- University News Archive - ÌÇÐÄVlog´«ý Little Rock /news-archive/tag/emily-junkans/ ÌÇÐÄVlog´«ý Little Rock Fri, 11 Jan 2019 22:13:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.1 Learning Communities offer students extra support to succeed in college /news-archive/2019/01/11/learning-communities-offer-students-extra-support-to-succeed-in-college/ Fri, 11 Jan 2019 22:13:27 +0000 /news/?p=73090 ... Learning Communities offer students extra support to succeed in college]]> One of the keys to college success is having a strong support system. ÌÇÐÄVlog´«ý Little Rock’s Learning Communities offer just that – a network of peers, professors, and mentors who help students make the transition into college, academically and socially. The overall goal is to increase student retention by creating a strong support system for students. The communities are of various kinds. Most include academic courses with professors who work together. “Making connections is the overarching theme,” said Daryl Rice, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and student success. “Students often go into one class, walk out, and then don’t apply what they learned to another class. These communities help open their eyes to those connections, that what they learn in one class has relevance to another.” Emily Junkans, a junior Donaghey Scholar, served as a supplemental instructor, or study group leader, last year in the Explore community. She attended Dr. Adriana Lopez-Ramirez’s Introduction to Sociology classes and then led discussion-based review sessions for students. “My role was to review the material from the class to prepare them for weekly exams,” she said. “Even though the review sessions added an extra hour a week in a classroom to their schedules, I felt strong engagement from the students. Many expressed that they felt more prepared for the weekly exams after the sessions. As they grew more confident, they often surprised me and challenged me with fresh topics and examples distinct from the ones we had already seen in class or in the book. “Many of them did activities together outside of class,” Junkans said. “They had an active group chat, and before and after the review sessions they would often talk about the other classes they shared with each other and give each other reminders about upcoming assignments.” Aside from the academic support, Learning Communities also offer students a chance to engage socially and develop friendships. “Retention literature and experience have shown that for students, what takes place outside the classroom is just as important as what happens inside the classroom,” Rice said. Students in Learning Communities have the option of living in the same residence hall areas, which helps foster social interaction and provides the added benefit of mentoring and tutoring by the resident assistants who are part of the community team. Some of the classes are conducted in the Commons residential area, which provides a taste of residential life even for commuting students. Each community caters to a group of students with similar needs and interests and has specific academic requirements. Three types of communities will be open in fall 2019: Soar Learning Community The SOAR group is comprised of students who need to sharpen the reading and writing skills necessary to succeed in all courses. Students will enroll in two courses: Academic Literacy (RHET 0321) and First Year Experience (PEAW 1300). Students who live on campus may be placed together on the same floor of a resident hall, but there isn’t a requirement to live in housing. About five SOAR communities will run, Rice said. Explore Learning Community Students in the Explore community will take three core classes: First Year Experience (PEAW 1300) Composition I (RHET 1311), and Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 230). Supplemental Instruction will be available. Again, students who live on campus may be placed together on the same floor of a resident hall, but there isn’t a requirement to live in housing. Residential, Themed: Women in Leadership Community New this fall will be a themed community focused on developing leadership skills for women. Students will live on the same floor in their housing. The community will not require students to take specific courses, but they will participate in co-curricular activities with personnel from Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.]]> Student research and creative works winners announced /news-archive/2018/05/04/student-research-winners/ Fri, 04 May 2018 21:47:21 +0000 /news/?p=70436 ... Student research and creative works winners announced]]> The winners of the 2018 Student Research and Creative Works Showcase at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock were announced during an awards ceremony May 1 in the Student Services Center. Students presented more than 150 research and creative works April 12 in the Jack Stephens Center. Student projects were judged on the novelty and clarity of their research, the soundness of their methodology, the potential application of their findings, and the student’s ability to explain their project to an expert and lay audience. A complete list of winners and their projects include: Undergraduate Winners Art First Place: Corrie Green, “The New African-American Women:Exploring