Category Archives: Students

Nursing Simulation Lab Makes Music Video Debut

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IUP’s Nursing and Allied Health Professions degrees are some of our most rigorous programs, and for good reason–the things that the students learn there ARE a matter of life and death.

The faculty work very hard to create real-life experiences for students, so they are well prepared for work in hospitals and other health care settings. In September 2010, faculty members Lisa Palmer and Julia Greenawalt were successful in receiving amost $300,000 to create a simulation lab, which mirrors the home of a rural patient with a common chronic illness. The lab is designed to help train nurses for home health care especially and includes telehealth monitors used by home health care agencies. Dr. Palmer explained that with the shortage of nurses, more and more patients are being treated in their homes, and this laboratory offers a significant advantage to IUP students who go on to work with home health care agencies.

This new home health care simulation lab adds to the department’s current simulation laboratory, established by the department in 2007 and renovated in 2009. This lab includes manikins of all “ages,” including an infant, two simulated hospital rooms, and IV and other training devices.

While this laboratory gets very heavy use by students and faculty and will undoubtedly help future nurses save lives, it was the site of a very unusual project this summer.

David Altrogge, a 2006 IUP art studio/graphic design graduate, is making a name for himself as a cofounder and creative director of Vinegar Hill, a full service production company and creative agency based in Indiana. IUP has used his company for projects, and he has used IUP and Indiana places and spaces for several of his productions.

David recently was contracted by Centricity Records to produce a music video for Aaron Shust’s My Hope Is in You. The story is about a couple waiting as their daughter is treated in a hospital following an accident. I won’t give away the ending, but you might want to have a few tissues handy while you watch it.

If you’ve ever visited Johnson Hall (home to the department), and the “hospital” in the video looks sort of familiar to you–well, that’s because it is. IUP’s Nursing and Allied Health Professions Department’s simulation lab is the hospital, and the hospital lobby is the lobby of the Nursing department in Johnson. The video features several IUP Nursing graduates, including Megan Wallwork (doing chest compressions), Janelle McCombie, and Kristi Altrogge. The Bennets, of Indiana, are the grieving parents.

While IUP is proud of David’s work, we are also proud to know that the simulation lab did exactly what it was supposed to do, albeit in a fairly unorthodox setting: It offered a very real hospital environment, with a realistic patient and believable injuries. A win-win for all involved.

A Million Reasons to Thank an IUP Student

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Into the StreetsI don’t normally like to generalize about IUP students, because the more students I meet, the more I realize that they are very different from one another.

However, I don’t think that I’m too off the mark when I suggest that 98 percent of IUP students are probably snuggled up to their pillows on Saturday mornings and enjoying dreamland. (I have two twenty-year-old sophomores, so I also feel fairly informed on the habits of this particular species.)

But, this past Saturday, September 17, some 150 IUP students blew that stereotype. And it wasn’t for cereal and cartoons, but to benefit community agencies in Indiana.

Last Saturday was the fall Into the Streets event, organized by IUP’s Office of Service Learning. Students volunteered for this national day of service at seven sites in Indiana County. Students did everything from painting curbs to helping with the United Way demolition derby fund-raiser to cleaning up around Indiana Borough with borough employees.

The Into the Streets project is in its ninth year at IUP. It happens every fall and spring, and, in spring 2011, there were 300 students who volunteered for service at 13 different community sites. In fact, there were so many students interested in participating that the Office of Service Learning had to go back out to community agencies to ask for more volunteer opportunities. That makes me very proud of our students. The spring event is the bigger of the two, as there tend to be more service opportunities at that time of year, Service Learning officials tell me.

While I’m pleased that 150 students took part in the event this fall and I believe that number  is noteworthy, it’s really just a very small part of what our students do each year. 

In 2009-2010, 8,752 students volunteered for some kind of community service. That is 58 percent of the IUP student body. And it wasn’t just a one-shot deal for most students: Those IUP students performed 136,810 hours of community service during that academic year. (Totals are still being compiled for 2010-2011.)

