June-July 2016, Edition

#OrlandoStrong Vigil in Greenville

From ECU News Services

Approximately 500 people came together Tuesday, June 14 in Greenville to honor and remember the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. The event began with a several block walk from Crave Uptown Restaurant and Bar to the Greenville Town Common for a candlelight vigil.

During the vigil, a saxophone group played as the mostly silent crowd sat or stood on the amphitheater hillside. Some held signs or flags, while others held hands.

As the sun set, speakers took to the stage to reflect on the shooting at the Pulse nightclub and offer hope for the future. The culmination of the event was the reading of the names of the 49 victims, which included a short biography and a picture. The last name read was 2003 ECU graduate Shane Tomlinson.

“When something as tragic and incomprehensible as this happens, it can feel very remote. But when we got the news that a member of Pirate Nation died in the attack, I think for a lot of people it brought it home,” said Mark Rasdorf who is the associate director for the LGBT resource office at ECU.

Click here to see the full article about the vigil and more reaction from ECU about the loss of Shane Tomlinson.

ECU Transit receives Clean Future Award

From ECU News Services

ECU Transit received the inaugural Clean Future Award from Greenville Utilities Commission on June 8.

The award was presented by GUC officials at a ceremony at its new natural gas fueling station during a stop on a national tour highlighting the benefits of natural gas.

GUC recognized ECU for the addition of the university’s first compressed natural gas powered buses, which will start service in December.

Instead of using petroleum, the buses run on compressed natural gas, or CNG. An alternative to gasoline, CNG consists of mostly methane and costs 40 to 50 percent less. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, CNG has a narrow flammability range, making it less volatile than gasoline. CNG is also nontoxic and emits up to 90 percent fewer emissions than gasoline.

The two new buses were manufactured by Gillig in Hayward, California at a cost of $550,000 each. ECU operates 28 Gillig buses in its fleet — 26 diesel and two diesel/electric hybrids. The new CNG buses are expected to reduce annual petroleum consumption by 15,000 gallons.

“The buses highlight ECU’s commitment to clean fuels, clean air, community partnerships and reducing petroleum consumption,” said Wood G. Davidson, director of ECU Transit.

Click here to read the full ECU Transit Award story

Karen Smith Celebrates Her 100th

On June 20, Student Transition’s Karen Smith greeted ECU’s third orientation group of the summer just like she has always done.  More than 1,000 new Pirates and their families sat back in Wright Auditorium, not really sure what to expect.  And neither did Karen Smith.

There was a welcome video followed by some opening remarks and then the entertaining introductions from the Orientation Assistants.  Everything was going as planned. Until Hank Bowen, who had worked with Karen for the last couple of years, took over the microphone.

He announced to the crowd that this day marked Karen’s 100th orientation session led at East Carolina University.  With that announcement, dozens of past OA’s along with ECU faculty and staff rushed down the aisles and up on the stage to congratulate her.  Karen’s her husband, BJ, and her two kids and PeeDee the Pirate joined the celebration giving her hugs and flowers.

After Mary Beth Corbin shared some kind words, an emotional Karen Smith, though always professional, wiped away the tears and went right back to work with the orientation programming.

Congratulations to Karen Smith!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Former SGA President and 40 Under 40 Recipient Recognized

(The following comes from an article in the Salisbury Post)

The last time you heard about Rowan County native Tremayne Smith, he probably was earning Teacher of the Year honors at Rocky Mount High School and living a long-held dream of being a band director.

Smith seemed to be at the perfect spot for a young man who had been a music education (and political science) major at East Carolina University and a three-year drum major at both West Rowan High School and ECU.

Tremayne Smith, as he appeared in the program for East Carolina University’s ’40 Under 40 Leadership Awards.’ Submitted photo
So why is Smith on a completely different career path now, working in a congressional office in Washington, D.C., while also pursuing a graduate degree full-time from George Washington University?

It’s a distressing commentary, maybe, for teachers in North Carolina but Smith, who recently received a “40 under Forty Leadership Award” from ECU, says he decided the outlook for educators in North Carolina was “not looking promising.”

“I didn’t want to make a career as an educator in North Carolina,” he says, “and I thought it would be great to come back to D.C.”

Smith, 28, had worked for a year after his 2011 graduation from ECU in then U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan’s Washington office. Then in August 2012, he took the band director’s post at Rocky Mount High School. Over his three years at Rocky Mount, Smith says he rebuilt the band program into one being recognized on state and national levels.

