ASAP Students Develop Marketing Plan for Oneida Non-Profit

Published May 16 at 10:24 a.m. in From the Field, Top Story.

By Brie Deacon

The former Oneida Area Arts Council (OAAC) recently adopted a marketing plan developed by Keuka College’s Utica-area graduate students that included, among other things, a name change to Oneida Performing Arts (OPA).

The students spent the six-week course researching, developing, and strategizing a new look for OPA. They worked in teams and used local resources, historical documents, and current market trends to devise a new logo, ideas for performance offerings, and different forms of communication—all geared toward expanding its patron base. Throughout the process, the class urged OPA board members to get out of their comfort zone and look for new venues and ideas that would bring the organization into the future.

The non-profit organization was contacted last year by Kim Deruby, adjunct instructor of marketing, who hoped it would serve as a live case study for her class.

Brian M. Carroll, president of OPA, said the organization had been struggling over the years to transition its brand to a more relevant, sustainable market.

“We decided that we could use some help from young professionals who could look at our 50-year history and make suggestions on how to keep the base we have but attract younger people as well. The suggestions we’ve gotten [correspond to] what other bigger organizations who have full-time marketing employees [receive],” he said.

Deruby said the course curriculum calls for students “to understand a current marketing issue or deficiency, to create a marketing strategy, produce tangible results, and provide insight, guidance, and expertise to the organization,” so the OPA project was an excellent fit and provided students with invaluable real-world experience.

As part of this in-depth, hands-on assignment, the class came up with rebranding ideas that included a new logo, a hand-rendered design by local advertising consultant and Keuka adjunct instructor Cookie Caloia, who conceptualized the students’ rebranding vision.

Other initiatives introduced by the students were performances that would appeal to a younger crowd, electronic press releases, new flyers and print materials, and a summer dinner theater experience at a local restaurant, scheduled Aug. 8. The class also recommended OPA offer  a Mother’s Day matinee, which debuted May 12, and no longer offer shows during the winter months when many of their patrons are away.

In terms of the name change, Carroll said Oneida Performing Arts “is much easier for the consumer to understand.”

“We truly hope these ideas will not only help to get their name out there in the community, but also help to create a general interest from a wider range of age groups,” said student Ryan Blehar, who resides in Verona.

“I am very impressed with all of our accomplishments within our cohort and I have no doubt that everyone is more effective professionally and personally as a result of this project,” said John Prendergast, cohort representative and resident of Utica.

Keuka’s 18-month Master of Science in management degree program is part of the Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP). Classes meet weekly at Mohawk Valley Community College.

Tsarnaev Brothers: Much in Common with Terrorists Who Came Before

Published May 8 at 12:49 p.m. in Opinion.

By Dr. Sander A. Diamond, Professor of History

At approximately 8:50 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, the first of two planes slammed into the World Trade Center. The Age of Terrorism had arrived on our shores.  On April 15, we were once again reminded that despite our best efforts to insulate ourselves from terrorism, we live in an age where our safety is conditional.

The perpetrators of the Boston attack, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were born in Chechnya, which is located in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. Exactly when and why the older brother, Tamerlan, became a terrorist is a key element in the investigation.  What we do know is Chechnya and Dagestan are the epicenters of Islamic Jihadism in the region. Their geography places them closer to Tehran than Moscow to the far north. During the Second World War, when the fate of Russia was conditional and the Battle of Stalingrad was raging in the winter of 1942-43, Moscow alleged that some in Chechnya were on the wrong side. Their punishment was collective. Stalin uprooted them and shipped them to Siberia only to return in the 1950s. Decades later, when the USSR imploded, Chechnya attempted to leave the Russian Federation and an insurrection was put down with the full might of the Russian military. Chechnya terrorists responded by blowing up a subway train in Moscow while the so-called Black Widows seized a theater with 800 people in it and threatened to blow it up.

Meanwhile, in the years that followed, some of the people of Chechnya and Dagestan have turned to Islamic extremism. Perhaps Tamerlan was predisposed to the Jihadist mindset before he arrived on our shores, concluding that however different Russia and the United States are, they share a common hatred of Muslims. Others suspect he was in contact with the Islamic extremists and was, in the words of the FBI, radicalized during a six- or seven-month stay in the region not long ago. We also know that his computer is filled with materials downloaded from radical Islamic sites, so perhaps he and his brother were radicalized on the web. Whatever the case, one does not become a terrorist overnight.

