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MARQUETTE Teaching Excellence winners are the pinnacle of the teacher-scholar model By Lynn Sheka
Teaching Excellence Awards Photos by Dan Johnson
Dr. Sandra Hunter, Department of Physical Therapy
are the highest honor bestowed upon
Dr. Terence T. Ow, Department of Management
Marquette faculty members. Recipients are nominated by colleagues and students for demonstrating excellence as teacher-scholars. Drs. Sandra Hunter, Daniel Meissner and Terence T. Ow received the John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, and Dr. John Su received the Robert and Mary Gettel Award for Teaching Excellence at the Père Marquette Dinner on May 1. Dr. Daniel Meissner, Department of History
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DR. SANDRA HUNTER
EPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL THERAPY D COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES Dr. Sandra Hunter, associate professor of exercise science, represents the very best of the teacher-scholar model. In addition to being a Teaching Excellence Award winner this year, she also received the 2014–15 Way Klingler Fellowship in the sciences for her work on reversing the effects of Type 2 diabetes. Hunter’s commitment to both teaching and scholar ship is evident both inside and outside of the classroom. She has mentored more than 38 undergraduate and professional students in her lab since 2003, including serving as co-author for at least 21 students on over 36 peer-reviewed scientific papers out of 60 career papers published in internationally respected journals.
Dr. John Su, Department of English
Always open to feedback, Hunter has experimented with the flipped classroom model, which enables her to use class time for increased interactive learning. Students commented on the many opportunities she provided for peer collaboration and participation, as well as hands-on learning, noting that Hunter’s enthusiasm for her field of work was contagious. Hunter teaches classes in the areas of exercise and applied physiology, and says that besides teaching the required content, she emphasizes and teaches “transferrable skills that will allow students to stay current in a rapidly changing world where they will be changing jobs on average every five years,” such as resourcefulness, presentation skills, problem solving, deductive reasoning, critical thinking, perseverance and effective communication.
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CAM PU S H A P P E N I N GS Summer K-12 Engineering Academies offered on campus
Future Milwaukee accepting applications for 2014 –15 class
The College of Engineering is offering 22 Engineering Academies and an Engineering Leadership Residential Academy for K-12 students this summer. These on-campus classes seek to develop and prepare future Marquette engineers to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and leaders that will contribute to a global society. Students learn to appreciate STEM while exploring the engineering design process and solving real-world engineering problems. The full summer class schedule and registration information are posted online at marquette.edu/engineering/academies.shtml.
The Future Milwaukee Community Leadership Program, offered through the College of Professional Studies, is currently recruiting individuals for its ninemonth program. Program participants can expect to examine their leadership capabilities, focus on expanding skills and explore best practices in team building and collaboration. Participants will meet two times each month on Monday evenings from September 2014 through May 2015. Apply online at futuremilwaukee.org by Monday, June 30.
MARQUETTE MATTERS
The next generation: Way Klingler Young Scholars lead the way on research By Lynn Sheka
Way Klingler Young Scholar Awards support promising young scholars in critical stages of their careers. The awards of up to $32,000 are intended to fund $2,000 in operating costs and to cover up to 50 percent of salary to afford the recipient a one-semester sabbatical. The 2014–15 Way Klingler Young Scholar Award recipients are: Dr. Allison Hyngstrom, Dr. Peter Staudenmaier, Dr. Qadir Timerghazin and Dr. Amber Wichowsky. Dr. Allison Hyngstrom, assistant professor of physical therapy, is researching the neural mechanisms associated with strength deficits to understand how stroke-related changes in muscle fatigue affect walking function.She plans to use her one-semester sabbatical to apply for a NIH R01 grant to further her research program. Hyngstrom hopes her research will help develop new rehabilitation strategies to optimize leg strengthening and walking in the chronic stroke population. Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability in the United States, impairing quality of life for millions of Amerians. “The teacher-scholar model at Marquette allows me to expose current students to cutting-edge research,” Hyngstrom says. “In addition to their growth as scholars, feedback from students helps me understand my research from a fresh perspective.”
