KORU loses Spanish station manager By Jazlin Asencio KORU, ORU’s streaming radio station, will lose its Spanish station manager, effective immediately. Nany Lizette Ramirez Nava, native of Mexico City, has been involved with KORU since 2009. She also works full-time in the ORU Hispanic Center. Ramirez recently decided not to renew her green card. President Obama promised in his reelection year that it would be easier for international students to study in the U.S., and cheaper to stay and work after graduation. Ramirez has not seen the changes come through. “It is so easy for an internationals to come study here, because we are giving money to the country and to the school. Then, to get a job in the country they are studying in is hard and it shouldn’t be that way.” In 2009, Ramirez took the KORU workshop where she learned how to operate a terrestrial radio station. She, along with other students, proposed to make KORU online, with the addition of a Spanishlanguage stream. “We did research and no other university has had a Spanish stream together with English,” said Ramirez. Ramirez proposed this idea because she knew it would reach students as well as listeners unfamiliar with ORU, and could be accessed anywhere online. “I graduated in 2010, and it was still in proposal,” said Ramirez. “I started working in the Hispanic
Center, but I still helped as a manager for the KORU radio station and then it became alive and there was actually money to have a whole staff.” Not only was Ramirez working full-time in the Hispanic Center, but she also volunteered to help and teach the students the different roles in KORU all while she was in charge of programming the music. The team’s hard work paid off as the first Spanish radio stream went online Sept. 11, 2010. Now, KORU has over 30,000 listeners across the world. “My heart has always been for radio, TV, film,” said Ramirez, “but right now, I’m leaving ORU and I feel like my season is over. “ Ramirez will travel back home to Mexico City. “There is so much need for media schools to raise up in a Christian level,” said Ramirez. KORU will continue to be led by students trained by Ramirez. New leaders have not been announced. “It has been great to work in the Hispanic Center and serve all Hispanic students and internationals,” said Ramirez. “I’m leaving ORU, but I’m carrying it with me wherever God is taking me.” Students wanting to get involved with KORU should contact Assistant Professor Mark Labash, mlabash@oru.edu. Scholarships for KORU work positions are also available. Links to both the KORU English and Spanish streams are found on ORU’s homepage, oru.edu.
Internet photo
Nancy Ramirez, former station manager for Spanish KORU, left her position this week.
New CIO advocates for student technology Focuses on mobile platform with Banner, D2L instant access By Kristy Sturgill New Chief Information Officer Michael Mathews plans to facilitate ORU’s leadership in the use of technology in higher education. “When you start as a freshman the biggest fear is you are not going to make it,” said Mathews. Mathews wants to eliminate that fear by allowing students to access their personal data, track their progress and develop goals and plans based on their current path. “In today’s digital age of smart electronics, students can navigate their past, present and future in their hands,” said Mathews. Mathews has high hopes for students and dreams of their potential in creating innovative technology that
would greatly impact the world. “I think students are just playing with the Internet right now, but my desire is to see them get creative with the Internet for great purposes,” said Mathews. Mathews hopes to facilitate an environment in which students and IT can partner on creative projects. Mathews said that in his lifetime he will witness two miracles. One he has already experienced. He began his career working on super computers that filled entire rooms, and now he can hold one in his hand. The second will be when students can carry their own Banner and D2L equivalent in their hands. A student will have immediate access to transcripts, classes, job history, scholarships and past and future goals.
“Technology is becoming personalized and more engaging, but it connects us to every person’s world,” said Mathews. He envisions that in the near future students from around the globe can take entire degree programs via their mobile devices from a leading global university like ORU. Mathews invented the first education and career positioning system (EPS4.me). It won the 2013 Campus Technology Innovator of the Year Award and the 2012 U.S. Department of Education Start-up for all U.S. colleges and universities. He has authored three books: “Heaven 3.0: Seeing and Believing,” “And God Chose Dreams” and “What in Heaven and Hell is Happening.”
Photo by Julianne Gonzalez
CIO Michael Mathews plans for student-accessible educational data, progress and goals through the Internet and new technology.
THE ORACLE • Friday, April 25, 2014 • 5