Reading and writing were not a big part of Trenton Merricks’ upbringing. “I was from a family that was pretty blue collar, and definitely in no way part of the world of writers,” Merricks recalls. “We just were not a house that had that many books in it.” The YSU English Festival changed that. It was 1980 and Merricks was a seventh-grader at Glenwood Middle School in Boardman when he attended the Festival on the YSU campus and won the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest, including a $100 cash prize. “My main memory is just being overwhelmed by winning,” he said. “It seemed to me like a very big

Embracing YSU’s Role as an Institution of Influence in the Community There was a particular day in April, the first Saturday of the month, that spoke volumes about what Youngstown State University means to the Mahoning Valley. On that single early-spring day, students, their parents and siblings flocked to the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center for Family Day. High school students from around the region were on campus for the annual History Day competition. Nearly 40 students performed in the YSU Dance Ensemble concert in Bliss Hall. Kilcawley Center was the site of “Penguins

A Note from the Editor: Dear Readers, Just can’t believe it’s been more than 10 wonderful years since I started here as the editor of your YSU Magazine. Now, I’m ready to begin a new adventure: I’ll retire from YSU on May 31. It’s been a privilege to meet so many amazing YSU alumni, faculty, staff and students, and to share your stories on the pages of this publication. This is good-bye for me, and thanks for all your letters, emails, phone calls and great conversations through the years. I hope you’ll continue to stay connected to your university through YSU Magazine – I know I will! With

Gifts Create Graduate Fellowships, Support 18 Classrooms of the Future It’s almost impossible to walk across the YSU campus without seeing the name Beeghly. Go to commencement or take in a basketball game at – Beeghly Center. Earn your degree in teaching or counseling in – the Beeghly College of Education. Meet the latest, greatest students in the business college – the Beeghly Fellows. The Beeghly name, and the extensive philanthropic work that goes with it, is expanding again at YSU as Bruce and Nancy Beeghly have pledged $1.5 million for continued support of the Beeghly College of Education

Alums Michael A. Peterson, Charles T. George Named to YSU Board of Trustees Gov. John Kasich has named Michael A. Peterson of Massillon, Ohio, and Charles T. George of Canfield, to the YSU Board of Trustees. Peterson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from YSU in 1989, also played on the Penguin football team. He is director of Global Investigations and Security Services for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Akron. Peterson has nearly three decades of experience in security consulting, human resources and investigative services, including work as a court investigator, intensive

Flourishing in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennessee, there’s a newly discovered species of wild ginger named in memory of YSU Biology Professor Carl F. Chuey. YSU alumnus Brandon Sinn, ’08 BS in Biology, found the plant while conducting research as part of his doctoral dissertation for a PhD in Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University. He named the plant Asarum chueyi. “I wanted to name it after Dr. Chuey because he focused on teaching a lot, so he didn’t have a chance to find a new species,” he said. “Besides, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now

Bass Fishers Head for Nationals Two YSU Bass Fishing Club members, Mike Soots, left, and Jonathan Creed, qualified to compete nationally after placing fourth in a regional college fishing tournament. Soots, a Criminal Justice major from McDonald, Ohio, and Creed, an Integrated Social Studies Education major from Niles, Ohio, caught five largemouth bass with a total weight of just over 14 pounds at a regional contest in New York. They’ll compete in the YETI Fishing League Worldwide College Fishing National Championship May 30 - June 3. Nursing Major is Youngstown’s New Fire Chief Barry Finley

Passing the Torch: Senior Topples 32-Year Record A Penguin Women’s Basketball record that survived for more than three decades has been shattered. Indiya Benjamin, a senior Nursing major from Lima, Ohio, broke the long-standing program record for career assists Feb. 8. By the end of the Horizon League Tournament, she had hit the 629 mark, which ranked her second in conference history for career assists. In basketball, a player is credited with an assist when he or she passes the ball to a teammate, who then scores. The previous record was 576 career assists, held for more than 32 years by

Six years ago, John Karlovic’s life changed in an instant. A former police officer working as a corporate security supervisor at the time, he broke his neck when he fell down a flight of stairs. He is paralyzed from the chest down. A series of surgeries followed, with medical bills exceeding $1 million. Physical therapy became a necessity, but his health insurance allowed for a very limited number of treatments – until YSU stepped in to fill the gap. Now, Karlovic makes weekly visits from his Hubbard, Ohio, home to the Midlothian Free Clinic near campus, where YSU Physical Therapy students

Every spring, YSU Magazine sends out a call to university faculty and staff, inviting them to announce their newly published books, computer applications, musical recordings, art and photo exhibitions. We are never disappointed. Read on, and find out why our exceptional YSU faculty and staff make us “Y and Proud!" Latin American Anarchism to Anarchism in Latin America, translated by Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, professor and director, Philosophy and Religious Studies. Published by AK Press, December 2017, 437 pages. This new translation of Ángel Cappelletti's wide-ranging, country-by-country

New Mayor’s Career Defies Statistics Jamael Tito Brown, ’95 BS, ’05 MSEd Since high school, Jamael Tito Brown has heard people talk about wanting to leave Youngstown. “My friends would say: ‘I can’t wait to leave. I’m going to move away and I’m never coming back.’ I never felt like that,” he said. Now, as the newly-elected 51st mayor of his hometown, he’s determined to change that move-away mindset, in part, by bringing more living-wage jobs and making every neighborhood safe. “I want them to stay and work to make Youngstown better.” Brown has lived all his life on the city’s North Side

Adding Art to the Boardman YMCA Suzanne Bort Gray, ’04 BFA Suzanne Bort Gray was in her early 50s and a non-traditional student at YSU when she first walked into Boardman’s shiny new Davis Family YMCA in 2002, hoping for a part-time job teaching art classes. “I didn’t realize that art wasn’t even on their radar at the time,” she said. Her proposal inspired Y directors to introduce art when the facility opened its doors a few months later, with Gray teaching the first classes. Today, the 2004 YSU grad is Arts and Humanities coordinator for the Boardman Y, overseeing a robust, wide-ranging art

1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's 2010's ’60s Carol Pochiro Ramsay of Perry, Ohio, ’64 BS in Education, recently retired as a professor emerita from Lake Erie College, concluding her 55-year career as an educator. Her work history includes teaching in the Youngstown City Schools, serving as principal at Youngstown Christian Schools, serving as a professor at Grove City College and 26 years as associate dean and professor at Lake Erie College. She earned an MS in Education at Westminster College and a doctorate at the University of Akron. Lake Erie College is making plans to dedicate two smart

From Cleveland to Las Vegas, from Phoenix to Tampa, YSU alumni chapters are popping up everywhere. Interested in forming a chapter and getting your city on the alumni chapter map? Contact Heather Belgin , 330-941-3119 or habelgin@ysu.edu. Alumni Chapters Get Active Alumni chapters around the country do more than socialize – they’re generous supporters of YSU students whenever they come to town. This spring, several chapters had the opportunity to host Penguin student athletes. Charlotte, N.C. Alumni Chapter leaders Tom Davis, ’76, and Sue Abernethy Rebich, ’77, organized an alumni outing for

More Than a Paper Grader Elijah Stambaugh, ’09 BSEd Grading papers was a tedious but necessary part of the job when Elijah Stambaugh taught seventh and eighth grade math. He’d spend long weekends grading and recording the results, only then to discover what skills his students were struggling with, what concepts had to be taught again. “I kept thinking that there had to be a better way, a way to get the data earlier in the teaching cycle, not days later,” he said. The 2009 graduate of YSU’s Beeghly College of Education has created a better way, a web-based application called Lightning Grader

Seven student groups and 13 faculty leaders traveled abroad to six countries for faculty-led study and service during Spring Break. It was a new record for YSU and a “priceless learning experience” for the students, said Joseph Mosca, dean of the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, who worked with faculty to coordinate several of the trips. We asked participants to share a few of their best photos, and here is a sampling.

Since 2013, YSU Magazine has been sharing the love stories of married YSU couples in our popular “Penguin Mates” column. We introduced the couples featured below in the Spring 2018 print edition – you can read about how they met and see all their photos here. Gene Osborne, ’55 BSBA, and June Bradshaw Osborne, ’47 AB, were married June 18, 1950, in Youngstown, and in 2017 celebrated their 67 th wedding anniversary. They live in Mesa, Ariz. How we met… Gene and I went to the same church all our lives, Central Christian Church in Youngstown, where were married. We met there in kindergarten but

The Changing Makeup of the Student Body Key enrollment and quality indicators have taken an upward trajectory since YSU changed its admissions approach four years ago, moving from open admissions to a more selective process. The change was, for the most part, in response to the state of Ohio’s new funding formula for public universities that emphasizes student success and outcomes, rather than enrollment numbers. Gary Swegan, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, said the new admissions standards have resulted in an across-the-board increase in student quality indicators. “These