Dr. Peter Staudenmaier, assistant professor of history, studies connections between nation and nature and ethnic and environmental regeneration. He is currently working on his second book, which will explore the politics of blood and soil in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by examining the history of alternative agricultural movements, organic farming and environmental protection. He hopes his work helps others recognize that having a better understanding of the choices that environmentally oriented groups and movements made in the past can help create a clearer sense of the environmental decisions faced today. “The chance to combine ongoing research with the challenges and pleasures of teaching is not something all scholars get to experience,” Staudenmaier says. “I feel very lucky to be part of an academic institution that treats research and teaching as equally valuable parts of scholarly work.”
Dr. Qadir Timerghazin, assistant professor of chemistry, uses computational modeling to understand the reactions of solvated electrons with organic molecules — one of the key steps in radiation damage of genetic material. Timerghazin also studies what he calls the “puzzling electronic structure and chemistry” of S-nitrosothiols, which are involved in enacting the diverse roles of nitric oxide, which control a variety of key physiological processes in living organisms. Since experimental studies are difficult to undertake on these sorts of reactions, computational chemistry modeling helps decipher how fast these reactions proceed and what can be done to enable or prevent them. “Our goal is to provide a clear, chemically intuitive picture of the processes involving species with complex electronic structures, which is relevant to chemistry, biochemistry, life sciences and medicine,” Timerghazin says.
Dr. Amber Wichowsky, assistant professor of political science, researches the political, social and economic factors that shape disparities in political participation and whether this uneven participation affects democratic responsiveness and accountability. Wichowsky serves on the board of a national research collaborative, Laboratories of Democracy, which partners academics with community leaders to conduct randomized controlled studies of policies and practices to identify those that are most effective at solving public problems. She plans to establish an affiliated Democracy Lab at Marquette. “Through the Democracy Lab, I hope to build a repository of best practices that can be shared with community stakeholders, and to create a space where students can conduct community-based research, gain skills in public policy evaluation and become more engaged citizens,” Wichowsky says. Photos by Dan Johnson
Teaching excellence awards
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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1
DR. DANIEL MEISSNER
EPARTMENT OF HISTORY D KLINGLER COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Dr. Daniel Meissner, associate professor of history, is an expert on East Asian civilization who teaches surveys and seminars focused on promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding. One of his colleagues wrote that Meissner has the ability to transform the classroom into “magical places where students pass through a Narnian wardrobe only to find themselves transplanted in Confucian cosmological workshops, Qin calligraphic practice with ink and brush, Buddhist tea ceremonies and walking tours through China.” Meissner received a Fulbright Award to teach in China during the 2011–12 academic year, which prompted him to deepen students’ educational experiences by developing two interdisciplinary summer study abroad courses in China for undergraduates. In the classroom, Meissner makes it a point to call on each student every class. “I challenge my students to recall information, draw links to other lectures or courses, express opinions, formulate hypotheses, question interpretations, or anticipate outcomes,” he says. Meissner strives to have a positive impact on students inside and outside of the classroom, in Milwaukee and around the world in China. He has served as the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History since 2010 and also works to assist Chinese exchange students adjust to life in the Midwest.
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DR. TERENCE T. OW
EPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT D COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Dr. Terence T. Ow, associate professor of management, regularly teaches an introductory course that is critical for undergraduates, as it can often set students on a positive trajectory. And it is clear from his teaching evaluation scores that he consistently does just that. The course is an enriching experience for students because they are engaged in semester-long projects, applying their knowledge and creating much-needed database solutions for local service organizations. Many of Ow’s former students decided to pursue careers in informational technology after taking his introductory course. Students appreciate Ow’s use of the Socratic method and his rigorous expectations because they push them to perform at a higher level. A former student said, “There was never an ‘easy’ day in his classroom, but there was also never a day I didn’t grow and develop in my knowledge.” Outside the
classroom, Ow has an open door policy, and students often attend his office hours for questions about coursework, career choice, internships and job interviews. Ow holds himself to the same high expectations he holds his students, challenging himself to be as relevant as possible in the dynamic area of technology. “I recently shadowed partners in an accounting firm to explore and examine the various roles our students will be expected to take on in their careers,” Ow says. “It was also a reality check for me to see if the knowledge and skill sets that I teach were relevant for our students. I always want to be sure I set them up to be as successful as possible in their chosen field given today’s ever changing technology.”
