The School of Education’s gifted and talented endorsement has been approved by the State of Illinois. Thanks to Professor Sally Beisser’s hard work and persistence, teachers from Illinois can now take this endorsement online and know that it will automatically be approved to be added to their licenses.

—Catherine Gillespie, SOE

The U.S. Department of State announced that Drake will again serve as a host institute for the Mandela Washington Fellowship program, which cultivates vital personal and professional connections between Africa and Iowa. Drake first hosted the prestigious program in 2016. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.

Drake is now accepting applications for its new compliance and risk management program, beginning in fall 2017. The program, offered through Drake Law School and Drake’s College of Business and Public Administration, includes a professional certificate, a Master of Jurisprudence, and a Master of Laws. Read more in the Drake Newsroom.

The spring and fall 2016 editions of Urban Plains—the website created by Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication news, magazine and digital media production seniors—has captured first place in the large group category of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts Interactive Multimedia competition. It is the second year that Urban Plains has won the award. This year, Drake tied for first with a team from Elon University, among the 174 institutions represented in this year’s competition. Prizes will be awarded during the annual BEA convention in Las Vegas in April. The competition bills itself as the world’s largest digital media and broadcast contest for faculty and students.

In addition, Drake students won a record 31 awards in the recent Iowa College Media Association contest, including recognition for writing, design, info graphic, photography, editing, and video.

—Kathleen Richardson, Dean, SJMC

MUBS Visiting Student Group
The third group of visiting students from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) is on campus until Feb. 12 for a week-long seminar on leadership. The contingent includes seven students and three faculty members. This group worked closely with many Drake students who traveled to Uganda last summer and will continue to engage with them, and those traveling to Uganda this summer, throughout the week. One of the highlights of the visit is that the group was introduced to the Iowa House Assembly by Rep. Zach Nunn, AS’02, and others on Feb. 6.

2017 Global Faculty Program at Monterrey Tec
Tom Swartwood was selected to participate in Tec de Monterrey’s Global Faculty Program and will travel to Guadalajara March 6–10 to take part. Tom’s goals for the visit include partnering with Tec entrepreneurship faculty to include virtual interactions between the two schools’ entrepreneurship students during an Innovation Week, which Tom has modeled after Tec’s program.

—Kirk Martin, Drake International

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) has extended its accreditation of two specializations within Drake’s counseling program. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.

Ten members of the Drake community were named to the Des Moines Business Record’s Forty Under 40 class for 2017. You can see the list of Drake honorees in the Drake Newsroom.

A student-led initiative through a 2016 Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Capstone project resulted in adoption of a pilot program aimed at reducing waste and improving efficiency by eliminating paper towel dispensers in Crawford Hall. Instead, energy-efficient Dyson V-Blade hand dryers were installed. In order to measure the success of this pilot program, the student group will be conducting a student survey at the end of the spring semester to determine if the waste reduction effort is sustainable.

The LEAD program at Drake seeks to bring positive social change to Drake’s campus and community by aligning students’ values with the University’s. This past semester, student groups set out to make Drake a more environmentally sustainable campus and to foster habitual environmental living within our Drake community. They chose to bring this initiative to life because they believe it is vital to the future success and excellence of Drake’s students and faculty, as well as the environment as a whole. The initiative aligns directly with the University’s mission statement and commitment to acting as engaged global citizens and champions of environmental sustainability. Their capstone outlined four main ways to address these facets of the University’s mission statement:

• Replace paper towels with hand dryers in campus building restrooms
•  Start a yearly “Blue Goes Green” education and awareness week on campus
•  Establish a monetary incentive for using reusable cups in campus coffee shops
• Implement a mug wall into campus coffee shops with reusable mugs that can be checked out by students

A survey was completed with responses from 170-plus students and faculty members in strong support for the implementation of hand dryers and other sustainable initiatives. Focus group sessions were then held in October with Drake students to dive deeper and gauge their feelings about the hand dryer initiative. The same ideology stood out: They all wanted to see Drake become a greener campus.

During the week of Nov. 7, 2016, students hosted a week of education to coincide with their current projects. The three activities included:

• Educating their peers on the importance of environment sustainability
• Informing them on how they can make sustainable choices while living on campus
• Communicating current green initiatives

Through a variety of activities both in-person and via social media, the week was a success. The multimedia campaign on social media included videos, shared photos, and an engagement contest. Students were interested and engaged with messages, and we received positive feedback throughout the week.

They also collaborated with President Marty Martin to produce promotional and educational videos that can be seen below:

Moments with Marty #1: https://youtu.be/GMsdsc-3ehY
Moments with Marty #2: https://youtu.be/ZK1ZeV9eniE

The student group is passionate about the hand dryer initiative at Drake and eliminating paper towel waste. This will be a huge step forward for Drake in cutting operating costs and making our University more sustainable.

—Manny Toribio, Facilities Planning and Management

Drake is among the nation’s best colleges for students seeking great academics, outstanding career preparation, and generous financial aid according to The Princeton Review. The University is one of 200 schools the education services company profiles in its new book, Colleges That Pay You Back. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.