ACT-In receives national media attention

William Jewell’s new Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry major is receiving attention from the national media.

The college’s ACT-In major is featured prominently in an August 23 Christian Science Monitor article headlined “Colleges stress moral leadership.”

“Higher education’s mission has always stretched beyond academics,” CSM reporter Stacy Teicher Khadaroo writes. “But how do colleges make concrete the stuff of vision statements?

“Motivated in part by concerns about student cheating and broader ethical lapses in society, colleges and universities are increasingly exploring ways to prepare students to be moral exemplars and socially responsible leaders. As the world becomes more interconnected, they’re also stepping up efforts to turn out graduates who are engaged global citizens. For example:

“At William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., students can now turn the required core liberal arts curriculum into a major by completing three ‘applied learning experiences’ such as service learning, study abroad, and leadership on or off campus.”
The article goes on to note the importance of the core curriculum and quotes William Jewell president David Sallee about the establishment of the new major:

“At William Jewell College, a small liberal arts school, students have long been required to take a core curriculum. The core aims to address the big questions, says president David Sallee. “How should we behave? What can we know? What is real? We felt that by turning this into an opportunity for a major, we could say to people, ‘This is very important in your educational experience.’”

Khadaroo notes: “The key is to tie the coursework to research and ‘reflective citizenship’ projects involving study abroad, service, or leadership.”

For a link to the full article, go to http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0823/p14s02-legn.html

William Jewell among Princeton Review’s ‘The Best 366 Colleges’ for 2008

William Jewell College has been named one of the nation’s 366 best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The New York-based education services company features the college in The Best 366 Colleges, the new 2008 edition of its annual “best colleges” guide.

The guidebook cites Jewell’s “highly selective and extremely intense” Oxbridge Honors Program, which offers instruction in the English tutorial style. The Review noted that “the distinctive quality of the Jewell student body is a repeated emphasis on thoughtfulness and self-reflection,” and scored the college among the top 20 in community relations (#2) and “happiest students” (#15). Only about 15% of the four-year colleges in America appear in the guidebook, which features profiles on the schools and student survey-based rankings in various categories.  

The ranking lists in The Best 366 Colleges are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 120,000 students attending the colleges in the book. Students rated their schools on several topics and reported on their campus experiences. Ranking list categories range from best professors, administration and campus food to lists based on student body political leanings, interests in sports and other aspects of campus life. The Princeton Review posts the book’s ranking lists on its website at www.PrincetonReview.com
 
The Best 366 Colleges is the 16th edition of The Princeton Review’s annual “best colleges” guide.  The Princeton Review is known for its education, admission and test-prep services.

William Jewell was also ranked among the country’s top 184 national liberal arts colleges in the 2008 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,” published by U.S. News & World Report.

Lend a Hand for Honduras

William Jewell College alumni and friends are invited to participate in a spring service-learning trip to Honduras, scheduled for May 3-11, 2008. This will be a hands-on opportunity involving brick-laying as we work to build a school for our partners at an orphanage in San Juan Pueblo, Honduras.

The cost is $1,200, which includes travel from Kansas City, lodging, food and a recreation day on the isle of Cayos Cachinos. The recreation day will include a boat trip to a coral reef, snorkeling, beach-combing and eating fresh fish.

For more information, please contact campus minister Jeff Buscher at William Jewell College, buscherj@william.jewell.edu; 816-415-7560.

Jewell accelerated nursing class scores 100% in licensing exam

The Department of Nursing at William Jewell College is pleased to announce that all of the 2007 Bachelor of Science of Nursing, Accelerated-Track (BSN-AT) graduates have passed the National Council Licensing Examination (NCLEX) on the first attempt. The 22 BSN-AT graduates from the 2007 class are currently working in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and California, with one graduate serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.

William Jewell’s first BSN-AT students graduated in 2004. “We are very pleased for our graduates, and grateful for their hard work in preparing for the NCLEX exam,” says Dr. Nelda Godfrey, Chair of the Department of Nursing.

