For prospective UALR students, one of the first questions they ask is, “Where will I live? On- campus? At home? Off-campus?” In an effort to answer these questions and hopefully draw potential students to live on campus, we’re creating a video to showcase our beautiful resident halls and apartments.
I had the privilege of helping oversee this video shoot yesterday. Our talented grad assistant, Jef, handled all the technical details, while I rounded up students to help us with our mission.
After filming the commons areas, we headed to East Hall and South Hall. Some generous students allowed us into their rooms so we could get a true picture of what on-campus housing looks like. I had a vision of empty pizza boxes being strewn about, but these rooms were exceptionally clean!
I was personally impressed with the full-sized washer and dryer in the apartments in South Hall.
Before wrapping up for the day, I took some pictures of the construction going on at the new West Hall, set to open this upcoming Fall semester. This will be such an asset to our campus, creating two additional six-story buildings with pod-style communities.
For more information on all that UALR has to offer to students living on campus, visit the Housing website. Also, stay tuned for our upcoming video! It might make you want to move in, too!
I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Just one major hurdle to jump.
Before graduation.
A presentation.
Can’t I just write it for an extrovert to present, as I’ve written speeches for bosses in the past?
Although I’ve given a good number of presentations for development and other work and of course in undergrad and grad school, STILL DREAD IT. Even won a speech contest in high school, earning a trip to D.C. — STILL DREAD IT.
So, I decided to take advantage of the Communication Skill Center’s workshop today. What could it hurt?
Takeaways:
- Remember, the chicken sandwich. Intro/conclusion = bun. Body = chicken.
- Don’t bumble important words — as seen on Letterman’s presidential speeches. Bush speech mistakes
- Not too slow, not too fast, no ums, pause, incorporate gestures, eye contact (though “they” say picture audience naked). So much to remember…much less your content.
So, I drew the short straw and had to give our group’s presentation for the conclusion on movies. Presentations are more fun when you don’t have to do the research or preparation or have time to get nervous.
But, surely I can come up with some ideas to make my final presentation on zoos fairly interesting. The mind is twirling to come up with the clencher — as we learned today.
I have a nightmare of giving a speech. I mean “I have a dream” of doing the best job I can to graduate and round out the all A’s.
“In conclusion” (see I remembered a transition word) as speeches are pretty inevitable on a university campus…and in the real world, take advantage of services the speech communication department offers. The outline and tips they provided do make the dreaded speech less daunting. We weren’t all gifted to be great orators like Lincoln, Kennedy, Clinton and the like, but we can add our personality to our expertise to make the “A” or get the sale.
We don’t often see our business alums in a cowboy hat.
Probably the favorite part of my job is meeting students and hearing their career dreams and talking to alums and learning about their successes. Jeff Crosswell caught my attention.
After sharing his story with my sister-in-law, she said, “Oh Robin, why do you torture me so? Talk about a dream!”
“When I started my journey as an MBA student at UALR, I had visions of working my way up the corporate ladder. After a merger, I began evaluating starting a family-centered business. It lowers the mystique about starting a business. It allows you to be more confident,” said Croswell on completing the program in 2008.
Incorporating sustainability and economics studies, last year he and his wife Sarah formed Turtle Rock Farms LLC with “big plans, big dreams, and a big family.”
“We were both city-dwellers for most of our lives and desired to return to a simpler life patterned after our visits to the grandparents’ farm,” their website says. “So our family left the city to find a place where our children can experience and enjoy the wonders of nature and we could all learn how to live connected to the land.”
Their family-centered, pasture-based diversified farm on top of Petit Jean provides fresh products, “stressing the importance of supporting local, natural, and transparent farming methods for the benefit of our environment,” Jeff said. “When I say we are a family-centered business, we literally incorporate all six of our children into the business in some way.”
With Avery’s experi”mint”al chocolate, orange, and peppermint mint garden, she keeps the family stocked for tasty ice cream. Photo courtesy of Turtle Rock Farms.