Intersectionality in Non-traditional Casting” First Place (tie): Thomas Jackson, “Concept Statement for the play  Art by Yasmina Reza” Economics First Place: Abigail Resendiz, “The 1920 Merchant Marine Act: An Outdated and Protectionist Law Disturbing Economic Growth” First Place (tie): Logan Vickery and Nick Stevens, “The Cost of Responsibility: Impacts on Rental Prices of the Implied Warrant of Habitability” Education First Place: Madison Christie, “Visual Verse: Translating English Poems into ASL” Second Place: Cameryn Kirkham, “Teaching Charlie May Simon as an Author, Artist, and Arkansan” Engineering First Place: J’von Jackson, “Venturi Scrubber Design for Syngas System” Second Place: Begros Asgeirsdottir, “Utilization of Rainwater for Cooling House Interior” Life & Physical Science First Place: Davonte Hokes, “Investigation of Bio-Inspired Polymeric Coating for Improvement in ORR Activity of Amidomacrocyclic Cobal (III) Catalyst Complexes” Second Place: Emily Anderson and Cordell Gilreath, “Development for Lyme Disease” Third Place: Marina Avram, “Algal Oculata Biotemplated Water-Splitting Nanocatalysts Nickel/Iron Oxides” Social Science First Place: Abigail Resendiz, “Financial Impact of the Jones Act” Second Place: Emily Elam, “500 Fiddle Tunes: Transcriptions of Billy Mathews’ Old-Time Archive” Third Place: Cynthia Wyman, “Intellectual and Hungry: Assessing the State of Campus Food Insecurity” Technology First Place: Deepali Lal, “Are Alcohol Establishments Marketing Crime?” Second Place: Yumeng Ye, “A Project – First Approach to Teaching Entity Resolution and Identity Management” Humanities First Place: El-Noor Ahkter, “The Color of Women” First Place (tie): Michael Caysido, “Aram II’yich Khachaturian and the Use of Folk Songs in His Compositions” Second Place: Emily Junkans, “Phonetic Features of Native Spanish Speakers Learning English” Physical Science First Place: Rebecca Moreira, “Novel Renewable Resource Based Nanocomposites for Removal and Recovery of Phosphorus from Contaminated Wastewaters” Second Place: Nathan Taylor, “Ionizing Radiation Protection by Inhibition of PP2A” Second Place (tie): Samantha Macchi, “Supercapacitor application of phosphorus and nitrogen co-doped carbon materials from renewable precursor materials” Service Work and Professional Application First Place: Rebecca Moreira, “How Spanish Interpreting at the 12th Street Clinic Can Lead to Medical School” GRADÌÇÐÄVlog´«ýTE WINNERS Biology First Place: Diamond McGehee with M. Lahiani, F. Irwin, and M. Green, “Investigation of the Effects of Carbon –Based Nanomaterials on the Metabolomics Level in Plants” Engineering First Place: Trigun Maroo, “A Novel Gripper System for Corrugated Box Grasping and Manipulation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” First Place (tie): Ali Abdulhussein, “Facile fabrication of a free-standing superhydrophobic and superoleophilic carbon nanofiber-polymer block that effectively absorbs oils and chemical pollutants from water” Health Science First Place: Asween Marco, Naveen Patil, Jane Voyles, Yan Egbe, and Leonard Mukasa. “The Threat of Tuberculosis Transmission Among the US-born: Lessons from Two Outbreaks, Arkansas” Second Place: Elizabeth Burnham, “The Social (Media) Social Work(er)” Life Science Second Place: Rebekah White, “Toxic Effects of Copper and Nickel on Synechocystis PCC 6803” Life & Physical Science First Place: Amita Nakarmi and Rebecca Moreira, “Phosphate Removal From Contaminated Waters” Second Place: Dane Hudson, “Cylic Electron Flow Prevents Photoinhibition in Solanum habrochaites Under Drought Stress” Physical Science First Place: Busra Ergul, Mahbuba Begum, Nancy Kariuki, and Deborah Myers. “Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity of Platinum Thin Films with Different Densities” First Place (tie): Daniel Nde, “Algae-Biotemplated Water-splitting Nanocatalysts for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction” Professional Studies First Place: Thu Nguyen, “Do In-house Investor Relations Professionals in Real Estate Management Use PR and Strategic Communications Principles?” Second Place: Raad Alawajji, Zeid A. Nima, Ahmed K. Hashoosh, Karrer M. Alghazali, Emilie Darrigues, Nigel Kelly (undergraduate), Ashley Strohmeyer (undergraduate), and Ali Abdulhussein (presenter). “Fabrication of Transparent Superhydrophobic Polytetrafluoroethylene Coating” Social Science First Place: Jennifer Watkins: “Why don’t they listen to me: A qualitative interpretive meta synthesis of a child’s perception of their sexual abuse” Second Place: Margaret Kealy-Machella, “What’s App: Little Rock AFB Mobile App Communication Plan” Systems Engineering First Place: Rajat Singh, “Flexible Control of Synergistic Group of Muscles” Technology First Place (tie): Tuja Khaund and Samer Al-Khateeb. “Analyzing Social Bots and their Coordination during Crisis Weather Events” Second Place: Evan Xiangwen Liu, “Deep Neutral Networks Self-taught Learning” Second Place: Chen Xu, “Monitoring Traffic through IDS on OpenStack Cloud” In the photo above right, ÌÇÐÄVlog´«ý Little Rock student Corrie Green (right) talks about her project, “The New African-American Woman: Exploring Intersectionality in Non-Traditional Casting,” to Jana McAuliffe, who was judging student works at the Student Research and Creative Works Showcase. Photo by Benjamin Krain]]>