Bloomsburg University’s Frederick Douglass Institute for Academic Excellence recently recognized six students for their work in the Creative Expressions Competition. This year’s theme was Excellence Through Social Justice: Realities and Possibilities. The competition is intended to amplify the voices and perspectives of students from all disciplines making connections between social justice and culture, economics, education, history, and science.

Bloomsburg University’s Department of Environmental, Geographical and Geological Sciences hosted a Soils Precertification Course for approximately two dozen professionals and local government employees seeking state certification as Pennsylvania Sewage Enforcement Officers. The two-day event took advantage of BU’s soil pits on upper campus to illustrate a variety of soil types and teach the participants how to assess their suitability for septic system installation.

Bloomsburg University’s College of Science and Technology (COST) held its annual Research Day this spring virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The keynote address for the event was given by Melinda Einsla ’02, senior research scientist at Dow. Einsla shared her perspective on life as a research chemist and discussed her work in green chemistry.  Nineteen COST alumni volunteered as judges, viewing students’ virtual poster presentations and learning about the work done by students in collaboration with faculty and area professionals.

Bloomsburg University'sNursing Learning Community (LC) in collaboration with BU Student Nurses Association (SNA) and Aging Special Interest Group (ASIG) partnered this spring to support local area seniors who were left isolated due to COVID-19. Operation Caring, an initiative designed by the students, aimed to provide individual care packages to 200 elder residents. The care packages included inspiring messages written by the students, stress reduction activities, and snacks for each resident.

On Saturday evening, April 24, around 6:45 p.m., David Bardo and his fiancé, Rachel, were driving home from dinner on Boyer Hill Road near Sunbury when Bardo noticed what he thought was a burn barrel in the distance. As the couple pulled into the residence’s driveway, they saw the front porch swing on fire and immediately called 911. This was not his first fire scene. A volunteer firefighter since the age of 14, the 36-year-old Army veteran is assistant chief for Northumberland County’s Search and Rescue Team, and a student at Bloomsburg University studying digital forensics and minoring in technical and professional writing.

David A. Wilson won the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education March Esports Tournament. Wilson, a senior information technology management major from Philadelphia, won the tournament playing Super Smash Bros against 16 competitors from across the State System. Super Smash Bros series, which debuted in 1999, is different than most fighting games. Instead of depleting an opponent’s life bar, players seek to launch their opponents off the stage and out of bounds. Unlike other fighting games, which favor precision duels, Smash Bros. was designed for four players to fight in shaking, tilting, or collapsing spaces that are littered with random power-ups that interrupt any tactical focus.

Jason Stone, a senior biochemistry major, won first place for his oral presentation on his research at the 84th Annual Intercollegiate Chemist Convention, held virtually by Lehigh University. Stone, who's been conducting research for several years in the lab of Matthew Polinski, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was part of the (Bio)Inorganic group that also included undergraduate student presenters from Swarthmore, Lehigh, Ursinus, Towson, Messiah, and IUP.

Community recycling programs have never been more important. Recycling helps to preserve environmental quality, saves landfill space, preserves resources, conserves energy, reduces air pollution, and saves water. And according to the EPA, strong community recycling programs can contribute to a healthy, united community. That’s where the work of Jennifer Haney from the Department of Environmental, Geographical and Geological Sciences comes into play. Last summer Haney, project director, and John Bodenman, her faculty colleague and co-author on the report, conducted a first of its kind in PA study on recycling programs

Everyone has experienced walking into a store and being followed by an employee asking you if you need help with anything. Or it might be passing a kiosk in the mall and the person with perfume samples just a few steps behind you, relentlessly asking if you would like to try out their latest scent. But you’ve never met Jake Caralle. He’s not your typical salesman. He’ll change your perception about a salesperson. As he says, “In sales, you’re helping other people solve problems.”

"I work at a public high school in the Haute-Savoie region of France. Chinese was really useful for me! One of my first jobs out of college was in Beijing. I went there to teach English with a private company called EF (English First). Most of the foreign teachers there didn’t speak any Chinese, and I was one of the few who could, even if it wasn’t much. Sometimes, I would catch the students speaking in Chinese and surprise them when I was able to repeat what they said back in English! This first job allowed me to continue working in education, and I don’t think I would've tried to apply for that job if I hadn’t learned so much about China (at BU)."

Many young people often feel as though their voices aren’t heard when speaking to people in authority. Bloomsburg University student Colin McIntyre, a senior from Marietta says otherwise. McIntyre has firsthand experience with those in positions of power listening to him. As the student representative on the Bloomsburg University Council of Trustees, he sits among nine other council members and makes executive decisions for the university serving as the voice of his fellow students.

Several Bloomsburg University professional sales and marketing students competed in the virtual Redbird Regional Sales Contest in February. Senior Autumn Hawk advanced to the semifinals in her first-ever sales competition contest. Joining Hawk in the competition were Molly Groff, Mia Kosoglow, and Ethan Burns. BU faculty member Mike Huben is the team’s coach. The Redbird National Sales Competition is a collegiate sales competition hosted by the Professional Sales Institute at Illinois State University as a developmental event that provides students the opportunity to demonstrate their selling skills through simulated sale role-plays. 

Students in Bloomsburg University’s Act 101 program have seen increasingly strong retention numbers over the last several years. Since 2017, Act 101 students have increased their first to second year retention rates by nearly 20 percent (45 to 63.7 percent). Ralph Godbolt, director of the Office of Access and Success and interim dean of students, has put a lot of hard work into helping the students. “Our team here works hard to give these students a chance to be successful. We provide to them the academic, cultural, and social interaction they need.”

Bryson Purcell ’17/19M, a graduate of the College Student Affairs master’s program, was recently announced as the winner of the Outstanding New Professional award from the Pennsylvania College Personnel Association (PCPA). This award is presented to an ACPA/PCPA member who's made a significant contribution to higher education and has been employed in the student personnel field for less than five years. His time at Bloomsburg is what brought him to love the idea of working with college students. He held a position as one of the HOWLs, which initially sparked his interest. His love only grew as he progressed through the CSA program.

Ashley Moreno, a senior majoring in nursing, applied and research anthropology, admits it's been challenging to balance her time, however she comes from a family of overachievers. Moreno always knew she wanted to be a nurse. “In high school, I realized I wanted to go into maternity and infant nursing because I love babies,” said Moreno. She added the applied and research anthropology majors after her freshmen year. “I fell in love with anthropology. I learned how culture is so different around the world.“

For many college students, their career journey is a straight line. They choose a major based on their field of interest, and every internship, engagement opportunity, or experience leads them to a job in that desired field. However, this was not the case for Erica Gebbia ’20. Her career path took twists and turns in ways she could have never imagined. Gebbia graduated amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as a dual major in anthropology and environmental, geographical, and geological sciences. The pandemic altered her plans, leading her to work remote for a local housing authority in Salt Lake City, Utah

A remote sensing geography class from Bloomsburg University played a key role in the conservation of a 14-acre southern Florida forest home to protected wildlife that’s been fending off urban and commercial development for the past 60 years. The residents’ plea to save Nickels Forest was aided by the proposed data analysis of area satellite imagery by Bloomsburg students this past fall for their Remote Sensing of the Environment class. Their professor presented to the commission a plan to analyze urban growth and reduction of green cover with Nickels Forest being the center of focus.

The Bloomsburg University Police Department (BUPD) has earned accreditation from the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association through its Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. BU is now one of only seven accredited Institutions of Higher Education Law Enforcement Agencies within Pennsylvania to be accredited by the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. Of the 1,117 law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania, only 127 are accredited.

Juliette Gudknecht is an analytical type who likes to solve problems. Majoring in physics was an obvious and fitting choice for her at Bloomsburg University. Then she discovered how mathematics could be used to solve real-world problems. And her sights were set. “I took one computer science class and fell in love with programming. I’ve always been fascinated with science, specifically astronomy. I had the same mindset most do — that (astro) physics would be too hard to pursue, or that I was bad at math. I decided to just go for it and work hard.”

It was a memorable performance for a group of Bloomsburg University professional sales and marketing students who placed 14th out of 80 schools in the recent International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC), hosted virtually by Florida State University due to COVID-19. Ohio State University won the overall World Cup of Sales competition, which combined the sales management simulation, sales management case, and role-play competitions. Bloomsburg — the top performing Pennsylvanian school — was just two points behind West Virginia and finished ahead the University of Central Florida and Iowa State. The next highest PA school was Temple, placing 48th.

Bloomsburg University’s Student Nurses Association (SNA) teamed up to help the Ronald McDonald House in Danville and the BU Women’s Resource Center during these hard times. Jordyn Blucher and Sarah Kelly, both senior nursing majors and members of SNA, were eager to participate in these service activities this semester. “SNA is an organization that is directly for nursing students, where all nursing students have the opportunity to join,” said Blucher. “We meet once a month and talk about what happenings in the nursing program. We also offer community service events and inform nursing students on ways that they can get involved.”

A Bloomsburg University fraternity went above and beyond to help children in need who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by donating art supplies to KidsPeace. KidsPeace is a home and correctional facility located in Orefield that helps children and offers lodging and counseling to children without families and have obedience disorders. The brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) got involved with KidsPeace after an alum reached out to them and asked them to make a difference in the lives of the kids.

