July 5, 2010    Contact: Ron Cole, director of University Communications, 330-941-3285 Featured in this week’s YSU News Briefs: • Auto Dealers donate nearly $48,000 to YSU autism center • Arts Festival features workshops on family history • YSU faculty/staff awards, publications, presentations Calendar Monday, July 5. University closed. Tuesday, July 6, 10:30 a.m. YSU announces a major, seven-figure gift to the university. The event will be in the R3 parking lot at YSU, which is located on Bryson Street and next to the construction of the new WATTS indoor practice facility now under construction. Wednesday, July 7, 11 a.m. The Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio presents a check for $47,873 to the YSU Rich Center for Autism. See News Brief below. Saturday, July 10, 9 a.m. The seventh annual Smoky Hollow 5K Run and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk will take place in the Smoky Hollow neighborhood just east of campus. The 5K run starts at 9 a.m. and the walk starts at 9:10 a.m. For more information, call 330-941-1778. Saturday and Sunday, July 10 and 11. Nearly 70 artists will participate in YSU’s 12 th annual Summer Festival of Art on the YSU campus. The event also includes a children’s art tent and dozens Youngstown State University !"#$%&’(")$ Visitors take a break near the statue of Howard W. Jones on the YSU  campus core during last year’s Sumer Festival of the Arts. This year’s  event is this wekend, July 10 and 1.  of activities sponsored by cultural and arts organizations and YSU departments. Also featured is the Festival of Nations, which highlights the Mahoning Valley's diverse ethnic populations through a presentation of food, displays, presentations and musical or dance performances. For more information, visit http://www.ysu.edu/sfa/. Auto Dealers donate nearly $48,00 to YSU autism center The Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio has announced that a charity auction held this spring as part of their President's Gala generated a record $47,873 for the Rich Center for Autism at Youngstown State University. The amount raised brings the 12-year total of charitable contributions raised by the annual event to $399,088. The Rich Center, located in Fedor Hall at YSU, is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with autism and their families through the creation, use and enhancement of innovative educational programs specifically designed to assure the attainment of a life of dignity and to enhance the individuals’ opportunities to achieve their full potentials. Although area automobile and truck dealers have long contributed to local charities individually, the dealer’s organization annually conducts this collective effort as a way of assisting others in the community. Members of this year’s guidance committee include Chairman and new ADAEO Board President Rob Fellman of Boardman Subaru, Immediate Past President Russ Banks of Banks Chevrolet, Greg Greenwood of Greenwood Chevrolet, John Kufleitner of Columbiana Chrysler Jeep Dodge, Tom Levak and Steve Bott of Mark Thomas Ford, Donny Murphy of Donnell Ford in Boardman, Jim Whetstone of Acura of Boardman, ADAEO Executive Vice President Steve Chos, and ADAEO Administrative Assistant Cathy Swegan. J. Paul Basinger and the staff of Basinger Auction Service conducted the auction. ADAEO was founded in 1964 and includes new vehicle dealerships and related businesses in Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbiana Counties. For more information about the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio, contact Steve Chos at 330-759-1111. Editor’s note: The official check presentation will be conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 7, at Boardman Subaru, 7811 South Avenue in Boardman. Arts Festival features workshops on family history As part of the YSU Summer Festival of the Arts, Sherry Linkon will lead three free workshops on Saturday, July 10, on family history and stories, focusing on interviews, family photos, recipes, and stories. Linkon is a YSU professor of English, director of Steel Valley Voices: An Ethnic Community Archive, and co-director of the YSU Center for Working Class Studies. The workshops, which need no advance registration, will be in Maag Library’s lobby, adjacent to the Festival of Nations section of the Arts Shery Linkon  Festival. Workshops include: • 11 a.m., Exploring Family History: Interviews and Storytelling The best way to learn about your family's history is to talk with family members. This workshop will present tips on interviewing, collecting stories, and writing about your family's history. • 1 p.m., Treasures in the Album: Family Photos and Stories Family photos can be the key to uncovering and preserving your family's history. Bring a photo to share, and learn how to preserve and learn from your family's photos. • 3 p.m., Food and Family: Recipes and Stories Food is the heart of family and community celebrations. Bring a recipe or a food memory to share, and learn about how you can preserve the past through cooking, eating, and storytelling. The program is sponsored by Steel Valley Voices, which helps area residents explore and preserve the history of their families and communities. Steel Valley Voices collects, preserves, and celebrates the ethnic and racial diversity of the Mahoning Valley. Along with sponsoring workshops to teach area residents about strategies to research and share their own histories, Steel Valley Voices hosts an online collection featuring letters, photographs, recipes, audio and video recordings, and more, all available on the website, steelvalleyvoices.com. The site has materials on individuals, families, churches, and community groups representing more than 15 different groups in the Valley. Steel Valley Voices makes all of this available free, online, at http://steelvalleyvoices.com. For more information, contact Linkon at 330-941-2977 or sllinkon@ysu.edu. YSU faculty/staf awards, publications, presentations Yogendra M. Panta, assistant professor, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, authored a peer‐ reviewed journal article titled, “Ultrasensitive detection of mercury (II) ions using  electrochemical surface plasmon resonance with magnetohydrodynamic convection” in the  Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. Co‐authors of the article are Shizhi Qian from Old  Dominion University, Jing Liu from Huazhong University of Science and Technology‐China, Sang  Joo from Yeungnam University‐Korea and Marcos Cheney from University of Maryland. The  article was also presented and published in abstract at American Chemical Society 42 nd  WRM  Meeting in Las Vegas.    James J. Carroll, professor, Physics and Astronomy, along with P. Walker from the University of Surrey, and F. Currell of Queen's University in Belfast, organized the International Workshop on Atomic Effects in Nuclear Excitation and Decay in Trento, Italy. Forty scientists from around the world attended the workshop hosted by the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas, and supported in part by YSU using grant funds from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Johanna Krontiris-Litowitz, professor, Biological Sciences, published “Articulating Scientific Reasoning Improves Student Learning in an Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology Course” in CBE (Cell Biology Education) – Life Science Education.   Deborah Mower, assistant professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies, published a paper  titled “Sex Differences in Moral Interests: The Role of Kinship and the Nature of Reciprocity” in  the Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior. She also presented a paper titled “Understanding  Rituals as Scripts: Western Psychology Meets Confucian Moral Education” at Montana State  University.    Paul McFadden, chief development officer, University Development, presented two workshop  sessions at the 5th Annual Petrus Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla. McFadden spoke on  the topics "Donor Motivations for Planned Giving" and "Asking for and Closing Gifts."  Paul R. Carr, assistant professor, Educational Foundations, Research, Technology and  Leadership, had an article titled “Political Conscientization and Media (Il)literacy: Critiquing the  Mainstream Media as a form of Democratic Engagement”  and a book review titled  “Multicultural Education Policies in Canada and the United States” published in Multicultural  Education.  ###