By the same token, terrorist acts are not spur-of-the-moment decisions. In the case of the Boston bombers, they bought fireworks, dismantled them and used the black powder to build bombs.  They also planned to use pipe bombs in Times Square. For seasoned terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda with its numerous so-called franchises, leaders place a high value on bleeding their victims in the financial sense. For bin Laden and his cohorts, Sept. 11 was a nickel-and-dime operation. What we have spent repairing the damage and trying to protect ourselves for future attacks is beyond comprehension. The Tsarnaev brothers spent perhaps $200 building the bombs.  When the cost of finding them, the commerce lost in Boston for several days, and the hospital bills are finally added, the total will be staggering. Given the cost of health care, the $20 million fund that has been established to help cover hospital expenses for those injured may be peanuts, barely making a dent in the final tally. For many of the survivors, the costs of restoring their health over a lifetime will also be staggering. As for the coming trial of the younger brother, the cost will be in the millions.

What appears to link all terrorists is a deep hatred of their perceived enemies and what they represent. For them, killing is a perfectly rational act in keeping with their religious or ideological beliefs. Their victims, not them, are the incarnation of evil.

 

The Dust Bowl is Educational and Personal for McKenzie

Published May 6 at 4:55 p.m. in Academic News, Top Story.

Mike McKenzie couldn’t figure out why his mother never returned to her childhood home in western Kansas.

“My brother and I tried numerous times to get her to go back,” said McKenzie, associate professor of philosophy and religion. “We thought it would be fun for to see the place and some of her friends. I just didn’t get it.”

He got it after making the trek to Johnson, Kan., himself.

“It’s an utterly exposed place,” recalled McKenzie. “You’re exposed to winds and weather on all four sides.”

And that made life tough for Maxine Carter, her mother; father, who was a wheat farmer; and sister—especially in the 1930s  when the Dust Bowl, a period of severe dust storms, caused major ecological and agricultural damage on the Southern plains.

The Dust Bowl lasted 10 years and made activities typically taken for granted—breathing and eating—a challenge. Children wore dust masks and women hung wet sheets over windows to keep the dust out of their homes. Crops were blown away.

So powerful were these rolling waves of dust they would “obliterate the sun,” recalled McKenzie’s mother.

And it wasn’t just dust storms that the young Maxine Carter was forced to survive. Tornadoes, ice storms, and blizzards would “force kids into storm cellars and they wouldn’t know if their farm or home was still standing until they came out,” said McKenzie.

Maxine Carter was born in 1922 and moved to Oregon in 1936. She will never return to Johnson or Manter, Kan., where her family lived before heading to the Pacific Northwest.  And her son now understands why.

“My mother had a good home life growing up but a scary place,” he said. “I understand why she doesn’t have fond memories of her early life in Kansas.”

While acknowledging the highly personal nature of this story, McKenzie saw it has a perfect fit for his Environmental Ethics class that he his teaching this semester.

“The Dust Bowl is the greatest environmental disaster in this country’s history, and I decided to do a large segment on it in my class,” he said.  “I couldn’t bring my students to Kansas so I am bringing Kansas to them.”

McKenzie teamed with Troy Cusson, instructional design manager in the Wertman Office of Distance Education (WODE), to create a video that features an interview McKenzie did with his mother in January as well as photos his grandfather took in western Kansas in the 1930s.

And, he partnered with John Locke, director of instructional design and multidisciplinary studies in WODE, to construct a Dust Bowl exhibit in a Lightner Library display case.

“Students and others will see artifacts from the Dust Bowl and the display case itself looks like a farmer’s cabin from the 1930s,” said McKenzie. “There is even some actual Kansas dust.”

One of Locke’s biggest challenges was to find a way for people to view the video (it runs on a loop and headphones are available for listening) without impinging on the “rustic” quality of the display. So, he built cabinet and gave it a “rough finish to create an aged look.”

He also created a “window into a dust storm” by backlighting an image of a 1930s dust storm.

“John did a terrific job of bringing 1930s Kansas to life,” said McKenzie.