Godfrey also noted that the 2007 NCLEX pass rate for the combined BSN and BSN-AT tracks in the William Jewell program is 94%. “This is especially impressive because the national NCLEX pass rate for first-time testers during the same time period was 80.4%,” Godfrey said.

William Jewell College welcomes new faculty members

Neil Nicholson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Nicholson was a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, where he completed his Ph.D. in mathematics. He was a presidential fellow at the University of Iowa and also received the Catharine Wegner Outstanding Mathematics Teaching Assistant award. He received his B.A. in mathematics with a computer science minor from Lake Forest College. His research interests include the relationships between knot invariants and knot polynomials, the space of piecewise-linear knots, and invariants of links in projective space.

Jennifer Moody-Weis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Dr. Moody-Weis received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Kansas, where she completed her dissertation on the topic “Population ecology of wild sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) through space and time.” She completed her M.S. in biology at Missouri State University and her B.A. in biology with an emphasis in environmental studies at Drury University.

Wei Wu, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, where she also served as a teaching assistant. She received her B.S. in chemistry from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Dr. Wu served as a mentor in the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., where she facilitated case studies on antibiotic resistance and gastroenteritis.

Long named director at Pryor Center

Todd Long, Director of the Tucker Leadership Lab at William Jewell College, has been named Director of Leadership Training and Development at the college’s Pryor Center for Leadership Development.

In his new role, Long will be responsible for the coordination, management and facilitation of all leadership training and development programs sponsored by the Pryor Center for Leadership Development, including all team development and leadership development programs. He will also manage the programs of the Jewell Round Table, the college’s on-line group facilitation and strategic planning service.

Long joined the William Jewell staff in 2000 to manage experiential team-building programs at the college’s Tucker Leadership Lab. He received his B.A. in 1993 from Graceland University and his M.A. in 1995 from Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri).

Welch named to Tucker Lab position

Suzanne Welch has been named the new Director of the Tucker Leadership Lab at William Jewell.

Welch received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an M.A. in counseling and guidance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has served as a leadership and team development facilitator at William Jewell’s Tucker Leadership Lab, an experiential leadership development facility, and as a team development facilitator at St. Luke’s Health System’s Adventure Woods.

“Suzanne brings energy and passion to her new role,” said Matt Brillhart, Director of Community Leadership Programming at William Jewell’s Fred and Shirley Pryor Center for Leadership Development. “Her educational background, along with her knowledge in experiential learning, provide a strong background for this position.”

Welch replaces Todd Long, who is transitioning into a new role as Director of Leadership Training and Development at William Jewell’s Pryor Center.

Applause

Melissa Dowling of Liberty, Mo., has been named William Jewell College’s Evening Division Student of the Year for 2006-2007. This honor is determined by the faculty of the Continuing Education Division and is awarded each year to a graduating senior. 

Born in Saltillo, Mexico, Dowling studied at Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. It was there that she met and married Michigan native Bryce Dowling. After three moves back and forth between the United States and Mexico, her husband’s work eventually brought them to the Liberty area and to William Jewell College. They have two sons, Alex and Max, who attend Lillian Schumacher Elementary in Liberty.

Melissa graduated in May with a B.A. in accounting and plans to pursue a master’s degree and eventually to become a CPA. She works as an accountant for the corporate offices of Kansas City Southern Railroad in downtown Kansas City.  

Laurie Accardi of Liberty, Mo., was recently named William Jewell College’s Professor of the Year for the Evening Division. The honor is awarded to an evening professor each spring by a vote from the graduating seniors in Continuing Education. 

Accardi has been teaching literature classes for nine years, and she appreciates the “enthusiasm, maturity and intellectual energy that Evening Division students bring to the discussion of literature.” Accardi earned her B.A. in English from Webster University; her M.A. in English from the University of Maine at Orono; and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas at Lawrence.

Fun on the Danube

Alumni and friends of William Jewell College joined President David Sallee and Mary Sallee in June for a week-long cruise along the celebrated Danube River from Nuremberg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary.