All posts by Aaron Jaco

News & Achievements Archive

Drake news: Week of Jan. 19

Pharmacy student joins Tour for Diversity in Medicine

Andrea Prince-Gomez, a third-year Drake pharmacy student from Ferguson, Mo., has been accepted to the Tour for Diversity in Medicine, a program that advocates for students from underrepresented populations to join health care fields. She will travel the country with other members of the organization beginning in February as its first representative for the field of pharmacy. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.


Rachel Paine Caufield publishes new book

A new book by Drake Associate Professor of Political Science Rachel Paine Caufield provides a pictorial history of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

The Iowa Caucus (Arcadia Publishing, 2016) colorfully illustrates with more than 200 photos the vibrant political culture that has emerged as a result of the state’s unique role in presidential politicking. Learn more about Rachel’s book here.

News & Achievements Archive

STEM Festival exhibitors needed

We need exhibitors to host activity-based booths at the Drake STEM Festival on April 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. in The Knapp Center, with set-up beginning at 5 p.m. While the target audience is PreK-8 students and their families, the event draws participants of all ages, making this a fun and educational metro-area event.

It’s a great time for instructors to engage students or entire classes in hands-on, STEM-related exhibits. The South Central STEM Hub can help with booth ideas and can fund many of the materials used during the evening. We’d love to fill The Knapp Center with Drake faculty and students!

Here are a few ideas for incorporating the festival into what you already do:

  • Build it into a lesson-planning curriculum for the entire class.
  • Move class time and meeting to the festival.
  • Incorporate your academic research/special interest into an activity or display.
  • Fulfill service-learning requirements.
  • Have a student group you work with present.
  • Turn your favorite lesson into a display or activity that piques interest in learning more.

Click here to register for exhibit space. Please contact Sarah Derry at sarah.derry@drake.edu for more information.

—Submitted by Sarah Derry, STEM Regional Advocate

News & Achievements Archive

J-Term update

Leadership at Sea
On Friday, Jan. 8, Ambassador Mary Kramer (ret) spoke to the LEAD 100 Leadership at Sea class. Kramer is a well-known leader in Des Moines, having served as vice president of human resources for Wellmark and Younkers, as well as president of the Iowa Senate. In addition, she served as ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean during the George W. Bush administration.

During their trip to the Bahamas, the LEAD students will meet with and present gifts to Bahamian government officials and American Embassy employees. Kramer’s role as ambassador helped prepare the students for that experience by guiding them on the etiquette and protocol for those exchanges. She also spoke to the class about her book, More Than A Walk On the Beach: Confessions of an Unlikely Diplomat, which the students had all read.

—Submitted by Tom Westbrook, Professor of Leadership Studies and Director of Leadership Concentration


Families, Lifestyles, and Annuity Tables: Why Corporations are Interested in Chile
Thanks to one of the University of the Andes Journalism and Mass Communication professors, Alejandro Garcia, we spent the morning at Channel 13.  They are the largest TV station in Chile.

We had an extensive tour, witnessed the live broadcast of their morning talk show, and had many people from many departments explain the workings of the station.  Our students were very excited!

I’m sharing a few photos from the visit: Molly Longman and Katherine Rousonelos, both of SJMC, seated at the news anchor desk; all the students live and on the “big screen”; all of us on the set of The Voice – Chile.

MollyKath

studentsTV13

TheVoice

—Submitted by Dorothy Pisarski, Associate Professor of Journalism

If you want to keep up to date on other J-Term courses, check out @OnPaintedStreet on Instagram!

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive, HR Information Archive

Add learning & development to your New Year’s goals

Are you curious about the “Generation on a Tightrope”? Would you like to learn about the balanced scorecard? How do YOU manage change? These are just a few of the topics that remain as part of the 2015–2016 Excellence in Learning & Development program. Check out this program, as well as other development opportunities, on the Learning & Development website. Pre-registration is requested, but not required.