To further enhance his students’ knowledge of the Dust Bowl, McKenzie is planning a field trip to nearby Hunt Country Vineyards “to see how a modern farmer (Art Hunt) employs sustainability in his day- to-day operations. The class will engage in some hands-on activities and get to see good farming practices put into use, as contrasted with those on the high plains of the 1930s that helped spawn the Dust Bowl.”

Finally, McKenzie recently screened Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl.

“Everyone loves stories,” said McKenzie. “Ken Burns tells a story and that is what we did. It’s a story about my mom. It’s personal, but at the same time it’s educational.”

An Enduring Tradition: May Day Weekend

Published May 2 at 1:49 p.m. in Around the Tower, Top Story.

One of the College’s enduring traditions, May Day Weekend, got off to an auspicious start with a talk by Dr. Andrew Delbanco, recipient of the 2011 National Humanities Medal, Friday night (May 3).

Delbanco delivered the 25^thAnnual Carl and Fanny Fribolin Lecture after conducting a Q&A session with students, faculty, staff, and the media earlier in the day.

The lecture series carries the names of Geneva resident Carl Fribolin, an emeritus member of the College’s Board of Trustees and recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 2004, and his late wife.

College President Dr. Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera thanked Fribolin for his longtime support of the series and wished him an early happy birthday. Fribolin will celebrate No. 95 next month.

Delbanco is Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.  He was awarded the 2011 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama “for his writing that spans the literature of Melville and Emerson to contemporary issues in higher education.”

May Day Weekend activities will continue through Sunday.To view the full schedule of events, go to: http://life.keuka.edu/files/2013/04/2013_May-Day-Schedule-1.pdf

ASAP Trio Receive Adult Student Award

Published April 25 at 1:04 p.m. in Points of Pride.

Life can be particularly challenging for adult students.

Successfully juggling college studies with family and job responsibilities is a remarkable accomplishment.

Maintaining a lofty grade point average and serving your community while doing so is worthy of special recognition, which three students who earned, or are earning degrees through the College’s Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP), received last night (April 24).

Randy Kuhn Jr., Edith (Edie) Smith, and Kellie Gatson were among some 30 adults who received the Rochester Area Colleges Continuing Education’s (RACCE) Outstanding Adult Student Award at the organization’s 30^th Annual Awards Ceremony and Banquet at the Woodcliff  Hotel and Spa in Victor. (more…)

North Korea: A Mouse with Atomic Bombs

Published April 22 at 2:24 p.m. in Opinion.

By Sander A. Diamond, Professor of History

In the 1960s, British comic Peter Sellers starred in a farcical film, “The Mouse That Roared,” a comedy about a mini-nation that somehow acquired an atomic bomb.

Fifty years later, we have a case of life imitating art. North Korea is a roaring mouse. Labeled “The Hermit Kingdom,” a description that conforms to its isolation from the main current of world events, it is a totalitarian regime led by Kim Jong-un, the proverbial loose cannon.

The entire North Korean economy supports the military establishment, a serf-like labor force confined to collective farms and factories. Here, weapons are produced and exported overseas. While other communist states such as Vietnam and China have enjoyed prosperity, North Korea remains poor. Just across the 38^th parallel is South Korea, where a population of 49 million enjoys a high standard of living, the average per capital income being $28,000.

Though smaller than Mississippi, North Korea is armed to the teeth with an unknown number of atomic bombs and the ability to deliver them. The image it projects in countless propaganda clips seen on TV in recent days is a leaf out of another age. In the old Soviet Union and Mao’s China in the 1950s, we saw generals, chests filled with medals in off-green uniforms, clapping and shouting in unison when their venerated leader appeared.  Today, we see Kim Jong-un looking down in a  Red Square-type setting on his troops, 1.1 million in all, as they parade past followed by Soviet-style missile carriers and heavy guns, the types the Russians used in the siege of Berlin in April-May 1945. Even the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, has the stamp of the old USSR:  high-rise buildings the Russians used to call Stalinist Modern.