Turtle Rock’s organic products include turkey, chickens, eggs, and tomatoes. Herbs and flowers include mint, stevia, comfrey, gladiolas, sunflowers, tulips, and irises. Fruits grown are blackberries, figs, pears, persimmons, and muscadine grapes. Fresh-milled grains include spelt, oat, kamut, and wheat flours and fresh-rolled organic oats. And bakery goods offered are bagels, breads, and granola.
They sell online at Conway, Little Rock, and Russellville farmers’ markets. The Croswells are founders and market managers for the Russellville Community Market — one of a few online farmers’ markets in the state. They are also partners in Farm2Work, a physical/online market at UAMS and recently began selling poultry to restaurants.
Levi is proud of the season’s first tomatoes. Photo courtesy of Turtle Rock Farms.
The couple homeschools their children, who are learning life lessons beyond what books can teach. They do quite a bit of the feeding, watering, and gathering — saving for trips and treats from egg sales.
Cute kiddos probably make for a good selling tool to customers.
“We have had some successes and many failures so far, but that is always the challenge of owning your own family-centered business,” Jeff added. “I feel so blessed to work with my family as we toil together to help customers “taste the difference a family can make!”
Kendall shows off blackberries. Photo courtesy of Turtle Rock Farms.
Follow the Croswells’ farm and family progress on their blog — a must read on escaping goats, battling Mother Nature, and Apple Butter Day.
The following is courtesy of guest contributor, Emily Bell Cox, student development specialist for the Office of Campus Life.
We’ll get to Spring Fling in a minute, but first, let me do a little recruiting for UPC. Each day, when a UALR student or staff member asks me what I do for a living, I tell them that my main duty is to advise UPC. I am then always met with the question, “What is UPC?” Here is what I share with them:
The University Program Council (UPC) is a registered student organization that serves as a programming extension of the UALR Office of Campus Life. UPC provides concerts, lectures, comedians, and entertainment of all kinds. This semester, UPC has sponsored comedian Loni Love, Welcome Back 2011, A Love/Hate Relationship: Valentine’s Day Party, Mardi Gras Celebration, and Spring Fling. Each month, UPC hosts movie nights as well.
Spring Fling is a great example of what we organize, and here’s what we have going on this week:
Monday, March 28
11:00-2:00: BONGO BALL is BACK!
Come play Bongo Ball in the DSC Fitness Center!
Also in the Fitness Center we will have FREE Food, make your own street sign, and design your own bumper sticker!
Tuesday, March 29
7:00 p.m.: Musician/Songwriter Kyshonna Armstrong (DSC Room A, Refreshments will be served.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GmYtuYfEcg
Wednesday, March 30
6:00 p.m.: Family Movie Night: Tangled (Leadership Lounge, Refreshments will be served.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSx1dYJlJh4
UPC = F-R-E-E!
Any student who wishes to participate in the University Program Council may contact me to become a member. As a member, a student may have the opportunity to travel to regional and national conferences to help choose entertainment for the upcoming year. For instance, this year the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) conference was held in St. Louis, Missouri.
UPC membership has various benefits. When students join UPC, they are encouraged to propose certain programs to the council and then are responsible for coordinating all the various aspects of bringing the program to life on the UALR campus. UPC members have the opportunity to work with many different groups and to graduate with the experiential education of programming student activities. UPC members also have the opportunity to serve in leadership positions within the organization.
UPC is currently looking for new members. Students who are interested should contact me at ebcox@ualr.edu, stop by the Office of Campus Life in DSC Room 216, or find out more online at ualr.edu/campuslife.
Kevin Cates, assistant professor of graphic design, has just returned from volunteering in the Republic of Mali, Africa. His assignment through Winrock International was to design pictorial brochures to assist farmers unable to read. He documented his experience on his blog with images that describe both the project and the culture he encountered in Mali.
I think it’s fascinating how much impact designing visuals can make —for the cows in this story, it means life or death. And unhealthy cows do not produce desirable results for the humans.
It basically comes down to healthy cattle feed being too expensive for your average farmer, so they put together feed from whatever they have and try to ration it out too thin. I get tons of pictures on this day, and really document what’s going on.
As a rhetorician, I enjoyed reading about the design process in particular. The choices he makes are not just about “making things pretty.” Elements used have a purpose. The decision to use illustrations or photos is a good example. Not all cows eat the same thing or the same amount. And remember, these farmers can’t read, so graphical realism is paramount.
