Student Success
Steel & Concrete
Here’s another championship banner to add to the Penguin collection - Ohio Valley Student Conference.
The YSU American Society of Civil Engineers Student Chapter claimed the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge Championships at this year’s OVSC at Ohio University. It’s the first time that teams from YSU have taken first in both categories in the same year. YSU bested teams representing 15 schools from Ohio, Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania, including Carnegie Mellon, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Pittsburgh and Ohio State University.
Both teams advanced to their national competitions. The Penguin canoers placed fifth in the nation in San Diego, while the bridgers finished 16th at the contest at the University of Illinois.
YSU’s Steel Bridge team members at the national competition at the University of Illinois are, from the left, Luis Vindel, Tom Carnes, Nicholas Martin, Spencer DeSalvo, Montana Gessler and Kenneth Anderson. Team members not shown include Emma Daugherty, Colton Hamilton, William Graham and Greg Lipp.
YSU’s Concrete Canoe team at the national competition in San Diego are, from the left, Emma Daugherty, Montana Gessler, Spencer DeSalvo, Colton Hamilton, Kenneth Anderson, William Graham, Tom Carnes, Nicholas Martin, Greg Lipp and Luis Vindel.
National fellowship
Sandra Marie Quotson of Austintown, a graduate student in YSU’s Counseling program, is working to reduce health disparities among racially diverse populations as part of a fellowship from the National Board for Certified Counselors.
Quotson earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from YSU’s Dana School of Music in 2014 and is pursuing a master’s degree in School Counseling and Clinical Mental Health Counseling.
She works at Rayen Early College in the Youngstown City Schools as a school counseling graduate assistant and provides private lessons in violin, viola and cello at Music and Arts, a business in Canfield. Previously, she taught music in the city schools for two years before starting work on her graduate degree.
In GOOD company
Ryan Slavic joined the ranks of some of the world’s most noted scientists, including several Nobel Prize winners, to work at the famed Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
A Computer Science and Information Systems major, Slavic was among only a dozen individuals nationwide accepted to participate in the Cyber Fire Summer Program in cyber security at the lab.
“This program is quite selective and proves what our students in the CSIS department are capable of doing,” said Abdu Arslanyilmaz, associate professor of CSIS.
They’re at it again
YSU math students excelled at the annual national MathFest meeting and competition, where the Penguins have dominated the past several years.
This year’s meeting was in Denver, and YSU students took home two awards for excellence and won the problem solving contest.
Anthony Dickson of McDonald, who presented research titled “The Prime Number Theorem: A Historical Look at How Mathematicians Proved It,” and Samuel Delatore of Poland, whose research is titled “A Not-So-Fair Guessing Game and the Math Behind It,” earned awards of excellence in student exposition and research. Delatore also won the Student Problem Solving Competition.
Go ‘Guins! YSU participants at 2018 MathFest in Denver are, from the left, front row, Maddie Cope, Alanis Chew, Dr. Alexis Byers, Olivia Hall, Sam Delatore, Anthony Dickson, Julie Phillis, David Gessler and Nicolas Beike. Back row, Dr. George Yates, Rabin Thapa, Lindsey Chludzinski, Dr. Angela Spalsbury, Julie Seitz, Dr. Tom Wakefield and Dr. Thomas Madsen.
Giving your all
Williamson College of Business Administration won the Best Presenter award at the National Student Advertising Competition.
Megan Factor, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations, with a minor in Graphic Design, was selected by a panel of four industry professionals for her part in the YSU Ads Club presentation team.
“We really put our all into this campaign and I think it’s something for each member of Ads Club to be proud of,” Factor said.
“An extraordinary opportunity”
Students Alexandra Ballow and Tyler Leibengood, along with Professor Alina Lazar, were selected to take part in a 10-week research program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity for our students,” stated Lazar, professor of Computer Science and Information Systems.
Ballow and Leibengood are both Mathematics and Physics majors.
Berkeley Lab, founded in 1931, is a member of the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science.
Three letters too many
Bryan Kanney spent his summer as a bit of a lab rat.
Enrolled in the Student Affairs Counseling program at YSU, Kanney completed an internship at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, and part of his job was to train tutors at the school about American culture, American higher education and the expectations and needs of American students.
While Kanney was sharing his Americanism with the Fins, he in turn also learned something of the challenges of Finland, especially the language. “Because there are three more letters in the Finnish alphabet than there are in the English alphabet, keyboards look quite different,” he said.
YSU student Bryan Kanney with the Helsinki Cathedral in the background.