—Submitted by Debra Wiley, Assistant Director, Human Resources

For Students Archive

Attend a press conference with the nation’s mayors

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) would like students to attend and participate in a special press conference this afternoon about issues facing our nation’s urban areas. USCM is encouraging students to come prepared with questions for the mayors, who represent Columbia, SC; Santa Fe, NM; Baltimore, MD; and Des Moines. The event takes place today at 2 p.m. in the Turner Jazz Center. The USCM press release follows:

THE NATION’S MAYORS TO BRING URBAN AGENDA TO IOWA

Washington, D.C. – The nation’s mayors will bring their urban agenda – The 2016 Compact for a Better America: A Call to Action – to Des Moines, Iowa for The Brown & Black Presidential Forum on Monday, January 11, 2016. The Compact calls on the Presidential candidates and Congress to INVEST in and PROTECT America’s cities and metro areas (www.usmayors.org).

Under the leadership of USCM President Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a bipartisan group of mayors from cities large and small will attend the Brown & Black Presidential Forum to stress to Presidential Candidates how important city/metropolitan issues are to the country and a growing number of Americans.

With more than 85% of people in the United States living in our nation’s cities and metro areas, mayors clearly understand how urban issues impact everyday Americans and are calling on candidates to focus on these issues. Mayors are convinced that despite their geographic location, cities large and small across over the country are plagued by the same challenges including access to healthcare, job creation, affordable housing, immigration, crime and illegal guns, failing public schools and climate protection.

Billed as the oldest Forum addressing minority issues, The Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum is an element of Urban Dreams’ non-partisan Project V.O.T.E. (Voting Opportunities Through Education). It is the nation’s only presidential forum in which all candidates have the opportunity to answer essential concerns of African-Americans and Latinos. The non-partisan event began in 1984 and has figured prominently in the Iowa caucuses. It is recognized as the oldest continuous minority forum for presidential candidates in America and one of the longest-running presidential forums in the nation.

“The issues of Des Moines and of cities around Iowa are the same issues that face mayors around the country each and every day. We support The Brown & Black Forum in its mission to present to the next President of the United States the challenges and opportunities before us and we believe it is critical that mayors participate,” said Tom Cochran, USCM CEO & Executive Director.

WHO:
Baltimore, MD Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, USCM President
Columbia, SC Mayor Steven Benjamin, USCM Trustee
Des Moines, IA Mayor Frank Cownie, USCM Trustee
Santa Fe, NM Mayor Javier Gonzales, USCM Member
Tom Cochran, USCM CEO & Executive Director

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE – MAYORS WILL REACT TO CANDIDATES AND SPEAK TO URBAN ISSUES IMPACTING AMERICA’S CITIES
WHEN: Monday, January 11, 2016 | 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Drake University | Turner Jazz Center

—Submitted by Jarad Bernstein, Director of Public Relations and Media Management

Strategic Updates Archive

Volunteer at tonight’s Brown and Black Forum!

Tonight is your chance to get up close and personal with political movers and shakers at the Brown and Black Forum! Although Drake’s entire ticket allotment has been distributed, a few volunteers are still needed for positions following the event. Volunteers would need to arrive to Olmsted Center by 8:30 p.m., so anyone attending the forum is not able to participate in this opportunity. If interested, please contact Rachel Paine Caufield at rachel.caufield@drake.edu.

—Submitted by Jarad Bernstein, Director of Public Relations and Media Management

Strategic Updates Archive

Tree removal on campus

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Over the next few weeks, you will notice the removal of 38 trees on campus. The trees will be removed from two construction sites: between Olin and Fitch halls for the construction of the Science Connector Building (Infill Building Tree Map), and from the south side of Olin Hall to the area just north of Medbury Hall for the School of Education (Education Building Tree Map). This will include all the trees in this area from 27th Street to the 28th Street Plaza.

Drake University will be required by the City of Des Moines and the Drake University Tree USA Committee to replace trees on the campus. As part of the new construction project, the University will plant 64 trees on campus. The trees will be located around the new building sites and other places across the campus.

As part of this removal, Drake will cut down four to five specially picked large oak trees. These particular oaks are approximately 100 years old. The trunks of these oaks will be milled for use in other projects on the campus in the future. The logs will be cut into 20-foot planks and stored for approximately two years; some potential uses of these special pieces of Drake history include wooden benches, picture frames, and more. If you have any other ideas for the use of this wood around campus, please let me know.

We have previously shared the tree information at the STEM@DRAKE Open House and the Holiday Breakfast. Drake University Grounds Department has established a Recommended Campus Trees list of potentially disease-free species to replant on the campus, which you can view here. If you would like to provide input on which trees the University should plant, please email jolene.schmidt@drake.edu.

—Submitted by Jolene Schmidt, Director of Operations and Support Services