Endowed Faculty Chair Awards - Kirkwood Community College
Endowed Faculty Chair Awards - Kirkwood Community College
Endowed Faculty Chair Awards - Kirkwood Community College
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
v<br />
KirKwood <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
<strong>Endowed</strong><br />
<strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong><br />
<strong>Awards</strong><br />
2012 - 2013<br />
“I am continually amazed<br />
at the creativity, energy<br />
and dedication to learning<br />
demonstrated by our faculty.<br />
The wide range of topics and<br />
goals in these <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong><br />
<strong>Chair</strong> awards is only the<br />
beginning. The endowment process provides ongoing<br />
support of teaching and learning at <strong>Kirkwood</strong>.<br />
Decades from now, students and faculty will benefit<br />
from what these fine faculty members do today.”<br />
~ Dr. Mick Starcevich, President
2012-2013<br />
<strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> Recipients<br />
Sheryl Konen<br />
Professor, Interior Design, Business and Informational Technology<br />
Supported by the<br />
Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Dr. Lydia Hartunian<br />
Associate Professor, Humanities, Arts and Humanities<br />
Kate Hess<br />
Librarian, Iowa City Campus<br />
Shelby Myers-Verhage<br />
Associate Professor, English, Iowa City Campus<br />
Dr. Brooke Strahn-Koller<br />
Associate Professor, Sociology, Social Sciences<br />
Supported by the following<br />
<strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> Donors<br />
AEGON USA<br />
The Allsop Family<br />
Diamond V Mills<br />
The Mansfield Trust<br />
The Rohde Family<br />
RuffaloCODY<br />
St. Luke’s Hospital/Iowa Health System<br />
<strong>Kirkwood</strong> Facilities Foundation<br />
<strong>Kirkwood</strong> Foundation Board
What are the<br />
<strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> <strong>Awards</strong>?<br />
The <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> awards were initiated by <strong>Kirkwood</strong><br />
<strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> President Dr. Mick Starcevich to honor<br />
retiring President Dr. Norm Nielsen in December 2004.<br />
<strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong>s provide an opportunity for selected faculty<br />
to undertake professional development projects in their disciplines<br />
or in instructional pedagogy through writing, preparing and<br />
presenting a special lecture, conducting research, or pursuing other<br />
opportunities. The emphasis is on personal and professional growth<br />
and is separate from assigned duties, routine work or service to the<br />
department.<br />
The goals for the <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> program are to:<br />
• Encourage faculty to pursue educational<br />
challenges with creativity and innovation.<br />
• Promote academic quality by supporting faculty<br />
commitment to educational and pedagogical<br />
excellence.<br />
• Promote the college’s name in connection with<br />
educational excellence.<br />
• Bring community leaders and faculty together in<br />
a commitment to excellence in education.<br />
The <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> program is a major effort by the<br />
<strong>Kirkwood</strong> Board of Trustees and the <strong>Kirkwood</strong> Foundation<br />
Board to demonstrate their commitment to quality instruction<br />
by recognizing and fostering instructional excellence and<br />
lifelong learning.
2012-2013<br />
hEnry B. and PatriCia B. tiPPiE EndowEd <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Sheryl Konen<br />
Interior Design, Business and IT<br />
Resourcing Secondary Interior Design Career and<br />
Technical Education: A Blueprint<br />
Educational improvements in the state include offering<br />
more career and technical education courses, and as a result interior design<br />
courses will be offered to high school students as electives in the Iowa<br />
Core Curriculum. Family and Consumer Science (FCS) teachers will be the<br />
classroom facilitators for the new interior design courses. I would like to<br />
function as a “Resource Center” to help FSC secondary teachers develop<br />
the curriculum and a classroom Materials Sample Library to teach interior<br />
design presentation.<br />
I plan to travel the AEA 10 district and speak in classrooms to teachers<br />
and students about the profession and careers available in interior<br />
design. I intend to build a network of FCS teachers that wish to link to<br />
a post secondary program. At the conclusion of this project I will offer<br />
recommendations to FCS teachers concerning professional development<br />
activities for themselves and high school students.<br />
KirKwood EndowEd <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Dr. Lydia Hartunian<br />
Associate Professor, Humanities, Arts & Humanities<br />
Meeting Students on their Technological Terms:<br />
Understanding the New Brain, the New Learner<br />
The purpose of my research is to discern the ways in which specific<br />
technologies used in classrooms, for example, smart phones and the<br />
internet, are changing not the just the way in which students interface<br />
with curriculum and with learning, but ways in which the new landscape<br />
of information from technology is changing the very nature of the brain<br />
itself. In depth study will be given to research that suggests there are<br />
neurological shifts emerging that alter the ways in which “the new learner”<br />
engages with reading comprehension and language. Specifically, I will<br />
focus on ways in which the phenomenon of “deep reading” is impacted<br />
by students’ interface with digital learning, and determine whether or<br />
not research suggests the brain of the new learner requires new kinds of<br />
curriculum, and if so, what the losses and gains might be in this context<br />
compared to more traditional (pre-digital) models of learning.