So, that means that MORE THAN HALF of IUP students volunteered for their home community in a nine-month period, most in a sustained kind of way. Measured by the current national minimum wage, these work hours would be valued at $991,872.50. That’s just short of A MILLION DOLLARS.

What did they do? Food drives; books for the Community Guidance Center; selling daffodils for the American Cancer Society; helping children learn to read better; cell-phone drives for women in domestic violence situations; being a “big heart” for children in the Big Hearts Little Hands program.

I got a call from the former director of Big Hearts Little Hands (formerly Big Brothers Big Sisters) not too long after I started at IUP. “I want to talk to you about your students,” she started, and I braced myself. “Oh, no, what happened?” I asked, really not wanting to hear the answer.

“Without IUP students, this program couldn’t exist,” she said. “These students are wonderful. It’s a big sacrifice to give up your free time when you are a student and to care about someone else’s child, but they are amazing. I am proud of each and every one of them. Thank you.”

Enough said.

Celebrating the Constitution at IUP

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Constitution Day 92011D385.jpg

As part of the campus celebration of Constitution Day, Professor Joseph Mannard of the History Department dressed in Colonial garb for the public reading of the U.S. Constitution. Scores of students and faculty members lined up in front of Stapleton Library to read a portion of the Constitution. The Political Science Department and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences sponsored the day’s events, which also included a presentation called “A Casual Conversation with the Framers of the U.S. Constitution,” featuring four of the Constitution’s authors–James Madison, Ben Franklin, Charles Pinckney, and Alexander Hamilton, portrayed by Mannard, David Chambers, Mac Fiddner, and Steven Jackson.

“The commemoration of Constitution Day provides an ideal opportunity to take a closer look at how our government is structured and what powers it does or doesn’t have,” said Gwen Torges of the Political Science Department. “In the past, these events have generated a surprising level of interest and discussion about just what the Founding Fathers were thinking and what they hoped to achieve in writing the Constitution.”

Constitution Day commemorates the September 17, 1787, signing of the U.S. Constitution.

The Importance of Building a Culture of Philanthropy

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sidewalk Alumni Gift Sign 200.jpgYou probably noticed the signs and sidewalk chalk messages during the first week of school. They were part of an educational campaign the Annual Giving Office sponsors to help students understand the impact of gifts from alumni and friends of IUP. It’s part of an effort to build a culture of philanthropic giving on campus. Students who understand how private gifts affect their education are more likely to understand why we ask them to give when they become alumni–and then respond by giving.

Activity like this is essential to the fund-raising process, and schools like IUP–state-owned institutions–have an additional hump to overcome, because of a misperception that we are fully funded by the commonwealth. Earlier this year, the New York Times ran an article that included interviews with administrators from numerous public universities. It described the misperception well:

When the State University of New York at Geneseo surveyed its alumni three years ago as part of a plan to increase fund-raising, the initial response was heartening. Former students described their time there with words like “love” and “the best four years.” Then came what one administrator, Michael J. Catillaz, called “the cold shower.” Asked if they would donate, almost all said they thought the university was financed entirely by the state. The state’s contribution was actually 25 percent, and it has been dropping ever since.

“Inviting alumni in large numbers to actively support the college is a foreign notion,” said Mr. Catillaz, the vice president for college advancement.

In truth, some of our current students have been inspired to give or facilitate philanthropic action on behalf of the university. The IUP Ambassadors, for example, conducted numerous fund-raisers to name a room in the new Kovalchick Complex. Members of the IUP History Club work tirelessly to make sure the Eric Slebodnik Memorial Scholarship, housed in the Foundation for IUP and established in memory of a student who died in the line of duty in Iraq, continues to help a deserving student. These same students also raise money for the Jack Kadlubowski Scholarship, established in memory of a late faculty member. There are other examples, but the point is that instilling in students the importance of the impact private gifts have will, we hope, reap long-term rewards after they leave us for the greater world.

Stories about student and alumni philanthropy that we can share with funding agencies and large-gift prospects often inspire them to also give. When members of the campus community give, they are expressing their belief in the institution. That’s a powerful thing. After all, charity does begin at home.