Although North Korea is modeled after the world of Stalin and Mao, it differs from its ideological mentors in one very significant way. In the USSR and China, leaders began their careers in the nascent years of the revolutionary movement and those who followed worked their way through the ranks of the party bureaucracy. North Korea is ruled by a dynasty established by the current leader’s grandfather, who began his career as a revolutionary and came to power  in 1945. When he died, his son assumed the leadership of the state and the party and recently, the torch was passed to his son.

The entire world is trying to divine the intentions of the new 28-year-old leader who talks about war as it if was a parlor or video game. Whether all of the blustering and military action is being used to consolidate his grip on the military power or pry economic concessions from the United States, no one can say with certainty since few people outside “The Hermit Kingdom” know exactly what is going on behind the drawn curtain. Here, the ghost of Stalin is alive and well.

Short of a highly unlikely military coup, we have to take Kim Jong-un at his word.  And if and when this crisis passes, we can expect Kim Jong-un to repeat his antics again. At 28, he has a lifetime ahead of him to threaten the world.

 

 

Kayla Curtis Among Top Student Employees in the Country

Published April 19 at 9:39 a.m. in Around the Tower, Points of Pride, Top Story.

Kayla Curtis, a senior psychology major, found out today (April 18) she made it to the Final Four of the National Student Employment Association (NSEA) Student Employee of the Year competition.

Curtis was honored at a luncheon for being the 2013 Keuka College, New York state, and Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators (NEASEA) Student Employee of the Year. As the regional winner, she went up against three other regional winners (from University of Iowa, California Polytechnic State University, and Auburn University) for the NASEA award, which was won by the student from Auburn University.

Nonetheless, winning the NEASEA award is impressive because nearly 100 schools/institutions from 11 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and six Canadian provinces are members of the organization.

“Two-hundred students, including six from Keuka College, were nominated at the institutional level,” said Sally Daggett, associate director of the Center for Experiential learning and director of student employment. “Nineteen schools from nine states submitted their winners for state awards and the regional winner was chosen from that group.”

Curtis, who hails from of Red Creek, is a psychology major who has served as student coordinator for the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) chapter on campus since arriving on campus as a transferring sophomore. BBBS pairs volunteer “Bigs” (college students) with “Littles,” young students befriended and mentored by the Bigs.

Curtis was nominated by Valerie Webster, co-curricular transcript coordinator in the Center for Experiential Learning

According to Webster, Curtis increased the number of matches from one to 12, handles all aspects of training and data entry for the “Bigs,” and does “98 percent of the work to keep the program operational.”

Curtis exhibits a “work ethic, initiative and commitment to understanding and serving others” that will make her an asset to any organization after graduation, said Webster. “Her positive attitude, patience and ability to work with people are refreshing and energizing.”

Curtis has also been a resident assistant, a three-year member of the Psychology Club (current vice president), a member of two honor societies, and holds a 3.8 GPA.

Curtis received a certificate and a check for $250 from NEASEA, and a plaque and $100 gift card to the bookstore from the College.

College will be Well Represented at Graduate Research Conference

Published April 18 at 3:44 p.m. in Academic News, Around the Tower.

Keuka College will be well represented at the Master’s Level Graduate Research Conference Saturday, April 20, at SUNY Brockport.

Nine occupational therapy majors will present original research, including:

• 

  Emily Conrad

  Emily Conrad and Alicia Steeves: “Effects of Parent Training for Children with Behavioral Difficulties.”

• Hannah Doody and Chelsea Stocker: “Efficacy and Validity of Alternative Treatments as a Supplement to Autism Spectrum Disorder Traditional Treatments.”
• Elizabeth Thomas, Julia House, and Erika Kester: “Is There Evidence to Support the use of Multi-sensory Interventions that Reduce Negative Behaviors Displayed by Patients with Dementia?
• Allison Uttaro and Jessica Ingutti: “What are the Effects of Community Integration Programs for Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities and/or Autism Spectrum Disorders?

The Master’s Level Graduate Research Conference is open to the public and will feature work by hundreds of master’s level students across the disciplines from Brockport and more than 30 other colleges and universities.

Students will present original research and artistic endeavors in poster sessions, oral presentations, and creative performances. In addition, there will be workshops for on career development and doctoral study and one for visiting faculty on government and foundation grant opportunities.

Dr. Timothy Killeen, president of the SUNY Research Foundation and SUNY vice chancellor for research, will deliver the keynote address on “National and International Change Research.”