2012-2013<br />
KirKwood EndowEd <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Kate Hess<br />
Librarian, Iowa City Campus<br />
Learning Like Children<br />
As children, learning is both our play and our work.<br />
It is effortless yet we pour our energy into it. We<br />
are natural born learners; experimenting, observing and adapting our<br />
play as we go. Play is essential to the healthy development of children,<br />
but play continues to help us learn and make new connections long past<br />
childhood–look at Miles Davis’ playful approach to music, or Einstein’s<br />
playful approach to the natural world. I will be studying learning as play,<br />
and integrating this concept into Critical Pedagogy and its offshoot in<br />
Library Science, Critical Information Literacy. These theories ask students<br />
to examine their own personal backgrounds and assumptions, and to<br />
look at the information they encounter in its cultural context as starting<br />
points for being critical thinkers. Applying concepts of play to this critical<br />
approach will point these theories in a positive direction for encouraging<br />
curious, motivated and playful lifelong learners.<br />
KirKwood EndowEd <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Shelby Myers-Verhage<br />
Associate Professor, English, Iowa City Campus<br />
Hidden Literacies: Developing a Portfolio Project<br />
for Developmental Learners<br />
My project looks at the “hidden literacies” of our students. When<br />
students apply to <strong>Kirkwood</strong>, we first direct them toward the Test Center<br />
to complete a COMPASS exam so we know where to place them. The<br />
COMPASS test measures their basic skills and it’s the best measure we’ve<br />
got at our open-door institution, but what do they really know? What<br />
knowledge do they bring with them to college that will help them achieve<br />
success? What are the “hidden literacies” that COMPASS can’t assess?<br />
I plan to do some classroom research centered on a portfolio component.<br />
This portfolio will provide a supplement to the COMPASS scores of<br />
our developmental learners. Reading and writing are the hardest skills<br />
to assess on any standardized exam, and a portfolio would provide<br />
instructors more information about where those learners are and where<br />
they need to go.
2012-2013<br />
KirKwood EndowEd <strong>Chair</strong><br />
Dr. Brooke Strahn-Koller<br />
Associate Professor, Sociology, Social Sciences<br />
New Kid on the Block: How Do <strong>Kirkwood</strong> Students<br />
Fare Following Transfer to Four-year Institutions?<br />
<strong>Community</strong> colleges are well known as the beginning point for many<br />
students pursuing higher education. A unique feature of community<br />
colleges is their complex focus and ability to serve a diverse student<br />
population on a variety of levels; helping learners achieve various end goals.<br />
One major goal of many students at community colleges is to transfer to<br />
a four-year institution. Researchers have studied the success of transfer<br />
students and found that they face unique struggles related to social and<br />
academic integration at the transfer institution. Through interviews with<br />
former <strong>Kirkwood</strong> students, this endowed chair project will shed light on<br />
the experiences and difficulties our own student’s faced as they moved to<br />
a four-year institution. Because age may be an important variable, specific<br />
comparisons will be made for traditional vs. nontraditional students.
We are grateful to the <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong> <strong>Chair</strong> donors and<br />
their dedication to supporting excellence in the classroom.<br />
For more information about creating an <strong>Endowed</strong> <strong>Faculty</strong><br />
<strong>Chair</strong> in honor or memory of someone special, contact<br />
Kathy Hall at 319-398-7650 or khall@kirkwood.edu.<br />
The <strong>Kirkwood</strong> Foundation exists to bridge the<br />
gap between the needs and resources of<br />
<strong>Kirkwood</strong> <strong>Community</strong> <strong>College</strong> and its students.<br />
www.kirkwood.edu