Good News “for a Change”

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What They Said screen shot

I truly do enjoy my job, and I am very appreciative of the folks who go out of their way to tell me that they are happy with the media coverage I’ve arranged. One of my favorite things is when folks e-mail me or stop me out walking around campus with story ideas. Alumni, especially, are very loyal to IUP, and they like to see their university represented fairly for the accomplishments of its students, faculty, and graduates. So, I try not to take it personally when I hear, “Let’s get some good news out there about IUP for a change.” I know they care deeply about IUP and its reputation and are just trying to help.

For the past several years, I’ve been maintaining a log of media hits on the What They Said web page. I think it’s a nice record of IUP in the news, and I hope that people (hint, hint: This means YOU, blog reader) visit it often.

But I’ve not really done an “official” count of media hits for several years, so, last year, I was asked to  count and measure the number of “good news” stories about IUP out there with circulation information. Here’s what we found:

There were 435 positive stories about IUP from January 2010 to January 2011 in 46 different media outlets locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

This does NOT include the hundreds of stories featured on our local radio station OR any stories on athletics. … I imagine the number would probably triple if I counted sports reports and features.

Anyway, these media hits ranged from places like Religion Dispatch (with a circulation of 2.3 million), the New York Times (circulation 740,007), and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune (circulation 534,750) to 29 hits in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (circulation 393,071), 22 hits in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (circulation 319,987), and 310 stories in the Indiana Gazette (circulation 16,000). Using what researchers call the “industry multiplier” (how many people actually read or hear news reports), this means that good news at IUP “for a change” reached 76,474,622 people. Yes, 76.5 million people.

Of course, we don’t catch every media hit, so this is just what I’ve been able to document. I think it’s a pretty impressive number.

That’s the good news. But be assured, I’m working to get that 76.5 million up past 100 million for 2011-2012,…so story tips and ideas are always welcome!

IUP-TV Crew Dazzles CBS Sports Crew

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IUP received great publicity when CBS Sports Network broadcast last night’s home football game (September 15). There were at least two alumni watch parties in distant places, and alumni from across the country gave us likes and comments to promotional announcements we made on IUP’s Facebook page. IUP nearly upset nationally ranked Bloomsburg.

IUP_TV_Logo_redblack.pngWhat you may not have heard: The students of IUP-TV came to the CBS crew’s rescue. CBS forgot to bring along a particular cable–an essential piece of equipment needed to use IUP-TV’s editing system. The students and station technician Chris Barber juryrigged some equipment to make it possible for the crew to use the system. The CBS crew was impressed again by the students’ ability to edit the footage shot of campus and of Indiana that was shown during the broadcast. IUP-TV students also worked in various paid support positions during the broadcast. All great stuff for aspiring broadcast industry professionals.

Here’s a sample of the IUP-TV sports crew’s ability, produced after the home opener against East Stroudsburg.

When Students Meet Alumni

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alumni_connections.jpgSome say who you know is as important as what you know. If that’s true, what do you do when you don’t know someone? My colleagues in the Alumni Relations Office are working with the staff of the Career Development Center and IUP’s academic areas to make sure our students make connections in the working world.

Next week, students from Eberly College of Business and the Computer Science Department will travel to Pittsburgh to attend a reception the Alumni Relations staff has planned with employees of PNC Bank. The idea is to give students the chance to make contacts with alumni within the company; those contacts could in turn lead to internships, cooperative experiences, inside knowledge, and, maybe a job after graduation. Mary Jo Lyttle, director of Alumni Relations, asked me to acknowledge the alumni from PNC who have volunteered to serve as the event’s host committee: Davie Huddleston ’69, David Williams ’79, Brady Wise ’95, Joanna Ender DiCiurcio ’02, Gary Greenwood ’06, Jennifer Butter ’07, and Benjamin Pollock ’09.

Alumni Relations and others in University Relations are working on a similar event in New York City in December for students studying business, Fashion Merchandising, and Hospitality Management. More on that later.

“Understanding” September 11

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September-11-memorial.jpgAlmost everyone has a story of “where I was on September 11, 2011.” Here is mine.