I never realized how difficult it would be to try and convey a complicated feeding scale in such a simple way. It’s quite a challenge. My training to simplify art and ideas comes in handy, but I still want to make it look high profile, which can’t happen. The cover is the closest I get to “graphic designyness.”
The team engages in a usability test with the targeted audience to see if the brochures are effective, and that feedback informs additional design changes.
His blog isn’t just about the assignment though. He also talks about his daily routine and random excursions; his descriptions of food made me so hungry! While he was there, a travel advisory was issued —Americans were being targeted by terrorists.
Okay. Walking a mile and a half. Off the main thoroughfare. 9:00 p.m. Doesn’t sound like a good idea. I walk like someone is following me the whole time. I’ve never been so paranoid. Terrorism works, kids. It terrorizes.
As Americans, we are sometimes unaware of all the dangers that traveling to foreign soil might bring. Thankfully, the rest of his trip was uneventful in that regard.
“It’s been an inspiring, educational, enlightening, and sometimes scary trip. But completely worth every amount of time I spent doing it.”
If I were one of Kevin’s students, I would greatly appreciate a professor doing work such as this —making a global impact at some risk to his own personal safety. In documenting it, he’s given a gift to them as much as the Malian people.
Experience Kevin’s trip through his daily blog posts. Read more about the project here.
Building up to this year’s UALR Student Research Expo, (learn more about the event here) we’d like to showcase images, stories, and sounds from research expo events of years past.
Read this story, documenting the 2010 Research Expo:
“My silver nanoparticles are going to be used in collaboration with UAMS and will be used with antibodies targeting staph bacteria,” she said. “The antibody will then dock with the bacteria, which will take in the silver nanoparticle which you can target with a laser, heating up the particles until they tear the bacteria apart, leaving the surrounding flesh unharmed. Dead bacteria; living flesh.”
Continue reading:
The Undergraduate Research Expo showcases and encourages research and creative endeavors by UALR undergraduates in all disciplines. Applicable research includes senior theses, honors projects, independent study projects, and course projects, among others. The research may be ongoing or recently completed and may be individual or collaborative.
Three videos from the 2009 Undergraduate Research Expo:
All in the Family
The Trojan basketball players aren’t the only athletes on campus who are rockin’ this week.
A number of UALR faculty, staff, and students took to the streets for the Little Rock Marathon Sunday. For the non-runners out there, the full marathon is 26.2 miles and the half is 13.1 miles.
Alum Leah Thorvilson won the women’s division (third year in a row – she is also headed to the Olympic trials this year)…
…and finance student Barrett Kerth placed 10th in the Half Marathon.
If the participants did all the training runs, they ran 568 miles by the time the marathon was over.
UALR alum and KUAR Morning Edition host Malcolm Glover also completed the marathon as cameras followed his progress. He is actually able to speak running up Kavanaugh hill – no small feat.
I, on the other hand, cannot talk while running up Kavanaugh hill. You might catch a glimpse of me in this photo. Well, it’s a good shot of my arm and leg in the crowd. I asked for more pictures from UALR folks who ran, but the vast majority said “not a chance.” (I’ve heard that if your finish line picture looks good, you did it wrong.) We’ll just assume they all did it right!
Congratulations to the following folks on completing a great race!
Full Marathon:
Melissa Bandy (Bowen School of Law Student)
Amber Davis-Tanner (Bowen School of Law Student)
Malcolm Glover (KUAR Reporter)
Angela Parker (Communications – Media Relations)
Marcus Smith (Bowen School of Law Student – who is going to run a 50 mile race in April)
Brian Watson (Records and Registration Associate)
Half Marathon:
Dr. Edward Anson (History Professor)
Susan Bowling (Reading Instructor – Academic Success Center)
Christopher Clark (Biology Student)
Cynthia Gilbert (Nursing Associate Professor)
Christy Jackson (Mathematics and Statistics Instructor)
Ashley McCafferty (Collegiate Success Program Academic Advisor)
Carla Miller (Bowen School of Law Student)
Tom Marks (Bowen School of Law Student)
Dr. James Parrish (Management Assistant Professor)
Dr. Brad Patterson (Director of Testing Services)
Kathy Shapley (Audiology and Speech Pathology Assistant Professor)
Lynn Strong (Reading Instructor – Academic Success Center)
Dr. Ann Schlumberger (Nursing Department Chair)
Dr. Daniel Sweeney (Sport Management Graduate Program Assistant Professor)
Eileen Turan (Donaghey Scholars Program Administrator)
Charley Williams (Bowen School of Law Student)
Dr. Stephen Yanoviak (Biology Assistant Professor – who will also be running the Boston Marathon this year! Also no small feat – you have to qualify to enter that race.)
