.
Whether or not to pursue higher education after high school is one of the first big decisions young people get to make. Unfortunately, however, financial stipulations and other outside factors may inhibit one’s ability to access postsecondary education.
¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ’s Community Engaged Learning (CEL) secured a $10,000 grant through the United Way of Portage County, an independently-governed nonprofit organization that serves disadvantaged members of our community. This grant will support CEL’s Community Partner Advocate program (CPA) which places students at local nonprofits throughout the county for paid hands-on learning experiences.
After witnessing a horrific crash, sophomore public relations major LaDonya Williams immediately ran to help the distraught woman begging for someone to save her 7-month-old son who wasn’t breathing. After Williams used her Red Cross first aid training to help the baby, he began to breathe again and was taken to the hospital to recover, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The new Flashes Fighting Hunger initiative takes the last 10 years to a new level, going beyond a kitchen that provides meals by becoming a program that prevents food waste, promotes food recovery and hosts multiple food pantries each week to serve the region.
¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ alumnus Mike Bowen, '03, visited ¶¶MÅ®ÆÍ’s School of Emerging Media and Technology to share his knowledge about data and analysis that he uses as part of his job of Principal Quantitative User Researcher for music streaming service Spotify.
Of the 33,984 awarded computer science (CS) bachelor’s degrees in 2020, only 21% of CS graduates identified as women, 3% as Black, and 8.5% as Hispanic (Zweben & Bizot, 2021). Susan Fisk, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology, is using her expertise in social-psychology to change that and improve the field of computing. Fisk was awarded her third National Science Foundation grant to continue her work on broadening participation in computing and improving undergraduate STEM education.