|
Weeks of Aug. 14 - Aug. 27, 2006 Welcome to the Tower Topics E-newsletter for faculty, staff and students at Western. |
|||||||
|
Missouri Western State University, 4525 Downs Drive, St. Joseph, MO 64507, 816-271- 4200 |
|||||||
|
Click any link for these stories: New Four Degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology Brooks Workshop Promotes Healthy Choices Recording Studio Prepares Students Lost & Found: If you have lost any items, please come to SU 228 to claim them. You may be required to describe the item. Click on
Guidelines for Tower Topics: Tower Topics submissions should state time, date, place, sponsor, title of event, name of speaker's and admission fees. Send complete information to the Public Relations and Marketing office (Leah Spratt Hall, Room 106). The deadline for all entries is 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, for the next week's issue. Tower Topics will be online weekly during the fall and spring semester. For more information call 271-5651. Student Editor:
|
|
||||||
|
NEW FOUR YEAR DEGREE IN MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY Every day, headlines describe the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. A new four-year degree in manufacturing engineering technology at Missouri Western State University responds to this need for more highly trained manufacturing workers. The new degree is the only one of its kind in the region. “Today’s manufacturing environment requires more brains than brawn at all levels of the manufacturing process,” said Paul Scianna, executive director of the Alliance for Innovation in Manufacturing: Kansas City. “And Western’s (four-year manufacturing engineering) program will help fill the gap.” Dr. Virendra Varma, chair of the engineering technology department, believes the degree is a step in the right direction to help staunch the flow of U.S. manufacturing jobs to foreign countries and to alleviate the shortage of technically trained manufacturing workers. Western has offered an associate’s degree in manufacturing engineering technology since 1998. “The United States is losing jobs to foreign countries,” Dr. Varma said. “It’s time we developed a strong academic high-technology degree to insure that the United States is still at the top.” Ellen Jordan, quality assurance/project manager at Midland Steel Co., agrees. She said the company sometimes subcontracts this type of work overseas because of a shortage of technically trained workers. “Technology programs are great. The more Western graduates in those programs, the better it is for the local manufacturing community. We’re in continual need for engineering technology graduates.” Jordan noted that at least five Midland Steel employees, herself included, are graduates of Western’s engineering technology programs. Scianna said Western’s additional program is good news for the manufacturing industry in the region. A recent skills gap analysis conducted by his organization showed that there are not enough post-secondary programs in the area to meet the demand for skilled workers in the coming years. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that in 15 years, if trends continue, the nation could face a shortage of between 13 million and 15 million technically skilled workers. Western’s program includes courses in physical and engineering sciences, applied mathematics, and training in programmable logic controllers and 3-D solids-modeling. Students must complete an internship at a manufacturing facility. Graduates would be qualified to work in operations and production, engineering, or supervision for manufacturing facilities, Dr. Varma said. “They’ll have a good technical and educational background, and they can quickly take an active part in devising process improvements.” Tyler Mejia graduated from Western’s two-year manufacturing engineering program this summer, and is working full time at Gray Automotive Products Co. in St. Joseph. He was pleased to hear that Western is offering a four-year program, and hopes to enroll in the near future. “I thought the (two-year) program was very good,” said Mejia. “Everything I do here (at Gray) reflects on what I learned.” Most useful, he said, were the computer and the computer aided drafting courses. |
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
BROOKS' WORKSHOP PROMOTES HEALTHY CHOICES
Dr. Evelyn Brooks has made healthy babies her mission. In the past two years, the professor of nursing has received three grants from the March of Dimes totaling more than $40,000 to promote healthy choices and prenatal care. Her most recent grant of approximately $25,000 funded a free workshop for more than 100 northwest Missouri high school teachers, nurses and counselors, area nurses and Western nursing students Aug. 11 and 12. The workshop, “An Ounce of Prevention,” addressed preventing birth defects, alcohol, drug and tobacco use, and making healthy choices. It included a curriculum package worth $80, teaching tips for individual instruction, hand-outs, and breakfast and lunch both days. The workshop was taught by the writers of the curriculum, Brenda Bell from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Lori Williamson-Kruse from the Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma. As part of