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

• YSU hosts NE Ohio Regional Leadership Day
• Counseling students launch ‘Pajama’ collection drive
• Little Rock Nine members speaks in Youngstown
• College Tech Prep sponsors informational meetings
• First fall YSU Press Day set for this week
• ‘Dangers of Freethinking Women’ this week
• Business Succession programs at YSU Metro College
• Dental Hygiene hosts open house Nov. 3

Calendar
Monday, Oct. 27, 1:30 p.m. YSU breaks ground on the $34.3 million building for the Williamson College of Business Administration. The ceremony will be on Wood Street between Phelps and Elm streets.

Monday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m. The Dana Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen L. Gage, makes its 2008–09 premier performance at the Ford Family Recital Hall, Eleanor Beecher Flad Pavilion in the DeYor Performing Arts Center in downtown Youngstown. The concert, entitled “From Russia with Love,” features compositions from three of Russia’s most prolific composers. Tickets are $6.50 for adults, $4 for children, and free for anyone showing a valid YSU ID and are available at the DeYor Box Office, 330–744–0264.

Tuesday, Oct. 28. Nearly 500 high school journalists from 25 schools throughout the region attend YSU’s annual Press Day. See News Brief below.

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. Toni Van Pelt, director and lobbyist of the Center for Inquiry in Washington D.C., presents a lecture titled “The Dangers of Freethinking Women” in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center on the YSU campus. See News Brief below.

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine who helped desegregate Central High School in Arkansas in 1957, speaks at Ford Family Recital Hall. See News Brief below.

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 12:15 p.m. The YSU Dana School of Music’s Chamber Winds performs a free Music at Noon concert in the Butler Institute of American Art.

Thursday, Oct. 30. YSU hosts the Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Day. Four hundred members of 13 community leadership classes from throughout northeast Ohio will attend the event aimed at broadening their understanding of the region. See News Brief below.

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2 p.m. The Finance and Facilities Committee of the YSU Board of Trustees meets in the President’s Conference Room in Tod Hall.

Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m. The YSU Percussion Ensemble, directed by Glenn Schaft and Tetsuya Takeno, perform a free concert at Butler North on Wick Avenue.

Friday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m. YSU’s volleyball squad takes on Valparaiso in Beeghly Center. The team also plays Butler at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.

Saturday, Nov. 1, Noon. The YSU Penguin swimming and diving team competes against Butler in the Beeghly Natatorium.

YSU hosts NE Ohio Regional Leadership Day
Youngstown State University hosts the Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Day on Thursday, Oct. 30. Four hundred members of 13 community leadership classes from throughout northeast Ohio will attend the event aimed at broadening their understanding of the region.

The goals of the program are: to inform participants about regional assets, demographics and economic drivers; to identify the constraints on regional progress; and to discuss how individuals, programs and the Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Taskforce can assist regional development.

The day kicks off at 9 a.m. in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center with welcoming remarks from Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and YSU President David C. Sweet. That will be followed by keynote speaker Edward Hill, vice president of economic development at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, who will give an overview of the region’s economic development challenges. The other keynote speaker for the day is Dave Abbott, chairman of the Fund for Our Economic Future, at 10:30 a.m. in the Chestnut Room.

Regional Day will also include action panels with representatives of successful regional initiatives. Participants will visit various sites throughout Mahoning County, including Exal Corporation, V&M Star, Butler Institute of American Art, East High School and Youngstown Early College, the Youngstown Business Incubator, CASTLO, Mill Creek Metro Parks and a city of Youngstown tour.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Taskforce, based at YSU, organizes Regional Day. Ohio’s Urban University Program through the Northeast Ohio Research Consortium supports the Taskforce. Participating leadership groups are: Cleveland Bridge Builders, Leadership Akron, Leadership Ashtabula County, Leadership Cleveland, Leadership Columbiana County, Leadership Geauga County, Leadership Hudson, Leadership Lake County, Leadership Lorain County, Leadership Mahoning Valley, Leadership Medina County, Leadership Portage County, and Leadership Stark County.

