Below are a variety of items about upcoming events and other news notes on the campus of Youngstown State University:

• Respiratory Care Program wins national award
• YSU Women’s Club awards scholarships
• Faculty/staff awards, presentations, publications

Respiratory Care Program wins national award
Youngstown State University’s Respiratory Care Program has received the Excellence in Respiratory Therapy Education Award from the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care.

CoARC is the national agency that recommends accreditation for two– and four–year respiratory therapy programs. The award is given to the respiratory care program that is a designated national leader, demonstrating excellence in respiratory care education.

YSU’s program was chosen from among 14 finalists from across the nation, according to Shelley C. Mishoe, CoARC chair. Mishoe said YSU’s program received the award for noteworthy achievements in several areas, including distinguished leadership in the profession, distinction in the area of teaching, demonstrated major contributions to the respiratory care profession, and student and faculty community involvement.

The award, which comes with a $1,000 prize, will be awarded during the American Association for Respiratory Care’s Summer Forum in July in Phoenix, Ariz.

The respiratory care program was started in 1977 and has graduated nearly 500 students. Louis Harris led the program for 31 years before retiring in May. Teresa Volsko is the new director, while Mary Yacovone is the program’s new director of clinical education. Both are graduates of the YSU program.ﾠ

“After serving the program since its inception in 1977, I am proud of the exceptional efforts of the students, the clinical facilities, the administrative support and the full– and part–time faculty that have served the program over the last three decades,” Harris said.

Respiratory therapy is an allied health profession concerned with the diagnostic evaluation, treatment and management of patients with cardiopulmonary disorders.

The YSU program provides graduates with a bachelor of science degree in respiratory care. YSU is one of only three universities in Ohio that offer a truly integrated respiratory care bachelor degree program. The program is also one of only 52 programs in the nation at the bachelor degree level.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook says that respiratory therapy is one of the fastest growing of all occupations.

YSU Women’s Club presents scholarships

  Recipients of scholarships awarded by the YSU Women's Club are, from the left, Amanda Prommersberger of Hubbard, Noah Fillian of Cortland, Amanda Cartwright of Boardman, Tara Thomas of Warren, and Laureen Losasso of Poland.

Three of the scholarships are funded by the Women’s Club. Two of the scholarships were awarded to Amanda Prommersberger of Hubbard and Tara Thomas of Warren. A third scholarship was awarded to Sara Fouad of Youngstown, in the memory of Mary Humphrey, a dedicated volunteer who served as president of the Women’s Club in 1981–82.

The three additional $1,000 scholarships were created through the generosity of the late Dr. Raymond Shuster in honor of his wife, Martha Kryston Shuster, a past YSU Women’s Club president. The scholarships, funded through an endowment held by the YSU Foundation, were awarded to Jessica Cartwright of Boardman, Noah Fillian of Cortland, and Laureen Losasso of Poland.

The YSU Women’s Club, founded in 1968, promotes YSU and provides scholarships to YSU students.ﾠ The club also identifies community needs and the resources to meet those needs by cultivating social relationships and the opportunity for intellectual improvement.

The YSU Women’s Club is an organization open to all University women including current and retired female employees and the wives, widows, and female life/domestic partners of current or retired employees/board members.ﾠ Honorary memberships are provided to current and/or former female YSU Board of Trustees.

Women interested in joining the club should contact Christine Shelton, president–elect, at cgshelton@ysu.edu or through the webpage. Scheduled events for the coming academic year include the Fall Tea, the Holiday Luncheon and Silent Auction, Spring Luncheon, and the Scholarship Awards and Installation Dinner.

Faculty/staff awards, presentations, publications
Susan Moorer, coordinator of Diversity Initiatives, was appointed to the Performance Improvement Committee at Humility of Mary Health Partners.

Silvia J. Imler, assistant professor, Counseling and Special Education, presented “Understanding Contextual Factors: Becoming Culturally Responsive Teachers” at the 6th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu. Imler and Sally Lewis, assistant professor of Counseling and Special Education, presented “A Response to Intervention in Closing the Achievement Gap for All Children” at the same conference.

Paul Rohrbaugh, instructor, Educational Foundations, Research, Technology and Leadership, had the article “Class Warfare: The Use and Application of Simulation Games in Teaching,” published in Against the Odds: A Journal of Historical Analysis and Simulation.

Johanna Krontiris–Litowitz, professor, Biological Sciences, presented “The importance of articulating scientific reasoning in the classroom: If they can tell it, they know it” at the International Lilly Conference on College Teaching in Oxford, Ohio.

Will Greenway, professor, English, has had three of his poems, “Up Mill Creek,” “Twm Si�n Catti’s Cave” and “Daytona,” published in the Winter/Spring 2008 edition of Cave Wall 3.

Helene J. Sinnreich, director of Judaic and Holocaust Studies, History, has been awarded a fellowship from the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. She plans to take the fellowship in the spring of 2009.

Arlene Floyd, director, Associate Degree & Tech Prep Programs, has been named to the leadership team for the Great Lakes Girls Collaborative Project, a regional affiliate of the National Girls Collaborative Project and funded by the National Science Foundation to advance gender equity in STEM careers. The Great Lakes collaboration includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Randy Hoover, professor, Teacher Education, and Kathy Shook, instructor, Counseling and Special Education, presented a paper at the 50^th annual conference of the American Association of Teacher Education in New Orleans. The paper was titled “Nesting Standards in Thematic Unit Plans.” Hoover also served as a session organizer at the conference for a set of papers dealing with innovations in standards–based education.