the program, Western senior nursing students and health, physical education and recreation department majors paired with 67 high schools in the 17 counties, and they will travel to their assigned school this fall to teach one of the units of the “An Ounce of Prevention” curriculum. Leslie Balcazar, who graduated from Western in May with a bachelor of science in nursing, assisted Dr. Brooks with the workshop planning, personally contacting teachers, nurses and counselors in the 67 high schools. “I’m very excited about the workshop. It is vital that nursing students get out and touch the community and educate them.” “The goal of our nursing program is to help students become leaders in developing healthier communities,” said Dr. Brooks. “And that is exactly what this does.” Two years ago, a $15,000 grant to the nursing department provided funding for nursing students to develop a presentation on preventing birth defects and making healthy choices for 1,500 adolescent girls in the St. Joseph high schools. Because of that program’s success, the March of Dimes encouraged Dr. Brooks to apply for a grant to reach a larger audience. She decided a workshop for high school teachers, nurses and counselors in northwest Missouri could have a greater impact, since there is a potential to reach more than 14,000 students. The nursing department also recently received a $480 grant to develop a web site of resources for area teenagers, and a Western professor and student translated the site into Spanish as well. Dr. Brooks hopes the programs funded by the grants will result in healthier babies. Between 2000 and 2004, there was an average of 7.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births in the state, and 8,747 births in Missouri were to teenagers aged 15 to 19. She said this workshop will help adolescents, as well as health educators, understand the importance of risk and protective measures available to prevent birth defects. “It’s exciting that we are going out into the community; we’re not waiting for them to come to us,” Balcazar said. “We’re teaching about health care and healthy choices.”
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
RECORDING STUDIO PREPARES STUDENTS Jon Paul Bellamy, who graduated from Missouri Western State University in 2005, believes his experiences in Western’s recording studio as a student helped him a lot in his career as a band director at Liberty High School in Mountain View, Mo. Making sure music students like Bellamy have that experience is the goal of Mark Elting, instructor in the recording arts program at Western. He believes that students need to be knowledgeable about the latest music technology in order to have successful music careers today, and the university’s recording studio and control room is providing just that. In the past three years, the studio has tripled in size and added several pieces of new equipment and upgrades; and the number of students it serves continues to increase as well. “Mr. Elting taught me a lot,” Bellamy said. “He was very good about giving you opportunities for experience, and giving you what you need. I’m now able to teach my students that aspect of music.” He said he has also used what he learned at Western to record music performances at his high school, and set up sound systems for them. “We’re trying to prepare our students for real world careers,” Elting said. “What we teach here will apply to whatever they go into.” He noted, for example, that the digital editing software in the studio is the industry standard, so students become familiar with what is being used in the field and are thus more marketable. In the past
three years, along with the up-to-date software, the studio, which
serves as Elting’s classroom, has gained new computer monitors, a new
computer, new speakers, acoustic foam on the walls, new microphones,
headphones, and new outboard gear with a power amplifier and digital
interface for digital editing software. The recording studio, with a
soundproof floating floor and lead door, has the capability to record
performances in the adjoining band and chorus room, also.
“It’s an excellent room,” Elting said. “When I shut the door, I can’t even hear if the band is playing.” He noted that an increasing number of students, both music and video majors, have become interested in learning recording technology. For example, more elementary, middle and high schools are requiring their music educators to be able to record and use music technology, so many music education majors sign up for his class now. Additionally, community members often take his class to gain studio recording skills. At times throughout the semester, he said, the studio is booked 24 hours a day as students work on their projects for the class. “We’re raising the standards so our students will be prepared for their careers. You have to have all the technology to be successful today,” said Elting.
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
Wednesday, August 16
Thursday, August 17
Friday, August 18
Friday, August 21
Tuesday, August 22
Wednesday, August 23
Thursday, August 24
Friday, August 25
Monday, August 28
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
Wanted: Your want ads! You
are welcome to submit ads to the Western ADvantage each week.
|
|||||||