 

 

Talking Up OT

Published April 15 at 12:02 p.m. in Academic News, Around the Tower.

Professor of Occupational Therapy Jean Wannall and graduate students Emily Conrad and Cindy Prober represented Keuka College and the OT profession at the recent Healthcare Alliance of the Finger Lakes’ Career Exploration Day at Finger Lakes Community College.

More than 270 students from 15 Finger Lakes high schools learned about health care and human service needs, according to Wannall.

The Healthcare Alliance of the Finger Lakes is a partnership of private and public sector agencies whose primary goal is to create solutions for finding and keeping a qualified workforce in the healthcare industry within the local area.

“The main focus of the career fair is to expose our youth to various health care professions and agencies while encouraging them to learn, work and live in the Finger Lakes area,” said Wannall.  “Various professionals from around the area gave of their time to present information about their chosen profession.”

Including the trio from Keuka, who shared what it was like to be an occupational therapist.

“Students learned not only the educational requirements of becoming an OT, but where OTs work,” explained Wannall. “Demonstrations included the use of adaptive equipment, technology, and several evaluation tools typically used by OTs.”

Providing the high school students with a glimpse of what it is like to be occupational therapists was very important to Wannall.

“We need to reach out to the youth of today and get them excited about the potential career opportunities within health care or we are not going to have enough people to take care of the needs in our society,” she said.

Both graduate student presenters took the day off from their Level II internships to share their knowledge about the field and encourage younger students to explore the field of occupational therapy.

And it’s certainly worthy of exploration.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, OT is one of the top 10 needed professions in health care right now,” said Wannall. “Baby boomers are retiring, people are living longer healthier lives and as a result staying in their own homes longer.  Not only is there a huge need for therapists to work with the geriatric population but within school districts as well.  According to recently released studies from the U.S. government, the rate of children on the autism spectrum has risen from 1 in 88 to 1 in 50, creating the potential for many more jobs for OTs working in pediatrics.”

Conrad is finishing up her second placement at Marcus Whitman School District and Prober is completing her second at Geneva General Hospital in both the acute and long-term care sections of the hospital.  Both students will graduate in May and have already started interviewing for jobs in the local area.

Said Wannall:  “Cindy and Emily are prime examples of what the Healthcare Alliance of the Finger Lakes is all about— keeping people in our area.”

 

Nursing Division to Co-sponsor Conference on Future of Nursing

Published April 12 at 4:52 p.m. in Academic News, Around the Tower.

The Division of Nursing will co-sponsor the Finger Lakes Region Future of Nursing Conference, scheduled May 4 from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the Smith Opera House in Geneva.

The conference is designed for nurses, nursing students, consumers, and health care decision-makers interested in the nurse’s role in “transforming the health care system of the future” in the areas of training and education, professional development and leadership, and policy making.

Presentations will provide attendees with a status report on Future of Nursing activities, as well as state and regional updates and contacts. Participants will leave the conference with a toolkit and strategies to promote the recommendations of the Future of Nursing to consumers, health care educators, and nurses in their institution/county/area. Participants can earn six contact hours.

Presenters include Cathryne Welch, co-chair of the New York State Future of Nursing Committee; Dr. Deb Stamps, vice president and Chief Nursing Officer of Newark-Wayne Hospital and a member of the State Future of Nursing Steering Committee; Mel Callan, legislative strategist; and the Hon. Richard Dollinger, Monroe County Supreme Court judge.

Dr. Debra Gates, associate professor and chair of the Division of Nursing at Keuka, will co-facilitate a breakout session. Gates, along with Dr. Heather Cook-Smith of Unity Health in Rochester, is one of the co-leaders of the Finger Lakes Region Future of Nursing’s Remove Barriers to Practice initiative.

To register online, go to http://www.npagr.org/FONConference.shtml. The cost is $75 for nurses, $30 for nursing students, and $65 per person for groups of three from the same institution/area. Those paying at the door should make checks payable to NPAGR Future of Nursing Conference.

For more information regarding key messages and recommendations put forth by the Institute of Medicine Report October 2010—“The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health”— go to  http://futureofnursing-nys.org/recommendations/priorityRecs.htm and/or http://thefutureofnursing.org/.