UMKC Press Releases
Listing of UMKC Press Releases

• Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:56:06 EST - State Street News Center to Be Unveiled at the UMKC Bloch School
  State Street Corporation, one of the largest investment managers worldwide, demonstrated its commitment to developing Kansas City's workforce via a $50,000 gift to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The gift, in conjunction with an $8,000 contribution from the Bloch School Student Association, provides the funding necessary to establish an information center in the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration.<p> The State Street News Center was unveiled during a private reception Oct. 24 at the Bloch School, 5110 Cherry St.<p> Located in the Bloch School's Student Lounge, the State Street News Center consists of a data wall with two 40-inch LCD-screen televisions mounted side-by-side. Students, faculty and visitors to the Center will have access to real-time market data, a news network and information on upcoming campus events and student organization activities.<p> 'State-of-the-art technology is as fundamental to a solid business education as it is to the corporate sector,' said Erekson. 'Today's business environment is driven by technology and the need to keep up-to-date on market indices and breaking news. The State Street News Center enables students and all Bloch School constituents to gain instant access to news and information in a central location,' Erekson said.<p> The $50,000 gift brings UMKC one step closer to the achievement of its $200 million campaign. To date, Your UMKC: The Campaign for Kansas City's University has secured $144 million in gifts and pledges. This represents nearly 70 percent of the total fundraising goal.<p> The Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration is part of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the only major teaching and research university in Kansas City. Established in 1953, the school was endowed in 1988 by Henry Bloch. The Bloch School is the only school of business and public administration in the Kansas City area that has earned international accreditation by AACSB International, which accredits the top 15 percent of business schools, and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The Bloch School's L.P. Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs is ranked 16th in the nation for its emphasis in nonprofit management.<p> UMKC, one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a three-part mission: visual and performing arts, health sciences and urban affairs. www.umkc.edu – 'A UNIVERSE OF KNOWLEDGE IN A CITY OF OPPORTUNITY.'<p> This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).<p>
• Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:09:05 EST - UMKC's Melanie Marie Meyer is One of Seven Math Students Nationally to Win $3,000 Award from the Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund
  Melanie Marie Meyer, an undergraduate math student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, recently discovered she was selected as one of seven recipients nationally to receive the $3,000 Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund Award. The benefactor, a Russian-born mathematician who authored more than 60 mathematics papers during his career at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, before his death in 1973, would have been pleased at the new lease on life the award gives Meyer.<p> A single mother of a three-year-old, Meyer had a more difficult time than some determining the educational and career path she should follow. She quit her studies at Truman State University (where she was seeking a major in computer science and a minor in math) when she became pregnant and returned home. She loved math, but was uncertain about it as a vocation until her research revealed the variety of careers open to math majors. Now her resolve was there but work, not studies, required much of her focus since she was raising a child alone, with just limited help from the father.<p> No longer.<p> The award, along with an additional $1,000 contributed by UMKC's Math and Statistics Dept., means she can stop working for now and spend more time on her talent for all things mathematical.<p> She will graduate next spring and is considering graduate school at UMKC and a graduate teaching position in the fall semester 2006.<p> The award was presented to Meyer by the new chairman of the UMKC Math and Statistics Dept., Kamel Rekab, Ph.D.<p> The Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund reflects this mathematician's interest in supporting math students of particular promise who are hindered in their educational pursuits by financial limitations. The award honoring Trjitzinsky is given to a member of the American Mathematical Society, now 30,000 strong. He was a member of the organization for 46 years.<p>
• Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST - Bernie Dodge, Inventor of the WebQuest, Internationally Popular Education Tool of Inquiry-Based Learning, to Speak at UMKC Nov. 10th
  Imagine a classroom environment where the teacher introduces the structure of the learning activity and steps back as an eager buzz of student interest, collaboration and higher-order thinking ensues. The teacher, relaxed and beaming about the thoughtful questions and interpretations of information by students, moves around the room coaching individuals and small groups. Underlying the happy hum of activity, students appreciate their powerful role in the learning process, rather than sitting as silent receptors to one source of information, the teacher. <p> A giant leap toward the creation of this seemingly utopian learning environment was made in 1995 when Bernie Dodge, professor of educational technology at San Diego State University, invented the WebQuest model, a learning tool embraced nationally and internationally, and fast becoming a staple of the technologically savvy school. <p> Dodge is coming to the University of Missouri-Kansas City Thursday, Nov. 10th to instruct educators from a long list of school districts, as well as the University of Kansas and Central Missouri State University on the design and implementation of WebQuests. (Go to http://education.umkc.edu/kcrpdc/Dodgeflyer.pdf.) <p> His appearance is co-sponsored by the UMKC School of Education (SOE) and the Kansas City Regional Professional Development Center at UMKC's SOE. The session will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Room 106 of the University Center, 51st and Rockhill Rd. The $100 per person cost includes lunch, materials and an optional follow-up session. Online registration is available at www.umkc.edu/kcrpdc. <p> Dodge almost stumbled onto his WebQuest idea. In 1995, he sat down to prepare a lesson for his second-semester student teachers. He wanted them to learn about an educational simulation called Archaeotype, but he lacked a copy of the software or the means to show it. So, he put together a large number of web resources about the simulation and gathered the students into groups to explore the various web sites. He created tasks to guide their learning. Unwittingly, he had created the steps that have become the foundation of the WebQuest model (introduction, task, resources, process, evaluation and conclusion). <p> Dodge has won numerous national honors for WebQuest as well as other educational technology contributions. He has been acknowledged as 'a shaper of educational technology' and included on the Top 30 'Total Impact' leaders list by eSchoolNews. <p> Bernie Dodge, Ph.D., (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/bdodge.html), professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University, has as his main area of focus the design, implementation and evaluation of computer-based learning environments. He recently completed a federal grant, developing a new approach to pre-service teacher education in a project named Learning Through Cyber-Apprenticeship.
• Tue, 18 Oct 2005 15:13:24 EST - Diversity Brings 'New Learning' to Faculty and Students in Higher Education, National Education Expert Tells UMKC Audience
  Individuals and organizations increasingly give attention to the concept of diversity, but do they truly understand the value it brings? Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner, professor at Arizona State University, has devoted nearly two decades of research to such questions since earning her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1988. For her, questions concerning access and equity in education are simultaneously simple and complex. <p>'We (people generally) have been socialized to believe that to succeed in life you have to go down a certain path, but actually we create our own path,' she said at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Monday in a presentation to students, faculty and staff involved in the school's 'Preparing Future Faculty' Program. (She made presentations to various groups on the theme of 'Recruitment, Retention, Promotion and Development of Faculty of Color' during her day-long tour in Kansas City.) <p> 'What we know is a small part of all the knowledge there is to be known. We need to stay open- minded about what we know. Who our teachers are¡­who our peers are¡­what we read, what we don't read...what we discuss, what we don't discuss¡­these things all determine what we know,' she said. <p> Every individual is limited in knowledge by what he or s