The day will also include the presentation of the Northeast Ohio Regional Vision Award to the former Northeast Ohio Regional Leadership Taskforce Coordinator, Suzanne Fleming.

Regional Day is made possible with the support of the Northeast Ohio Research Consortium, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, the Dominion Foundation, FirstEnergy Foundation, the Fund for Our Economic Future, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Turning Technologies, LLC, Youngstown State University and the participating leadership programs.

Counseling students launch ‘Pajama’ collection drive
The Youngstown State University chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the honor society for graduate–level counseling students, has launched the Pajama Program — an effort to collect pajamas and other items that will be donated to a local homeless shelter.

The Pajama Program, led by YSU counseling students Cristina Oslin and Kathy Barreca, will collect gently worn or new pajamas, slippers, socks, blankets, children’s books, food and other items through Dec. 5.

The items will be donated to Beatitude House, which provides transitional housing and other services to homeless women and their children. Beatitude House, which served nearly 300 children last year, has locations on Fifth Avenue in Youngstown and on Tod Avenue in Warren.

Boardman Nissan is a major sponsor of the Pajama Program. The dealership has donated $5,000 to Beatitude House to support the program and is including the program in its advertising and marketing. The donation will be formally presented on Dec. 16 at an event at Boardman Nissan on Market Street.

Donated items can be dropped off at Boardman Nissan or at the Department of Counseling and Special Education on the third floor of YSU’s Beeghly Hall.

Oslin and Barreca also are recruiting local schools to help collect items. West Boulevard Elementary Schoo l has already signed on to participate.

For more information, contact Olin at croslin@student.ysu.edu or Barreca at kabarreca@hotmail.com.

Little Rock Nine member speaks in Youngstown

Sponsored in part by the Youngstown State University Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, Youngstown’s Sojourn to the Past presents “An Evening with Minnijean Brown Trickey” at Ford Family Recital Hall at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine who helped desegregate Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. She will speak about her experiences at the high school and the principles of non–violence. She will also speak to students at the Youngstown Early College, East and Chaney high schools.

The event is free and open to the public. Other sponsors are the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, Youngstown City Schools Title II and Partners for Workplace Diversity. 

College Tech Prep sponsors informational meetings
The Mahoning Area College Tech Prep Consortium at Youngstown State University is sponsoring six informational events through mid–November for Mahoning County 10^th–grade students and their parents.

The College Tech Prep program is an educational initiative that combines college preparation with technical training. Reservations for the events are required. For more information, contact the Office of Associate Degree and Tech Prep Programs at 330–941–2331.

The informational events:

• Oct. 28, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. — Business and Financial Services Open House, Cafaro Suite, Williamson College of Business Administration, YSU. For sophomore students interested in business and financial services careers. Complimentary parking in the Wick Avenue deck. RSVP no later than Oct. 23.

• Oct. 30, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — Health Technologies and Exercise Science Open House, Finnegan Auditorium, St. Elizabeth Health Center. For sophomore students interested in health technologies and exercise science careers. Complimentary parking in the Park Avenue deck. RSVP no later than Oct. 23.

• Nov. 5, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — Teacher Preparation Open House, McKay Auditorium, Beeghly College of Education, YSU. For sophomore students interested in science, mathematics, foreign languages and special education teaching careers. Complimentary parking in the Lincoln Avenue deck (Fifth Avenue entrance). RSVP no later than Oct. 30.

• Nov. 6, 5:30 to 8 p.m. — Engineering and Technology Open House, Schwebel Auditorium, Moser Hall, YSU. For sophomore students interested in careers in engineering, technology, construction and manufacturing (precision machining). Complimentary parking in the Lincoln Avenue deck (Fifth Avenue entrance). RSVP no later than Oct. 30.