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DR. JOHN SU
EPARTMENT OF ENGLISH D KLINGLER COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Dr. John Su, professor of English and director of the Core of Common Studies, is known to be one of the most popular professors in his department, and one of the most challenging. A former director of the University Honors Program noted that Su is able to “challenge the very top students without losing the students who struggle more with the material.” Both graduate and undergraduate students echo this sentiment, noting that Su’s expectations for his students are always very high. One undergraduate student said, “He took me off cruise control. He made me work to succeed. He made me push myself. He inspired me to earn achievement rather than accepting it.” Su pushes no one harder than himself, saying revision is the key to his success in the classroom. “I fail all the time — every semester,” Su says. “I experiment with new approaches, assignments and topics. Often, they don’t work the first or second time, or ever. I try to be a relentless critic of my pedagogy, to learn and revise.” As director of the Core of Common Studies, Su has worked to refine assessment procedures and ready the university for an extensive program review. He has developed and taught more than 20 courses while at Marquette, which is highly unusual. Having taught in the Department of English, the University Honors Program and several common core courses, Su’s teaching reach extends to students in majors and disciplines across campus.
Haggerty Award winner tackles the tough topics His career as a researcher is as varied as it is prolific, but Dr. James Holstein’s start as a sociologist was a bit shaky. Now a professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, he started as an undergraduate who “bounced around for seven years” at the University of California– Berkley during the height of the Vietnam War before declaring a sociology major. Holstein completed his doctoral work at the University of Michigan disenchanted, but was reenergized during a postdoctoral experience at UCLA. Thirty-five years later, he’s a sure-footed scholar and this year’s recipient of the Lawrence G. Haggerty Faculty Award for Research Excellence for his scholarship on social problems, deviance, mental illness and family life. An internationally known sociologist, Holstein has served as editor of a leading journal in his field, Social Problems, and has published nearly 100 journal articles, 12 books and 28 edited volumes. Holstein describes his work plainly: “I’ve been interested in how people construct the meaningful contours of their everyday lives through their routine actions and interactions,” he says. “For me, sociology deals with how our social surroundings and interactions condition what we see, say, do, feel and who we are.” Holstein’s research has far-reaching implications for important societal and legal problems. Take mental illness, for example. His research
Photo by Dan Johnson
By Christopher Stolarski
into involuntary commitment hearings found that the process by which individuals are committed against their will is not uncaring or arbitrary. “It’s vastly complex because it often pits the rights of individuals and their personal wellbeing, however it might be defined, against the well-being of the community at large,” he says. “The legal system has struggled for decades to try to find a balance between individual liberty and community welfare.” The veteran researcher is now applying a similar analytic lens to a decidedly different
phenomenon: professional football. “I’ve always had a secret urge to work on something from my personal life that really grabs me,” Holstein says. “Since I was a kid, I’ve been a sports enthusiast, playing and following just about every sport imaginable.” Perhaps serendipitously, Holstein and fellow Marquette Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences Dr. Richard Jones were dissertation advisers for former Green Bay Packers linebacker Dr. George E. Koonce. The three have expanded on Koonce’s research into the aftermath of football careers, and a new book, Is There Life After Football? Surviving the NFL, will be published this fall by NYU Press. “Writing Is There Life After Football? has probably been the hardest writing project I’ve undertaken, but it’s also been the most fun,” Holstein says. “I’m pleased with the work we’ve done, but, to be honest, I’ve heard enough about profligate spending, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and Richie Incognito to last a lifetime.” Marquette Matters is published every other month during the academic year for Marquette University’s faculty and staff. Submit information to: Marquette Matters – Zilber Hall, 235; Phone: 8-7448; Fax: 8-7197 Email: marquettematters@marquette.edu Editor: Lynn Sheka Graphic design: Nick Schroeder Copyright © 2014 Marquette University
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MARQUETTE MATTERS
Being the difference: Excellence in University Service Awards celebrate staff members who go above and beyond By Jesse Lee
Excellence Excellence in University Service Awards recognize staff members who have contributed to the essential work of Marquette at the highest level of excellence. Recipients were nominated based on service that is above and beyond the duties normally assigned to their positions. They will be honored at the Excellence in University Service Awards Luncheon on June 3.
