Teresa Romey, case manager with the Kansas University School of Medicine in Wichita, offered students free and confidential tests for HIV in the Memorial Union last Thursday.
Will Austin/The Bulletin

Just 15 minutes after getting their fingers pricked, students could get results of a free HIV test last Thursday in the Memorial Union Main Street.

“It is really important to know what your status is,” said Teresa Romey, Ryan White Part D Case Manager for the KU Medical Practice Association. “We do free testing programs and HIV education so that people can know what their status is so they won’t spread the virus. And if they are HIV positive, they can find what their status is and take care of themselves.”

Candice Brooks, junior elementary education major, came up with the idea for the free HIV testing event in her Global Leadership class.

Both Romey and Brooks said they think getting tested is important for college students, who are in the range of high-risk people.

But only 10 ESU students got tested, including Brooks. She wore an “I Got Tested” sticker at the info table to help students realize that getting tested is nothing to be ashamed of.

“At my info table, I encouraged students to get tested,” Brooks said. “I also got tested myself to ensure people that I felt comfortable doing the test.”

Brooks speculated that students did not want to do the test because they were concerned about their privacy, but she, along with a few of the representatives from the Student Wellness Center, worked to ensure that they could make testing as private as possible.

“At the table, I created a list of other places in Emporia that they could go get tested, letting them know they may not receive the test for free, but they could have a more private facility to fulfill their concern,” Brooks said.

Xiang Li, graduate English student, missed the opportunity to do the test on campus, but said more free tests should be done for students on campus because it is a very good way to know more about students’ health.

Having HIV means a person is infected with the virus. Once people have the virus, it can develop into AIDS, which means that the immune system weakens.

“AIDS can be very well controlled with the drugs we have right now, but if you don’t take your medications, or if you let it go for a very long period, you can be very ill and possibly die,” Romey said.

Students can also get tested at Flint Hills Community Health Center, located at 420 W 15th Ave.

Holoubek

Last week, Emporia State biology students made quite a showing in two different competitions – the Southwestern Association of Naturalists (SWAN) and the Annual Meeting of Kansas Academy of Science (KAS). The students made a clean sweep of top awards in the master’s level presentations.

In the Wilks Award Competition at the recent 60th annual meeting of SWAN held at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Nathan Holoubek, graduate biology student, won first place in the competition with his presentation entitled, “Bird Occupancy in Relation to Habitat Structure in the Oak Savanna Cross Timbers of Kansas, USA.”

The vast majority of students selected to compete for the Wilks Award Competition were Ph.D. students from universities all throughout North America. Holoubek was the only graduate student of the four final presenters.

“There is a large group of people from different backgrounds and even non-English speakers,” Holubek said. “Because it is an international conference, people from Mexico, in some cases, they don’t know English. I tried to make a presentation that accommodated to everyone.”

Each finalist gave a talk in the plenary session to be selected as the best presentation.

Bill Jensen, professor of biology and Holoubek’s thesis adviser, said that Holoubek was not only a skilled researcher but also a good presenter to deliver his significant information to the audience in a proper way.

Holoubek said this award meant a lot to him and that the work he put in paid off.

“It doesn’t matter, necessarily, if you are a doctoral student or not,” Holoubeck said. “If you work hard and get everything together well enough, you can compete on many levels.”

At the 145th Kansas Academy of Science Annual Meeting from April 5-6, Chen Yang, graduate biology student, won the award for Best Master’s Level Oral Presentation, and Brittany Miller, graduate biology student, won the award for the Best Master’s Level Poster Presentation.

Yang also won one of the two KAS Student Grant Awards for master’s level students with her project from last semester called, “Oleanolic Acid Induced Apoptosis and Autophagy in Human Malignant Melanoma Cells.”

“This is my first time giving a scientific oral presentation in a meeting,” Yang said. “Actually, I did not expect to get this award because there are many other outstanding graduate students, but I tried my best in the competition.”

Yiting Ni, biology graduate student, received first place in Poster Presentation at KAS.