• Nov. 13, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — Biotechnology Pathway Open House, Finnegan Auditorium, St. Elizabeth Health Center. For sophomore students interested in careers in science, medicine and research. Complimentary parking in the Park Avenue deck. RSVP no later than Nov. 6.

• Nov. 18, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — Information Technologies Open House, Upper Level, Notify Technology Corporation. For sophomore students interested in IT and computers, interactive multimedia and game development careers. Complimentary parking in front or back of building. RSVP no later than Nov. 13.
  
  First fall YSU Press Day set for this week

Nearly 500 high school journalists from 25 schools throughout the region will attend Youngstown State University’s annual Press Day on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

For the first time, the annual event is being held in the fall instead of the spring. Alyssa Lenhoff, Press Day director, said the change gives students six months to apply what they learn at Press Day in their high school newspapers, magazines and broadcasts. Then, in the spring, the Press Day Board and its professional judges will check out that work in the annual Press Day contest.

Students will attend a variety of workshops in tracks such as online newspapers, broadcast journalism, yearbook, sports journalism, photography and design, specialty reporting and literary.

A highlight of the day is the Staged News Event in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center. An “event” will happen on stage and the students will be asking questions and jotting down notes. They will then leave the room to write their stories. They will only have about 30 minutes to write. The first place winner will receive $100 from the New York Times. Second place will receive $50 and third place will receive $25 from the YSU Engﾭlish Departﾭment.

For more information, contact Lenhoff at 330–402–1016.

‘Dangers of Freethinking Women’ this week

Toni Van Pelt, director and lobbyist of the Center for Inquiry in Washington D.C., presents a lecture titled “The Dangers of Freethinking Women” 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center on the Youngstown State University campus.

The lecture is hosted by the Whole Valley Church of Sanity and Reason, in cooperation with the Center for Inquiry, and is co–sponsored by YSU’s Dr. James Dale Ethics Center and Women’s Studies Program.

Van Pelt’s lecture will chronicle the Western International Women’s Movement of the mid–1800s and the struggle of women during that historical period. She will discuss the history of the Malleus Maleficarum, the preeminent guidebook used by clergy during the Catholic Inquisition to identify, sentence, torture and kill thousands of women as “witches.” Taking listeners through the struggle for women’s suffrage in the United States, Van Pelt’s lecture will call for equal rights in the U.S. Constitution in the current era. A question and answer session will follow the one–hour lecture. 

Business succession programs at YSU Metro College
Two fall sessions of the 2008 Small Business Succession Planning Program, “Exiting Your Business,” will be held at the Youngstown State University Metro College in Southwoods Commons in Boardman.

The first session, “Introduction to Succession Planning and How Much is My Company Worth? The Basics of Valuation,” is scheduled for 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28. Presenters John Cournan of Packer Thomas and Peter Woodlock, professor and chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance at YSU, will provide a framework for business owners from which to start the process of exiting a business and valuing a company.ﾠﾠ

The second session, “Selling Your Business to Family, Key Employees, and/or All Employees and Selling Your Business to Outside Buyers,” will be 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12. Presenter John Saganich of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease will provide business owners a basic understanding of the ins and outs of selling a business, whether it be to family, employees or outside buyers.

Each session costs $50 and includes breakfast. Fees for both sessions are $90. For more information, contact Chris Cooper or Jay Simecek at 330–672–3028 or ccooper1@kent.edu or jsimecek@kent.edu.

The sessions are sponsored by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University.

Dental Hygiene hosts open house Nov. 3
The Youngstown State University Dental Hygiene Program hosts an open house 4:15 to 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center. Prospective students will have the opportunity to tour the Dental Hygiene Clinic and meet with faculty, academic advisors and current students.

The two–year program in dental hygiene leads to the associate in Applied Science degree. The program requires five semesters of study, including one summer semester.ﾠ The program is designed to prepare dental hygienists for work in private practice, in school systems, dental health programs, health agencies, hospitals, research programs, or public health settings.

To R.S.V.P., call 330–941–3342.

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