Community Government Association (CGA) members are generally your typical college-age students between the ages of 18-22 who live on or near campus. Lizz Matias breaks that mold in many ways. A non-traditional student elected to the CGA senate as the off-campus representative, Matias lives in Reading, 70 miles from campus. “One of the problems I ran into as a part-time student is that I'm not eligible for Dean’s List, or any academic distinction, because of my part-time status. When I looked further, I found out you need 45 credits at BU to even graduate with honors. I hope to get this change made for everyone who follows after me and is working full-time while taking night classes.”

When Army National Guard Master Sgt. John Paul Karpovich learned of the new Military Family Education Program (MFEP), also referred to as the PA Family GI Bill, reenlisting for six more years to the Pennsylvania National Guard (PNG) was a no-brainer for him. MFEP allows spouses and children of PNG members to attend college at no cost or a reduced cost. For Karpovich, it would help his daughter Georgia with her tuition to attend Bloomsburg University, so he signed on the dotted line.

Meghan Okken’s career plan was simple. Become a speech therapist. It’s why she chose Bloomsburg University. It’s why she chose to major in audiology and speech-language pathology. Next in her plan — an internship, which led her into an another, yet related, direction. “I honestly never considered going into audiology prior to this internship. It was a great opportunity I felt I couldn’t turn down. I had little knowledge about audiology, and of course, was eager to learn more about it. I had always done my observations with a speech pathologist, so I thought it would be really cool and interesting to experience the audiology side."

As a time-honored tradition for the past 29 years, Allstate and the American Football Coaches Association are recognizing 22 student-athletes and an honorary coach named to the 2020 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® for stepping up to help those in need. Huskies senior defensive lineman Alex Findura is one of those select student-athletes named to the team. Since the inception of the award in 1992, Findura becomes the first student-athlete from Bloomsburg University to earn the prestigious honor.

COVID-19 may have interrupted Andrew Horst’s last semester of college and subsequent graduation plans but didn’t deter his path to a full-time job, which he landed directly from his summer internship. The recent accounting graduate persevered through unexpected challenges of the ongoing pandemic to not only complete his internship with Boyer & Ritter LLC — a recognized leader in tax, accounting and consulting services — but impressed the PA firm enough to make the opportunity more permanent.

Eyeing a fast-paced, interactive marketing internship this summer, Damian Arizini had his career focus lined up just right to kick off his senior of college. Then the COVID-19 pandemic took over. As a result, his internship with beMarketing in Philadelphia became virtual. Arizini adjusted his focus and recalibrated his motivation. In the end, the marketing major came away with a rewarding internship experience that not only gave him valuable insight into the marketing world, it taught him a few extra lessons Arizini says gave him even more confidence to succeed after graduation.

A few added lessons came with this summer’s Migrant Education Program practicum for a group of Bloomsburg University education majors eager for classroom experience prior to their student teaching placements. The four-week traditional summer program — entering its 23rd year in Hazelton and fourth year in Harrisburg — designed for children in kindergarten through 11th grade whose parents are migrant workers shifted to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the future teachers were tasked to lead lessons not in front of a classroom but to teach virtually through Zoom and using various online education tools.

Alex Annan’s first job out of college has not only been the perfect fit for the supply chain management graduate, it’s positioned him to be among the key players in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And that’s exactly where he wants to be.

“Cardinal Health’s commitment to fulfilling the needs of patients and doctors across the world was very rewarding to me,” says Annan ’19, ‘20M, who started at Cardinal Health as a supply chain specialist in July while finishing his M.B.A. requirements. “I believed starting my career at an organization known for their supply chain capabilities would help me become a well-rounded professional.”

COVID-19 nearly canceled this summer’s field-based practicum for Bloomsburg University’s child life specialist program.

Instead, the 28 students made history by going virtual with their 120-hour experience with Camp Victory in Millville and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, United Kingdom. It was a first of its kind virtual child life practicum, according to Michael Patte, professor of teaching and learning and child life specialist.

Sergeant Frank Doone, a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and a criminal justice major, is part of a six-person nationwide team that is battling in a new way — in virtual reality. Doone and his teammates will participate in the Keystone Masters: Format Experiments, a live tournament for World of Warcraft against teams from all over the world. Doone’s team consists of military personnel from all components of the Army, including members from the National Guard, Reserve and active duty.

Three chemistry-biochemistry students passed the national American Society for Biochemistry and Biochemistry Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Accreditation Exam. Stepan Budkin, Tara Full, and Jason Stone were among 926 students nationwide who took the rigorous exam last spring and among the 40.4% (374 students) who passed. Additionally, Stone was awarded certification with distinction for extraordinary success on the exam. In total, nine BU students have earned the national certification recognition and three have earned high distinction. Bloomsburg’s 50% certification rate exceeds the national average of 43.8%.