WHAT’S
NEW? 2017-18
Dining Commons Construction Building Momentum The University community continues to watch with anticipation as the new Dinning Commons progresses. The four-story, 70,000 square-foot building will feature a mall area with a grill, a bakery, Starbucks®, and sub shop, as well as meeting, lounge, and performance space. Students will begin using the facility in late fall.
Entrepreneurship is Hot at Western New England University Western New England University cultivates what we call “An Entrepreneurial Mindset” throughout our curriculum. We encourage students to collaborate on ideas across majors and even have a class that teams up business and engineering students for just that purpose. We also hold many “shark tank” type competitions on campus, including the 3 Day Startup (3DS)competition open to all students. A product pitched last year at the 3DS, a travel coffee brewer called AnyCafé, raised over $90,000 on Kickstarter and the team’s graduating seniors have set up office space in downtown Springfield to run it full-time after graduation. Watch for it soon on the shelves of major retailers.
E’RE NOW W
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WHAT’S NEW IN ACADEMICS? Biomedical Engineering Student Selected as Fulbright Scholar Biomedical Engineering graduate Kwasi Amofa ’17 has been named a Fulbright Scholar. Kwasi will spend next year in the Netherlands at the MERLN Institute for Technology. There he will work on a new project to bioengineer a cornea—research that could have a major impact on ophthalmology. “The support that I received from my professors was tremendous. My education at Western New England prepared me to dive into the research environment, and my advisors helped me find out what I wanted to pursue and achieve my goals,” says Kwasi.
Game Changer—College of Business Announces New Five-year Sport Leadership and Coaching Program
Doctor of Occupational Therapy Program Presents New Opportunities for Science Majors
Western New England University, a trailblazer in sport management and leadership education, has launched a new accelerated bachelor/master’s degree program this fall.
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations).
The Five-year Bachelor/Master of Science in Sport Leadership and Coaching is taught by our outstanding Sport Management faculty along with our own Dr. Bob Klein, a nationally respected leadership expert and creator of The Klein Group Instrument (KGI®). KGI is an assessment tool designed to help people develop skills and strategies essential to maximizing performance in the team-based environment. Bookended by two six-day residencies, the program is taught primarily online, enabling students to complete their master’s degree from anywhere once they begin working full-time.
In what is called in the field an “entry-level degree” the new Doctor of Occupational Therapy program offers a direct route from a bachelor’s degree (no master’s required) to a doctoral degree and is designed for students seeking to become leaders, scholars, or educators in the OT profession. Students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Health Sciences are ideal candidates for Pre-occupational Therapy study.
Pharmacy Study Now Leads to Both Bachelor’s and Doctoral Degrees
Academic Experience Workshops Offer a Glimpse into the Future
New Business Analytics Center Focuses on Big Data
Western New England University students in the two-year Pre-pharmacy program continuing on to our four-year Doctor of Pharmacy program now will receive two University degrees. After their first two years in the PharmD program, successful students will receive a bachelor’s degree. After two more years, they will earn their PharmD degrees. Earning their Bachelor of Science degree is recognition of student accomplishment in the program. It also enables them to fully participate in the undergraduate commencement experience with their classmates and friends.
What is it really like to be a student at Western New England University? A new program launched last spring, Active Experience Workshops, invites students with interests in specific disciplines such as Forensic Science, Pre-pharmacy, Biomedical Engineering, or Sport Management to come to campus for a day of hands-on team learning. Parents and students also have opportunities to personally connect with faculty at a joint luncheon. Consult our visit page at wne.edu/visit for a listing of this year’s dates.
The new Business Analytics Center provides students with the latest SAP software and analytics tools. SAP is an enterprise resource planning software used by successful companies to share and manage data. Students in every College of Business program can become certified in SAP. In fact, 62% of the Class of 2017 were SAP certified, a distinction that can help command higher starting salaries.
Growth of International Enrollments Earns University U.S. President’s Award U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross presented Western New England University with the President’s “E” Award for Exports at a ceremony in Washington, DC, on May 22. The award is the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. As an institution that “exports” higher education through the enrollment of international students, Western New England University was among just three colleges/universities and 32 U.S. companies and organizations nationwide so honored for “their role in strengthening the U.S. economy by sharing American ingenuity outside of our borders.” Western New England University enrolls international students from 30 countries, about 5% of the total student population [4,000].
Red Hat Open Source Software Names Two University Professors Among Top Instructors Department of Computer Science and Information Technology Chair Dr. Stoney Jackson and Dr. Heidi Ellis have been named by Red Hat among the top 21 instructors in U.S. higher education who have incorporated open source software into their academic work. “These 21 instructors are honored for their commitment to teaching open source to their students,” said Tom Callaway, university outreach lead at Red Hat. “These outstanding faculty accomplish this by running a Professor’s Open Source Software Experience or POSSE workshop, creating an open source program at their institutions, contributing materials to the growing open source curriculum base, and promoting the value of teaching open source to students at conferences and technical symposiums.”
High School Students Test Drive Future Careers at Free Golden Bear Pharmacy Summer Camp The Doctor of Pharmacy program held its second annual Golden Bear Pharmacy Summer Camp in June. Thirty-four local high school students attended the camp at no cost to them. It was a full week of activities presented by faculty, which included being in the laboratory making ointments, extracting DNA, testing chromatography, and participating in a microbiology experiment. They spent time with clinical faculty learning skills such as taking blood pressure and recognizing common uses for medicinal herbs. Visit wne.edu/phs for information on next year’s camp.
Faculty-developed Startup Launches Pain-free Diabetes Breathalizer Device University faculty members Dr. Ronny Priefer (Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) and Dr. Michael Rust (Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering) developed a revolutionary portable breathalizer device intended to replace regular finger prick blood testing in diabetes patients. Their company, New England Breath Technologies, was awarded $25,000 from Valley Venture Mentors (VVM), which will be used to run a clinical trial. As a participant selected for the prestigious VVM Accelerator program, a four-month long startup boot camp, the company received business advice and training, marketplace exposure, and networking with other area entrepreneurs. The firm also recently won the People’s Choice Award at the Sixth Annual M2D2 $100K Challenge, a nationwide competition that showcases the innovative ideas of early-stage medical device, diagnostic, and biotech companies.
Engineering Students Take Spring Competitions By Storm Western New England University’s Golden Bear Racing Team earned third place in the grueling Hill Climb event at the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series competition held in California. A team of Civil Engineering students won first place and a monetary stipend for their research poster titled “Increasing the Efficiency of Water Pumps in Multi-unit Residential Buildings” at the 2017 New England Water Works Association Spring Conference & Exhibition. Electrical and Computer Engineering students received second place honors at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Micromouse Competition for designing an autonomous robotic mouse to navigate a maze. The team also earned third placed standing at an IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) regional competition. In addition, Western New England University hosted an Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) annual event, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate students for academic excellence in senior design projects or independent research. Our student teams won first and third place honors.
Golden Bears Shine on the Field and in the Classroom It was another successful year for Western New England University in 2016-17, both athletically and academically. The football and men’s soccer teams led the way, earning trips to the NCAA tournament with their NEFC and CCC titles, respectively. Additionally, five other Golden Bear programs (women’s basketball, field hockey, and volleyball; men’s lacrosse and men’s golf) posted runner-up finishes in their respective CCC tournaments.
Students Find Voices Through Creative Expression Whether they are sitting at a potter’s wheel, playing Lumiere in the cast of Beauty and the Beast, or totally killing it in front of standing room only crowds in the improv troupe, Western New England students love to express their creative sides. That’s why we’ve developed a wide range of electives in the arts and minors in art, music, and theatre. Visit wne.edu/student-activities to learn about the arts on our campus.
Nine members of the CCC Tournament 3rd seed baseball team earned academic All-CCC recognition and first basemen Dan Morin was selected as CCC Senior Scholar-athlete of the year. The wrestling team was recognized as one of the top academically in the nation with National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar Team honors. Swimming continued a strong academic tradition with CSCAA Scholar All-American accolades for the 15th time. The field hockey team earned the Zag Field Hockey/ National Field Hockey Coaches Association National academic team award.