Photos by Dan Johnson
Michelle Raclawski Director of academic business affairs College of Health Sciences Michelle Raclawski views her job as “a bridge between what needs to be done and how to get it done.” In the College of Health Sciences, she’s known as a problem solver, communicator, caregiver and hard worker. As one nominator said, when Raclawski is approached with a problem, “Her answer is always, ‘I will take care of that.’” “I got my work ethic from my parents,” Raclawski says. “I feel like people who work with me know my mission is to help them do their jobs.” From her nominations, which range from notes of thanks for helping to navigate purchases and policies to praise for tracking grants, it’s clear that faculty and staff recognize and value her dedication and expertise.
Debra Jelacic Office associate Department of English Klingler College of Arts and Sciences For Debra Jelacic, dedication and commitment of service to Marquette runs in the family. Her father, Floyd Hubatch, received the Excellence in University Service Award in 1993. “My father had a great work ethic. He continually did more than was expected of him,” Jelacic says. “He loved working at Marquette, and I was excited to follow his path. I try hard to model my actions after his.” The model is working. Words used to describe Jelacic in her nominations include professional, knowledgeable, kind, generous and utterly indispensable. Jelacic adds another word: blessed. “Every day I see great people doing great work, and I consider many of my co-workers good friends,” she says. “I feel that I’m blessed to have been given the opportunity to work at Marquette.”
Mitchell Gawlak Mail carrier Facilities Services “Mitchell is the bright spot of my day.” “Mitchell is a caring presence to all he meets.” “Mitchell is the difference to many of us in his daily contributions to our work.” These sentiments echo throughout every nomination for Mitchell Gawlak. The people who nominated him describe his hard work and dedication, along with his positivity, his smiles and his love of all things Marquette. “Mitch was chosen because of his incredible work ethic and positive attitude,” says Christopher Bartolone, Gawlak’s supervisor. “Mitch is always upbeat and takes great pride in doing his job well. Seeing him win makes our whole department proud.”
Ruzica Gajic Custodian II Facilities Services Cleaning the College of Nursing’s Emory Clark Hall, with its two staircases, four floors of classrooms and offices, numerous bathrooms and hundreds of daily visitors, is a daunting task. But it’s a task easily handled by custodian Ruzica Gajic. As one person who nominated her said, “Not only does Ruzica do marvelous work, she does it with a cheerful, friendly and helpful demeanor. Those of us who work in Clark Hall truly value her service to Marquette. She is a wonderful employee who deserves to be recognized.” Gajic was humbled to learn she had been chosen to receive the award. “I’m very grateful,” she says. “I’ll continue to do good work.” Of that, the faculty, staff and students in Clark Hall have no doubt.
M A R Q U ET T E H AP P E NINGS Haggerty Museum of Art welcomes two new exhibits this summer
Next class of journalists for O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism announced
The Haggerty Museum of Art will welcome two new summer exhibitions, which will run June 4 – August 3. Looking at a portrait or figure painting has usually been thought of as an isolated occasion with finite meaning, but Scrutiny After the Glimpse explores the potential of paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures of the human form to evince multiple meanings based on context and proximity to other works. AGOD, an acronym for “animated GIF of the day, is an organic video about the fear of order and disorder, and is comprised of daily animate GIFs, created and collaged over a three-year time span. The non-linear, openended narrative speaks to the rapid speed and large volume of information available in the digital age.
The three journalists who will take part in the Diederich College of Communication’s Perry and Alicia O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism during the 2014–15 academic year are Brandon Loomis of The Arizona Republic, Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Marjorie Valbrun, an independent journalist whose fellowship work stands to be published by The Washington Post. They will report on water scarcity, food additives and welfare reform, respectively, and will each research and produce an in-depth public service journalism project on campus and working with Marquette students, giving them first-hand journalism experience.