Relay:
Dr. David Belcher (Provost)
Susan Belcher (Music Instructor)
Paige Breech (Bowen School of Law Student)
Jayme Butts-Hall (Bowen School of Law Student)
Laura Harrington (Bowen School of Law Student)
Sarah Howard Jenkins-Hobbs (Bowen School of Law Professor)
Sherry McDowell (Bowen School of Law Student)
LaShonda Norfolk (Speech Communications Administrative Assistant III)
Nicholas Norfolk (Information Science Student)
Aaron Sites (Bowen School of Law Student – his team got 2nd Place in the Coed Division – congratulations Aaron!)
Volunteer:
Dixie Quinn (Bowen School of Law Student)
Congratulations to all!
Photos courtesy Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Little Rock Marathon.
Yesterday and today, I sent out all-campus notices about the Trojan men’s and women’s basketball teams’ advances in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament. A handful of replies came in, but one in particular caught my attention. “WHO CARES!!??” the person replied.
I’ve always liked sports, and I particularly like cheering on the Trojans as a UALR alum and now an employee. But why should other PEOPLE CARE?
For starters, our UALR student athletes are students first. They juggle their academic work with their athletic work. Eighty percent of them graduate, and 65 percent earn a 3.0 GPA or better. Senior Asrial Rolfe from Dallas, starting point guard, is a good example, currently earning around a 3.5 GPA.
They are also exceptional athletes who train hard and perform well game after game. Senior Chastity Reed of New Orleans was recently named women’s Sun Belt Student Athlete of the Year and Senior Solomon Bozeman of Magnolia, Ark., was named men’s Sun Belt Student Athlete of the Year.
Not bad reasons to care.
Photos courtesy Nelson Chenault
Art students in the UALR Applied Design program participated in an age-old tradition Sunday evening – they gathered around the television for an Academy Awards watch party. As they watched the stars receive Oscars for their craft, they anxiously awaited this commercial that showcased their craft.
Arkansas has a rich cultural heritage in the arts, particularly in the areas of functional art. And these talented art students are helping keep that rich heritage alive.
They are learning furniture design and woodworking.
They are exploring papermaking, weaving, and functional ceramics.
And, they are casting and forging metal and making jewelry.
Carrie Crocker (seen above) will graduate in the fall of 2011. In her artist’s statement she says that when she younger she spent a lot of reading about becoming an archaeologist and wanting to travel and see the world.
“As I studied and became fascinated by the objects unearthed by the hands of others, I became fascinated with the objects, the stories, how they became. It is this fascination that led me to the three-dimensional arts. Influenced by psychology, interpersonal relationships, anthropology, language, and art I draw on these interests to describe and communicate differing ideas. “
Carrie says her art has flourished in the Applied Design Program. She is currently influenced by circus imagery and culture due to the similarities to her upbringing and is exploring the ideas of safety, vulnerability, dependency, and family through utilitarian as well as sculptural metal objects. Her goal is to utilize non-ferrous materials, photo transfer, fabrication, etching, and enameling, to develop individual pieces to be worn or to be viewed as sculptural artwork that convey my ideas explored.
After graduation Carrie plans to show her work in local galleries and apply to graduate school and artist in residencies programs.
View Carrie’s online portfolio or purchase her art at Etsy.com
Photos by David Clemons and Carrie Crocker.
The UALR Aquatics Center on Friday was the stage of fierce competition. Students built boats. Boats were raced. The scene was reminiscent of Ben Hur, save for a minor detail, or two.
