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Recent Graduate Student Awards

Graduate student in communication sciences and disorders receives CNH Industrial Student Achievement Award 

Allison O’Rourke, graduate student and teaching assistant in the program of communication sciences and disorders, received a CNH Industrial Student Achievement Award on June 12 in Chicago.

Allison O'Rourke

“The annual program is open to the children of CNH Industrial employees who are high school and college students across North America,” said Allison O’Bourke. “The winners and their parents were invited to tour the company’s Burr Ridge, Illinois research and development location prior to the awards ceremony and were honored by CNH Industrial executives.”

O’Rourke earned the award based on several selection criteria including a written essay, grade point average, extracurricular activities, community service and academic curriculum/honors.

“It was a great honor to receive the CNH Industrial Student Achievement Award,” said O’Bourke. “CNH Industrial has made a positive impact on my family’s life throughout the twenty years that they have employed my father. I am very grateful they chose me as one of the recipients of the award this year.”

This announcement was written by Debra Burnett and published in K-State Today.

Horticulture, Animal Sciences and Agronomy graduate students win national student teaching awards

Matt Wilson, a doctoral candidate in the horticulture, forestry and recreation resources department, Tasha Dove, a master’s student in animal sciences, and Matti Kuykendall, master’s student in agronomy, recently received the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Graduate Student Teaching Award (NACTA).

The award is given to graduate students who excel as teachers in agriculture, environmental, natural and life science disciplines and are active in classroom instruction. Applicants are reviewed by a committee of North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture members and are evaluated based on the graduate student’s teaching philosophy, their involvement in teaching outside the classroom, self-evaluation, support letters from supervising faculty and administrators and  student recommendations.

Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson

Matt taught the laboratory sections of two landscape plant identification courses within the Department of Horticulture, Forestry, & Recreation Resources. Matt developed an aid for students to review campus plant walks using the Google Maps web-application so that students could access plant locations, media, and information on their smart devices or computers as self-guided walks.

“I am humbled and honored to receive a NACTA Graduate Student Teaching Award,” said Matt Wilson.  “It is encouraging to know faculty members and students thought my efforts in the classroom worthy of nomination for such an award.”

Tasha Dove
Tasha Dove

Tasha has been the primary instructor of the Beginning and Advanced Horse Evaluation classes. She is the head coach of the K-State Horse Judging Team and assists fellow graduate students and faculty with different tasks.

“As a grad student you always hope you are doing your best for the students, and when your main advisor nominates you it feels like you have done something right and makes even better to receive the award,” said Tasha Dove.

Matti Kuykendall
Matti Kuykendall

Matti was a graduate teaching assistant for Introductory Soils lab, the assistant coach for the K-State Soil judging team for two years, tutored students and served as a guest lecture for different courses throughout her K-State graduate career.

“I’m deeply humbled and honored to have been nominated for the award,” said Matti Kuykendall. “It means a lot to me that my supervisory professors and students thought me worthy to receive it.”

Heintzelman, Kremer prizes awarded to Master of Architecture graduates for outstanding work

Dain Susman
Dain Susman

Outstanding design work by fifth-year students in the architecture program at Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, has been recognized with the Heintzelman and Kremer prizes.

The Heintzelman Prize is presented annually for outstanding individual design achievements by students in the final semester of the professional Master of Architecture degree program. The 2015 winner is Dain Susman, Master of Architecture graduate, Marion, for his project “The Triangle,” which was completed in the fifth-year architectural design studio led by the Steven Ehrlich, the visiting Regnier chair, and Genevieve Baudoin assistant professor of architecture.

"Making a Mark" Group
“Making a Mark” Group

The Heintzelman Prize is named after J. Cranston Heintzelman, a longtime educator in the university’s architecture department. After earning a Master of Architecture from Columbia University, Heintzelman moved to Manhattan in 1947 to begin a distinguished career teaching architectural design, sculpture and design theory. The Heintzelman Prize has been awarded by the faculty each year since Heintzelman’s retirement in 1983.

The Kremer Prize is awarded for outstanding collaborative design achievements by students in the final semester of the professional Master of Architecture program. This year’s winning project was “Making a Mark,” conducted in the fifth-year architectural design+make studio led by David Dowell, el dorado inc., KeinKansas City, Missouri.

The following Master of Architecture graduates were “Making A Mark” project members: Lauren Harness, Valerie Gaughan, Devin Brown, Wendy Lai, Eric Dernbach, Joshua Rigali, Anna Groppoli, Meredith Stoll, Andy McAllister, Tanner James, Brandon Eversgerd, Ian Cole, Riley Haney, Brian Delaney and Alex Palmer.

The Kremer Prize is named after Eugene Kremer, a longtime member and head of the architecture department. As an educator and adviser, Kremer fostered in thousands of students a passion for learning and a desire to achieve excellence in all areas of responsibility. While working throughout his tenure to promote strong and lasting relationships between practicing architects and the college’s students, Kremer also created opportunities to engage students in collaborative activities, both on and off campus.

This story was written by Thomas Jackson and published in K-State Today.

Sevart finalist at international conference student research competition

Nick Sevart

Nick Sevart, doctoral candidate in food science from Wichita, has been selected as a top 10 finalist in the Developing Scientist Competition in July at the International Association for Food Protection conference in Portland, Oregon.

The Developing Scientist Awards Competitions, supported by the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), recognizes the work of students and recent graduates in the field of food safety research.

“I was very surprised and happy to hear that I had been selected as a finalist, but feel that my work is far from done,” said Nick Sevart. “I hope to compete well in the actual poster presentation and place in the top three.”

Sevart will present his research poster “Evaluating the Efficacy of Three USDA-Approved Antimicrobial Sprays for Reducing Surrogate Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) on Bob Veal Carcasses” at the IAFP meeting at the end of July. This research is a component of the $25 million USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative supported Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) grant, “Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli in the Beef Chain: Assessing and Mitigating the Risk by Translational Science, Education and Outreach.”

Sevart leads several experiments under this grant with his major advisor Randall Phebus, professor of animal sciences and industry.

For more information and to learn about the award criteria, please visit: https://iafp.confex.com/iafp/2015/dsc.html

This story was written by Randall Phebus and published in K-State Today.