YSU seniors Sarah Lewis, left, and Tara Esker have been awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to study abroad. Read News Brief below.

• Students earn awards to study in Costa Rica, England
• Joe Edwards retires after nearly five decades at YSU
• Football camp set for students at autism center
• Festival of the Arts starts Eco–Art Contest, seeks volunteers
• YSU faculty/staff awards, presentations, publications

Calendar
Monday, June 22, 9:30 a.m. YSU football players, coaches and staff host a one–hour football skills camp for students from the Rich Center for Autism at Stambaugh Stadium. See News Brief below.

Monday, June 22, 10 a.m. News conference on the Sustainable Energy Forum, featuring U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan; Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams; Martin Abraham, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Youngstown State University; and Jack Scott, president and chief operating officer of Parsons Corporation. The news conference will be conducted outside the north entrance to Moser Hall on the YSU campus. The two–day Sustainable Energy Forum, Monday and Tuesday, June 22 and 23, is a major conference that brings together representatives from government, industry and academe to focus on technologies related to renewable energy and energy efficiency and to discuss the crucial role that the Cleveland–to–Youngstown–to–Pittsburgh Technology Belt can play in those emerging technologies. For more details, visit http://www.sustainableenergyforum.net/default.aspx.

Monday, June 22 to Saturday, June 27. More than 125 high school students from across Ohio participate in Ohio Business Week in YSU’s Kilcawley Center. Students come together to form companies and learn business skills, concepts, and theories from local and regional business leaders and compete in activities that promote leadership and ingenuity. They also learn about entrepreneurship by developing a business plan, a marketing plan, and a financial plan for a start–up business.

Students earn awards to study in Costa Rica, England
Youngstown State University students Tara Esker of Leetonia and Sarah Lewis of Girard have been awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad.

Lewis, a senior political science and Spanish major, received a $3,000 award to participate in the Spanish, Ecological and Latin American Studies program in Costa Rica starting in August.

Esker, a senior psychology major, received a $2,500 award to study at the University of Winchester in England starting in September.

The Gilman Scholarship Program offers a competition for awards for undergraduate study abroad and was established by the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the congressionally–funded scholarship program is administered by the Institute of International Education through its Southern Regional Center in Houston. Since the inception of the scholarship in 2001, nearly 19,000 applications have been received and less than 5,000 scholarships have been awarded.

Joe Edwards retires after nearly five decades at YSU

  Joe Edwards

“I remember my father used to say that he never for one day regretted marrying my mother,” Edwards said. “Well, I have never for one day regretted marrying YSU.”

And what a marriage it has been.

Born and raised in the Brier Hill section of Youngstown, Edwards credits his father for his love of music. An auto mechanic by trade, Edwards’ father played the drums and regularly took his five children to concerts. The sounds of Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky filled the home. Father and three sons joined to make up the “Melodaires,” a wedding band that performed throughout the area.

“He inspired in us a sense of excellence,” he said.

Edwards played the saxophone, and later the clarinet. He graduated from Ursuline High School in 1960 and enrolled in the Dana School of Music at Youngstown University, working in a local grocery story to help pay tuition. Dana was located in a single house just north of Alumni House on Wick Avenue. Edwards remembers practicing in the basement.

The place has changed a lot since then. “The beautifying of the campus over the years is just a marvel,” he said. “It’s like nothing that I could have imagined.”

Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1965, and then went on to Michigan State University, where he received a master’s degree in music. After two years as an instructor at Morningside College in Iowa, he enrolled in the doctoral program at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1969. At about the same time, YSU called, asking him to accept a one–year faculty assignment. He did. After three more one–year contracts, Edwards received a tenure–track position.

At Dana, Edwards created the saxophone degree program, taught clarinet and conducted the symphonic, concert and marching bands. He kept a busy performance schedule, including the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, Blossom Festival Orchestra and American Wind Symphony. He played for Bobby Darin and Bobby Vinton, toured with the International Circus, and even sat in one night with the Motown band for the Temptations.

In 1983, after 21 years on the YSU faculty, he was offered a one–year assignment as assistant director of Dana. “I didn’t want to get involved in administration,” he said. “My love was performing and teaching.”

He accepted the assignment, anyway. It turned into a 26–year career in college administration, first as Dana assistant director, then director, interim dean of the Beeghly College of Education, associate dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts and, finally, dean in 2005.

Edwards, who in retirement plans to return to YSU to teach part–time, said it has been a privilege to work with the talented, dedicated faculty in the college. And, although opportunity elsewhere has knocked, he says he is happy he stayed in Youngstown.

“There was something about the faculty here, about the growth and energy of the university,” said Edwards, who looks forward to having more time to travel, golf and practice his clarinet.

“I was part of the YSU family.”

(Editor’s Note: Bryan DePoy, interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University, replaces Edwards as dean on July 1.)