I was off campus for a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce.

The director had his television on, and we both stood there, stunned and silent. I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. “What a horrible accident. How could that happen?” I remember asking out loud, thinking that the pilot must have made a tragic mistake or maybe the plane’s instruments had malfunctioned. The response from the Chamber director is still with me. No words, just a look of disbelief, a failure to understand how anyone could be so naive as to think that these attacks were accidents.

And in seconds, I got it. A sickening realization of the truth. An immediate worry for my family, for my children, who had just arrived at their fifth-grade classrooms at East Pike Elementary School.

“If this could happen in America, in New York City, in Shanksville, at the Pentagon, could it happen here, in my town, at my university, to my home?” It was a question we all were asking.

In the weeks that followed at IUP, we all tried to think about the best ways to help our students, our parents, and our staff and faculty, especially those who had friends and family in New York City and abroad. We offered counseling. We assured worried parents that their children were safe. We decided to keep up business as usual, thinking that it would give students something to do, and to think about, if classes continued. We were afraid for our international students and faculty members, especially those who were Muslim, and tried to offer them as much support as we could.

I hated that this tragedy had taken over our lives, that it was all that we could think about or talk about. I knew it had to be our priority, but I hated it.

I just wanted life before 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001, back.

We spent a lot of hours discussing what we should do “in response to September 11.” We participated in President George W. Bush’s national call for a prayer and remembrance event. More than 4,500 people gathered in the Oak Grove for a ceremony that still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it ten years later.

We needed some kind of educational program, some kind of discussion, we all agreed. We broke things down. It had to be a series, we felt. The issues surrounding September 11 were just too big for one presentation. What would we call it? How would it look?

We came up with “9-11: A Community Discussion.” It felt right for the first program to be about the basics. What had happened? What do we know? I remember suggesting to the planning committee that we should use the word “understand,” as in, “Understanding 9-11.”

Several heads nodded; people started to take notes. Good, I thought. Now we can move on and start planning the program. We can move on, and go back to the way things used to be. If we just understand the what and the why, it will never happen again. We can make sense of things again.

And then a student spoke up. “I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “I don’t think we should say ‘understand.’ I’ll never understand September 11. I can acknowledge it, I can cope with it, I can move past it, but I will never understand it.”

Her comment has been with me since September 2001. And ten years later, I know she is right. I still struggle to “understand” the September 11 attacks.

I’ve moved forward, but without the sense of innocence I had before September 11, 2001. I no longer have the certainty that I had on September 10, 2001, that the violence of the following day just isn’t possible in my world.

I miss that innocence. I miss my children being that naive. I miss America being that naive.

I continue to appreciate that the university and Indiana community come together each September 11 to mark the day. And even though I’ve been thick in the planning of each program and I know the words to be spoken, I still find myself fighting back tears as I stand outside in the Oak Grove, thinking of how our lives were forever changed by September 11, 2001.

I’ve also watched the mother of one of our alumni lost in the World Trade Center attacks accept condolences and flowers from our president during the 2008 ceremony. Her face, still full of grief and disbelief, also will always be with me. I don’t let myself think about it too hard, as it breaks my own heart. Too close to home for those of us who are mothers, especially mothers of sons.

In 2002, less than a month after the first anniversary of September 11, we dedicated an artifact from the World Trade Center, on loan from the Kovalchick family, of Indiana. I’ve watched tour groups go by the monument, and I wonder what these high school students, who were in third and fourth grade in 2001, think about the structure. Maybe September 11 has been so much a part of their lives that they don’t realize there was a time when the World Trade Center was a symbol of commerce and prosperity and Shanksville was just a sleeply little farm town outside of Johnstown.

This year, we have created an opportunity for a different kind of reflection, a more personal time for individuals to think about what this decade has meant to them and what they will do to move forward. I hope it brings comfort and peace to those who take part in this vigil.

I will always grieve for the loss of innocence. But I do not hate talking about September 11. The sadness is with me, but it does not define me any longer.

Thoughts? Comments? Please feel free to share them below.