The Dorothy & Bill Cohen Honors College Summer Update

Greetings, Cohen Honors Community

So Much Sunlight to the Square Inch

You’ll see in this summer honors update that more meaningful work continues through the summer months. Honors students engaged in applied learning have been featured in the WSU News, and our faculty are active in research and publication.

Summer officially began this week, and this week also began with Juneteenth. If you missed Wichita’s community celebrations, you can check out what you missed in this brief article.

Plans for the new academic year are underway, and we’ll be using the university calendar to list honors activities. Get in the habit of checking each week for opportunities! The weekly update will continue as well with reminders and feature stories. We have one more update planned for this summer – and we want to hear from you!

Send notes, pictures, and information about what you are doing this summer to honorsassistant@wichita.edu. Where have you been testing your talents and sharing your gifts? Are you so much sunlight to the square inch (as poet Walt Whitman is quoted as describing a visitor to his home in 1888)? Let us know!

-Kimberly Engber, Dean

Honors Applied Learning

In The News

Honors student Ayshea Banes posing for a headshot photo. Ayshea is wearing a light yellow Wichita State sweatshirt and silver hoop earrings. She is smiling and looking directly into the camera.

Ayshea Banes: Undergraduate Researcher

Honors student and McNair Scholar Ayshea Banes is currently working as an undergraduate researcher with Dr. Nick Solomey on the NuSol Project, which is funded by NASA. Ayshea's main objective is to determine the neutrino flux coming from the galactic core by using the Crab Nebula as a reference.

Ayshea's advice to other students looking for hands-on experiences in their major is: "Talk to your professors and hangout in your major's spaces any chance you get. I got my opportunity because I decided to eat lunch in the Physics Department and ended up speaking to my future mentor. You never know what opportunities will present itself."

Honors student Hanna Chastain posing for a headshot. Hanna is wearing a dark beige suit jacket over a white and light brown striped button-up shirt and multi-colored glasses. She is blonde with blue eyes and is smiling while looking directly at the camera. The background of the photo is blurred.

Hanna Chastain: Marketing Intern at MIT

Honors student Hanna Chastain is currently serving as a marketing intern for Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Licensing Office (TLO). Hanna is responsible for writing tech briefs on MIT's licensable technologies that are posted on the TLO webiste and other channels. She also researches the marketability and commercialization pathways for licensable technologies to help TLO staff identify and reach out to potential licensees.

Hanna's advice to other students looking for hands-on experiences in their major is: "Jump into opportunities even if you feel like you aren't prepared or 'smart enough' or 'outgoing enough' or any other negative reason... Try experiences that you weren't even originally open to, they may surprise you, and you may enjoy it."

Honors student Cameron Holston posing for a photo outside NIAR's Aircraft Structural Test and Evaluation Center. Cameron wears a black Wichita State Army ROTC t-shirt and green pants. He is blonde and wears wire-rimmed glasses.

Cameron Holston: Intern at NIAR

Honors student Cameron Holston is currently serving as an intern for the National Institution for Aviation Research's Aircraft Structural Test and Evaluation Center. Cameron aids in maintaining accountability of all aircraft pieces as they move throughout the facility, a process that can range from six to 12 steps. From disassembly all the way to storage, Cameron knows where each specific piece is placed.

Cameron's advice to other students looking for hands-on experiences in their major is: "Keep your eyes and options open, and be patient. Opportunities will present themselves if you seek them out."

Honors student Jaden Wood posing for a headshot photo. Jaden has one hand placed on a tree, the sun setting behind her. She is wearing a yellow shirt with black bottoms and her hair is in a ponytail.

Jaden Wood: Intern at Tallgrass Eyecare

Honors student Jaden Wood is currently serving as a intern at Tallgrass Eyecare. Jaden's responsibilities include checking in patients, testing visual fields, obtaining baseline prescriptions, capturing images of the retina, and checking visual acuities. She has also developed her interpersonal skills and learned more about how a private optometry practice runs.

Learn more about Jaden and her Applied Learning experience here.

Summer Happenings

The 2022 Lead for Tomorrow Leadership Academy students posing for a picture at Amazon's The Spheres facility. There are 10 individuals in the photo, posing in front of a sign reading "the spheres" with the Amazon logo beneath and a plant-filled background.

Lead For Tomorrow: 2022 Leadership Academy

The 2022 Leadership Academy brought together 10 Honors students and 5 Faculty Thought Leaders for two connected courses in the spring semester. The annual theme “Building Better Relationships: Communication, Collaboration, Comprehension, and Connection” asked students to explore the importance and complexity of relationships in leadership practice.

Students traveled to Seattle, Washington during May and engaged in a Place as Text (National Collegiate Honors Council best practice) experience in which the travel destination serves as another tool in building understanding and meaning. Students explored the Pike Place Market, saw innovative collaboration spaces at Amazon in The Spheres, visited museums and neighborhoods, and participated in various community building sessions throughout the week. Each of these experiences continued to inform the theme and helped students develop an understanding of leadership and positive action.

Students also formed teams and worked through a design thinking process in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Kansas. This project served as a signature assignment throughout the entire academy. Students were presented real challenges from our partner agency and together with content from the spring course, Seattle travel, and design thinking, created proposed solutions. These solutions were presented to the Boys and Girls Club upon return from Seattle.

More information about Lead for Tomorrow, including the Spring 2023 theme and travel destination will be released in the fall semester. Be sure to monitor the weekly update this exciting announcement!

Click here to learn more about Lead For Tomorrow: Leadership Academy.

2022 Summer Research Institute

The 2022 Summer Research Institute was hosted by the Cohen Honors College from June 5th to June 9th. As part of the program, student research groups compiled a review of literature, formulated an educated hypothesis and methods, conducted data collection, analyzed data, and showcased findings in an oral presentation. The SRI participants collaborated, problem-solved, practiced critical thinking skills and established relationships with fellow incoming peers, undergraduate student mentors, graduate research assistants, and research faculty.

Click here to learn more about Summer Research Institute.

Congratulations Dr. Elaine Bernstorf!

Congratulations to Dr. Elaine Bernstorf and her colleagues for their manuscript's acceptance for publication in the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal, Aphasiology.

The manuscript entitled, "The Effects of Varying Melodic Intervals in Melodic Intonation Therapy for Persons with Aphasia," was an interprofessional and intercollegiate collaboration. Kylie Darland, MA-SLP alumna (2021), and Erin O'Bryan, speech-language pathology assistant professor, served the speech-language pathology side and Cynthia Richburg, audiology professor, the aduiology perspective; both disciplines are housed within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) in the College of Health Professions. Dr. Bernstorf is a frequent collaborator with CSD (an alumna who received her PhD form the program) and a professor of music education in the College of Fine Arts, as well as an Honors Faculty Fellow and Seminar Teaching Faculty.

The journal article is based on Darland's successful Masters thesis that was completed last year. All of the co-authors on the manuscript served on her thesis committee. The team is interested in conducting future research on Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), as the study has the potential to change how MIT is used with future clients.

Click here to learn more about the Aphasiology Journal and read the soon-to-be-published article.