Shane Lopez speaks about how hope is important for not only students and faculty, but also community members. A total of 122 people attended the Teachers College inaugural lecture Monday evening in Webb Hall.
Yohan Kim/The Bulletin

No matter what a person’s IQ is or what kind of work people are doing, they should be hopeful every day, at least according to Shane Lopez, Gallup senior scientist and business professor at the University of Kansas.

Lopez recently conducted research on how hope influences students’ well-being and achievement, according to high-hope and low-hope groups. The outcome was that the high-hope group worked more effectively than their low-hope peers.

“Investing in the future pays off today,” was the main topic Lopez, a positive psychologist and the world’s preeminent expert on hope, spoke about for the inaugural lecture in the Teachers College Lecture Series on Monday. Around 100 people, including students, faculty and Emporia community members attended the lecture in Webb Hall.

“College students are going through a lot of transitions,” Lopez said. “They are also trying to aim their lives with something meaningful…college is hard mainly because there are always obstacles you have to take. I think college students have to be hopeful to get through the challenging days.”

Lopez said it is hard for students to deal with the college experience and daily life, but there are very hopeful people who are willing to help college students make it through the obstacles in their life. Hope is a “good thing and makes life a little easier and better,” Lopez said.

“Today, I just want to share with ESU and the Emporia community that hope matters,” Lopez said. “We have this kind of quiet yet powerful psychological force that makes a difference in the world if the community and the campus can come together and really work to build hope in the community that all of us can benefit from and make our life a lot better.”

Lopez said faculty can benefit from hope as well.

“The challenges are to make sure that we do a good job presenting not only to our students, but to ourselves as faculty, and to members of the community as well,” said Ken Weaver, dean of the Teachers College. “That’s the goal for this Teacher’s College Lecture Series, to be able to bring ideas to the campus that we can think about and see if we have a better life as a result.”

Rebecca Sparkman, junior sociology major, said that being hopeful every day is delightful. She said she thinks it is easy to be hopeful, but it can be easy not be hopeful as well.

President Michael Shonrock worked with Lopez for the Gallup organization for several years, and he helped bring Lopez to campus for the lecture.

“It’s a great topic, hope,” Shonrock said. “Every organization needs hope…we are looking at hope as a long term investment.”

At the end of the lecture, representatives from both private and public Kansas schools received copies of Lopez’s new book, “Making Hope Happen,” signed by Lopez. His book is also for sale in the Memorial Union Bookstore.

Alyssa Floro, junior secondary science major, explains to Roy Briggeman, director of intensive English, and his wife, Brenda, what can be seen in each seasons’ skies. Briggeman’s grandson Collin, a third grade student at Walnut Elementary, also attended a show at the opening of the Peterson Planetarium on Friday night in Cram Science Hall.
Jenny Pendarvis/The Bulletin

For the first time, the Peterson Planetarium in Cram Science Hall was open to the public last Friday between 4 and 6 p.m. After receiving numerous requests for shows and tours in the planetarium, the physical sciences department presented a series of 20-minute shows, which include the night sky in the winter and early spring, as well as some familiar constellations.

The planetarium is open mostly for students who take earth or space science classes, but private shows are available by special request.

“It is our first time to attend a show like this,” said Sharae Crouch, Emporia local who brought her two children. “The kids were born and raised in Emporia, but we’ve never been to the planetarium before.”

Alyssa Floro, junior secondary science education major and one of the presenters for the shows, said they wanted to open the planetarium to the public because they had many people who expressed interest in it.

“We just wanted to allow people to come in and take a look at it,” Floro said.

Another presenter – Keely Grossnickle, senior mathematics and economics major – and Floro came up with the idea of opening the planetarium to the public. As a space science teaching assistant equipped with working experience in the planetarium, Grossnickle said she was excited to point out stars and constellations to attendees.

“I really liked the planetarium when I took space science,” Grossnickle said. “That was the coolest thing in the world. It’s kind of interactive, too.”

She also said it was a great opportunity for ESU students, since it was not open to them before, unless they had a class like earth or space science. She said it was a good opportunity for student to see and get to know planetarium.

Around 80 people attended the showings, with a large percent of those being children and their parents.

Roy Briggeman, director of the intensive English program, said the planetarium is a facility that does not get as much usage as it should. His grandson, Collin Briggeman, said that his favorite part of the show was to see all the stars – his favorite was the Big Dipper and the planet Jupiter.

Grossnickle said that she liked having kids there because they asked lots of questions, and she was able to share her knowledge.

The Peterson Planetarium is also open to elementary schools within the Emporia area. Around three to five schools visit the planetarium each month. The physical science department plans on hosting more public shows in the near future.

The retention rate for the freshman class is up to 90 percent this year. By the 28th day of classes this semester, enrollment for on campus increased by 74 students overall.

“It means there is a positive feeling on campus,” said Jim Williams, vice president of Student Affairs and leader of the enrollment management team for Emporia State. “It speaks to the quality of ESU, and it speaks to opportunities that ESU offers. In a general sense, it creates positive wellbeing for the institution.”

Williams said the university is “excited” for and working toward another enrollment increase this fall.

In efforts to recruit new students, ESU has created a series of strategies for successful enrollment. The university has broadened its advertising campaign and launched more recruitment events to personalize the experience for prospective students.

“We have made sure that we highlight our faculty and our strong academic programs,” Williams said. “We have improved the scholarship program through the generosity of the foundation.”

Williams also said that ESU will market the institution and engage students who are both domestic and those who come from abroad. Strengthening international students’ enrollment is also a goal.

ESU’s theater program is what initially inspired Evan Eisenbarth, freshman theater major, to enroll. Eisenbarth said increasing numbers are “really good for the school.”

Eisenbarth also said he “loves” the residential life on his floor in the Towers Complex because living with international students lets him experience different cultures.

“It (increasing enrollment) also means that our teachers are doing well, and our sports are doing well because we are bringing in new people,” Eisenbarth said.

Savannah White, sophomore undecided major, who transferred from Wichita State, said she considers ESU a better academic environment.

“It is going to be a fresher experience because there are so many different cultures coming in,” White said.

This year’s freshman retention rate will increase the sophomore retention numbers as well, Williams said.

Caroline Trausch, sophomore biology major, talks about her experience over the weekend at Wichita State attending the Kansas Catholic College Convention. Emporia State will host next year’s annual conference.
Lingzi Su/The Bulletin

Emporia State students represented the Didde Catholic Campus Center at the Kansas Catholic College Student Convention in Wichita this weekend. This year, the conference was hosted by the Newman Center at Wichita State, and around 300 students, priests, guest speakers and faculty attended this year’s conference.

“Catholic students from different colleges in Kansas get together these weekends to grow in their faith and get to find other people their age in college that want to grow in their faith as well,” said Caroline Trausch, sophomore biology major. “It helps students to get to know not only the other Catholic students here at our own organization, but it also helps us to get to know students from other colleges around Kansas dealing with the same issues.”

During the conference, students participated in Mass, prayer, group talks, adoration, ice-breakers and a formal dance and dinner.

Katelyn Real, sophomore psychology major, who attended the conference hosted by Benedictine College in Lawrence last year, said she was very excited to be able to attend again this year. For her, it was a great opportunity to meet people from other colleges.

“You get to see other campuses that have a strong Catholic community just like you do,” Real said. “It’s really fun to be able to interact.”

KCCSC is hosted by different universities each year, and ESU will host next year. The last time ESU hosted the conference was in 2007. The anticipated site for the next year’s conference is Topeka.

“I (am) so excited because we are going to host it,” said Sanghoon Baek, senior business major. “(But) it’s kind of challenging because we don’t have as many (Catholic) people as other colleges. Hopefully, if we do things right, we can get more people involved and make something happen next year.”

Baek said that although he doesn’t consider himself a perfect Catholic, he has been trying to be a good Catholic through learning about the faith ever since he converted to the religion.

“I am really excited to help host it next year, and, hopefully, we can bring some new speakers I haven’t seen before,” Real said.

For more information about this year’s conference, go to Catholicshockers.com/kccsc.