Football camp set for students at autism center
Youngstown State University football players, coaches and staff will host a one–hour football skills camp for students from the Rich Center for Autism 9:30 a.m. Monday, June 22 at Stambaugh Stadium.

Twenty–seven students will take part in the camp, which falls on the first day of the summer program at the Rich Center.

Teacher Scot McClelland said the camp will build on the students’ knowledge of football and their ability to play the sport. “All physical activity can be therapeutic and reduce non–typical behaviors. We have seen positive results in our classrooms using this technique,” he said.

Autism is a neurological disorder affecting 1.5 million Americans. Most children are diagnosed at the age of three. There is no cure, but early intervention and specialized treatment can greatly reduce the need for lifelong care.ﾠ The Rich Center for Autism was established on the YSU campus in 1995, to address the needs of children with autism and provide answers and support for their families.

The rain location for the camp is the second–floor gymnasium at Stambaugh Stadium.

For more information, contact Tricia Perry, Rich Center Events Coordinator, at 330–941–2047 or 330–727–9717.

Festival of the Arts starts Eco–Art Contest, seeks volunteers
The “greening” of the arts is getting center stage attention with the first Eco–Art Contest at Youngstown State University’s Summer Festival of the Arts July 11 and 12.
The contest, sponsored in part by the Mahoning County Green Team, is designed for artists of any level to submit art pieces made of mostly repurposed or recycled materials. The art will be exhibited at the two–day art festival on the YSU campus.

“Many of our artists utilize recycled materials in the artwork that they sell; in fact, using recycled materials is nothing new,” said Lori A. Factor, assistant director of the Performing Arts Series and Festival coordinator. “But, we wanted those casual artists of any skill level who don’t have a chance to exhibit their artwork and participate in this event. Making the Summer Festival ‘greener’ has been a goal, and we are glad to offer the chance this year.”

A “People’s Choice Award” will be presented to the artists of the two art pieces that garner the most votes by patrons who attend the Summer Festival of the Arts. Star Supply in Youngstown has offered two gift certificates for the winners of the People’s Choice Awards.

Contestants must complete a submission form in advance of the festival and deliver their art piece on July 10. The submission form is available at www.ysu.edu/sfa . Complete rules and regulations for the contest are also available at the website, on Facebook or by calling 330–941–3105.

Meanwhile, the Summer Festival of the Arts continues to seek volunteers. Volunteers should be 14 years of age or older. Families and friends will be scheduled together when requested.

Various shifts are available. Each volunteer receives a Festival tee shirt and reserved free parking. “Our volunteer corps is crucial to the festival''s success,” Factor said. "With over 13,000 Festival goers, the volunteers are able to give a personal touch to many areas of this event."

More information and a printable form are available at www.ysu.edu/sfa or by calling 330–941–3105.

YSU faculty/staff awards, presentations, publications
Patrick Durrell, assistant professor, Physics and Astronomy, is participating as a member of the U.S. International Year of Astronomy Visitor/Science Centers, Observatories and Planetaria Working Group, which is helping to coordinate and promote educational activities related to the IYA in 2009.

Jeffrey Buchanan, associate professor, English and Teacher Education, published the essay “Reading and Understanding: Tim O’Brien and the Narrative of Failure” in the College English Association Forum.

James Carroll, professor, Physics and Astronomy, was an invited speaker at the Nuclear Physics Conference in Mongolia last fall. He spoke on the YSU Isomer Physics Project, a research effort that is investigating ways to release energy stored in nuclear isomers. Carroll also presented a seminar and participated in meetings at the invitation of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Cal.

William Greenway, professor, English, had his poems “Long Love” and “I Wake to My Parents, Fighting Again” published in the 2008 edition of the Connecticut River Review, the annual poetry journal of The Connecticut Poetry Society. His volume of poetry, Everywhere at Once, was published by the University of Akron Poetry Series.

Adam Earnheardt, assistant professor, Communication, was named executive director of the Ohio Communication Association. The OCA is a statewide professional organization of communications teachers, professors and scholars in high schools, colleges and universities.

Guohong “Helen” Han, assistant professor, Management, wrote a paper entitled “Bracketing Team Boundary Spanning: An Examination of Task–based, Team–level and Contextual Antecedents” in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, a top journal in the organizational behavior field. The paper was co–authored by University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign assistant professor, Aparna Joshi, and visiting assistant professor, Niti Pandey.

Ying Wang, assistant professor, Marketing, presented “Chinese Perspectives in Intercultural Communication” at the International Communication Association Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada. Wang also presented “Romanian Consumers’ Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Online Advertising” at the American Marketing Association Annual Conference in San Diego, Calif. He also presented “Exploring Sense of Virtual Community and Its Relationship with Users’ Content Production in the Web 2.0 Context” at the Global Academy of Business and Economic Research Conference.