I\nlove the start of a new academic year. Taking time to get to know our newest\ncommunity members and reunite with those we have not been in daily summer\ncontact is pure joy. I especially enjoy celebrating the success of our\ncommunity through our accolades video and awards ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident\u2019s Award is Fort Hays State University\u2019s highest honor, given by the\npresident for substantial contributions to the university through professional\nand personal achievements. It is not given often \u2013 last presented in 2014. This\nfall I presented the award to our Teaching Innovation and Learning Technologies\n(TILT) Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\njust three short weeks, TILT helped overhaul the entire China program to\ndeliver online learning following the COVID-19 shutdown in early spring 2020.\nit even created tutorials for the students in Mandarin. Following its efforts\nin China, the team worked tirelessly to create and update its website to\nprovide faculty with detailed information and helpful links when campus classes\ntransitioned to all online courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Noting\nthat online students needed a deeper connection, TILT oversaw the\nimplementation of the Tiger-2-Tiger Student Support Platform. In addition to\nits pandemic response, TILT continued to meet with faculty to develop new\ncourses for programs and incorporated new ideas from the pandemic into the fall\n2021 professional development session. They are always scanning and\nimplementing cutting-edge technologies to improve teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident’s Distinguished Scholar Award was first conferred in 1989. Nominees\nfor this honor are evaluated by the analysis of their performance in the\ncategories of scholarship, service, and instruction. Significant levels of performance must be\ndemonstrated in service and instruction, with the primary focus of this award\nbased on research\/creative activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Hendratta Ali received the\n2021 President’s Distinguished Scholar Award. Hendratta is an accomplished\neducator and research scholar in the field of geoscience. She has 25\npeer-reviewed publications, a book chapter, over 100 refereed abstracts\npresented, and is recognized nationally and internationally. Recently, she\nsecured grants totaling more than $500,000, including two from the National\nScience Foundation and Geoscientist Without Borders. Receiving these awards\nattests to her research skills, technical expertise, and commitment to\neducation and service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nFaculty Member-of-the-Year Award is selected from the past year\u2019s recipients of\nfaculty awards for teaching, research\/scholarly activity, and service. Dr.\nApril Park was selected as the recipient of this award because she defines\nexcellence in scholarly activity. She is passionate about her research and\nworking with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nof April\u2019s former students sums up her professor\u2019s commitment with this\nstatement, \u201cHer support and guidance shaped me into the researcher, advisor,\nand graduate student I am today.\u201d April\u2019s impact on her students continues to\nenhance their learning experience and reflects her goal to be the best\nprofessor, researcher, mentor, and colleague possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brooke\nMann received the John Heinrichs Outstanding Research Mentor Award for her\ncommitment to foster undergraduate research. Brooke has shown outstanding\nmentorship by supporting her students throughout the research process. She is\ncommitted to the growth and learning of these individuals by making it a\npriority to oversee and assist in preparing their materials for presentations\nand conferences. She is open to student ideas and broadening her research\ninterests to enhance the experience for all of our students. These qualities\ndemonstrate her caring demeanor and how deserving she is to receive this award.\nOne student exemplifies this with the statement, \u201cI feel very fortunate that I\nwas able to work with her throughout my undergraduate years, and I know I am a\nbetter researcher because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\nawards also honored the Department of Computer Science with the Advancing\nAssessment Award and our Department of Leadership Studies with the Closing the\nLoop Assessment Award. Both of these departments have made great strides in\nimproving teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\naccolades video highlighted several accomplishments made by our faculty and\nstaff over the summer. Dr. Seth Kastle received the 2020 Veterans Knowledge\nCommunity Ally and Advocate Award from the National Association of Student\nAffairs Personnel Administrators. Dr. Patti Griffin was appointed to the\nadvisory board and professional development committee of NACADA: The\nGlobal Community for Academic Advising. Dr. Whitney Whitaker\nserved as a professional representative and program chair for the Southwestern\nPsychological Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grants\nreceived over the summer \u2013 totaling more than $190,000 \u2013 included two projects\nfunded by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism. One was\nawarded to Dr. Bill Starks and the other to graduate student Chloe Million. The\nNational Science Foundation provided funds to Dr. Paul Adams and Earl\nLegleiter, while a gift from the Hays Masonic Lodge was used to purchase\nsoftware for the FHSU Virtual Literacy Institute. Dr. Jenny\nManry received a grant for more than $150,000 from the Kansas Board of Regents\nKansas Nursing Initiative Grant program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some\nof our faculty spent their summers publishing textbooks. Dr. Janet Stramel\nwrote two textbooks: Early Childhood Mathematics Methods and Science and\nMathematics Planning: Lessons of Equity\nUnit. Heather Musil published Cliff Notes of Writing an IEP. Sue Boldra wrote\nan elementary social studies methods book, while Mandy Kern, a staff member at\nour Kansas Wetlands Education Center, authored a children\u2019s book, \u201cAva: A Year\nof Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet.\u201d Several faculty were also\nrecognized for articles published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nlove starting each new school year celebrating the accomplishments of my\ncolleagues. They truly inspire me. I am proud of the work they are doing and\nespecially the impact they make on our students, professions, community, and\nthe world. Indeed, our lives are improved through their devotion to their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love the start of a new academic year. Taking time to get to know our newest community members and reunite with those we have… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60834,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60833\/revisions\/60834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}