10 TOWER | FALL 2022 NEWS NOTES faculty & student recognition KUR Wins Best Station Promo at Annual Broadcasting Conference Kutztown University Radio (KUR) won for Best Station Promo at the 82nd Annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference. KUR was nominated in seven categories. The conference awards colleges and universities in recognition of exceptional programming and student radio stations on the national level. Student Jenna Foley won Best Station Promo and KUR was a direct runner-up in each of the six other categories. Those included Best Campus/Community News (students Abigayle Regensburger and James Zipprodt), Best Community Outreach Event (Regensburger and Zipprodt), Best Live Promotional Event (Regensburger and Zipprodt), Best Sports Play-by-Play (students Noah Pegler ’21 and Josh Tuite), Best Talk Program (students) Jared Yashura and Andrew Zammetti ’22, and Best Program Director (student) Nicholas Zearfoss ’22. Providing Scholarships for Diverse STEM Teacher Candidates Dr. MarkWolfmeyer, department chair, secondary education, was awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will support the recruitment of more professionals to careers in secondary STEM teaching, drawing from a wider diversity of demographic, disciplinary and professional experience, and to prepare them for the challenging task of STEM education in under-resourced urban communities. The project, Mentoring Urban STEM Teachers (MUST) for Equity and Innovation, aims to serve the national need to increase the diversity of students entering STEM professions by supporting and training a broader diversity of secondary STEM teachers to teach those students. KU professors also involved with the grant include Dr. Yun Lu, Dr. Ju Zhou, Dr. Amber Pabon and Dr. Richard Heineman. KU Receives NSF Grant to Improve Equity in STEM Dr. LaurieMcMillan, associate dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and her team of co-principal investigators, Dr. Michele Baranczyk, assistant professor of psychology; Dr. Moira Conway, assistant professor of geography; and Dr. LynMcQuaid, associate professor of mathematics; were awarded a two-year National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Catalyst grant. The $299,875 grant will support a project titled “Research, Educate and Value Equity at All Levels in STEM” (REVEALS). The project will use an intersectional lens to identify the underlying drivers of systemic gender inequities affecting STEM faculty and culminate in a five-year plan to advance organizational change. While the REVEALS project focuses on faculty in the natural and social sciences, the findings will benefit the entire university community by contributing to ongoing campus initiatives that support justice, equity, diversity and inclusiveness. The findings will be shared with NSF ADVANCE networks so that the project at Kutztown University can serve as a model for other colleges and universities. The REVEALS project will examine concerns with work-life balance, “invisible” or undervalued work and a sense of belonging — all of which may create barriers to tenure, retention in academia and scientific advances. Faculty Awarded Research Grant to Benefit Underrepresented Students Dr. Georgeos Sirrakos, professor of secondary education, Dr. Lisa Frye ’90, M’93, chair and professor of computer science and information technology, and Dr. Joleen Greenwood, professor of sociology, received a three-year National Science Foundation grant to better understand the barriers and challenges for success faced by underrepresented high school students in computer science; namely females, underrepresented racial minorities and/or students of low socioeconomic status. This grant is funded in the amount of $484,199 and required a high level of faculty collaboration working across different colleges and departments. The new framework will equip computer science teachers with tools to encourage inclusivity and collaboration among students from all backgrounds. The specific focus for this framework is to recognize and empower students’ diversity, provide opportunities for interdisciplinary implementation of computational thinking and consider teachers’ needs in developing culturally inclusive pedagogies.
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