After his first year, he received an Encore Award — one of four given out that year in the state — recognizing band directors in the country who had shown  exceptional accomplishments in their programs.
But now he’s living just north of Capitol Hill, not too far from his full-time duties in the office of U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., who is chief deputy whip of the House Democratic Caucus and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Smith’s duties for Butterfield include heading the internship and fellowship programs, coordinating tours of the White House and Capitol for constituents, handling some videography and photography chores, helping with daily office duties and assisting the chief of staff and congressman as needed.

During the evenings, Smith has another full-time job — earning his master’s in political management at GWU. The school is the top institution for applied politics, Smith says, and he expects to graduate next May.

So a typical day for Smith lasts from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Smith’s Rowan County family joined him April 16 for the ECU Division of Student Affairs’ second annual 40 under Forty Leadership Awards in Greenville.

The award recognizes 40 emerging leaders who received their start at ECU, as well as graduates who have used their ECU experience to make an impact in their professions and local communities.

Besides holding down the drum major role for three years at ECU, Smith also was student body president as a senior. He has returned regularly to ECU to speak to students and work in the school’s summer music camps.

Click here to read the full article

CLCE Presentations

Three SA educators from Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement (CLCE) will present at the annual Community Engagement Administrators conference on July 7 at Elon University. This conference, launched in 2003 as the Community Service and Service-Learning Directors Conference, is designed for faculty and staff who facilitate campus-community engagement efforts. In 2008, the event became the Community Engagement Administrators Conference (CEAC). This gathering offers deep reflection about community and civic engagement work through presentations and workshops, facilitated discussions and networking. Presentation abstracts are below:

Presentation 1 – Serving in Place: Planning Local Alternative Breaks

This presentation examines approaches to creating a dynamic local alternative break. By examining the 2016 Wake Forest and East Carolina University’s’ local alternative break programs, presenters will discuss key factors involved in planning an alternative break that move beyond simply direct service volunteering to a co-curricular focus.

• Fahim Gulamali, Assistant Director of Student Engagement and Programming, Pro Humanitate Institute, Wake Forest
• Natasha Vos, AmeriCorps VISTA, Wake Forest
• Elizabeth Busby, AmeriCorps VISTA, Wake Forest
• Nichelle Shuck, Associate Director of Student Leadership and Educational Programs, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, ECU
• Lizzie Shepard, AmeriCorps VISTA, ECU

Presentation 2 – Enhancing Campus Civic Engagement Efforts

With the 2016 election on the horizon, this interactive session is designed to be a conversation to share best practices and ideas for campuses interested in enhancing their civic/election engagement efforts. The conversation will be facilitated by administrators from four universities who are approaching civic engagement in a variety of ways.

• Bob Frigo, Associate Director, Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, Elon University
• Dr. Dennis McCunney, Director, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, ECU
• Dr. Tamara Johnson, Research Associate for Academic Planning and Analysis, UNC Charlotte
• Kristina Snader, Assistant Director for Community Engagement, Office of Leadership and Service-Learning, UNC Greensboro
• Nannette Bailey, Community Partnership Coordinator, VCU ASPiRE, Virginia Commonwealth University

Ameriprise Financial Grant

Article by Dr. Dennis McCunney – CLCE

The Campus Kitchen at East Carolina University is a student-led program in the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement.  Through the support of an Ameriprise Financial grant, Campus Kitchen will have the opportunity to sustain summer operations and continue to address the issue of hunger in our local communities.  This grant supports one student — an Ameriprise Fellow — who will recruit off-campus volunteers, build partnerships, and help explore opportunities that will further strengthen the Campus Kitchen at ECU, including nutrition outreach programs.  This is the third year the CLCE has hosted a Campus Kitchen Ameriprise Fellow.

The mission of the program is to use service and student leadership as a tool to:

• Strengthen bodies by using existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community;
• Empower minds by providing leadership and service learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults, seniors, children and families in need; and,
• Build communities by fostering a new generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, businesses and schools.

Community partners include:

• Ronald McDonald House
• JOY Soup Kitchen
• Operation Sunshine
• Little Willie Center
• Third Street Community Center

Based on the preparation work from the summer 2015-2016 Ameriprise Fellowship, CLCE was able to support nutrition initiatives throughout the entire last academic year, facilitating more than 20 lessons at two afterschool youth programs — Operation Sunshine and Little Willie Center. This program engaged 35 student volunteers in direct service throughout the year. Both of these programs are in West Greenville, an area classified by the USDA as a food desert, meaning the area is “vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas.”

Our 2016 Ameriprise Fellow, Lekisha Pittman, is a senior majoring in Family and Community Services with a concentration in Family Studies. “It has been an honor to serve as a ECU Pirate in the Greenville community,” says Pittman. “Volunteering with Campus Kitchen for the past two years has given me the opportunity to reflect on what it means to uphold ECU’s motto ‘Servire.’ I want to serve the community in any capacity that I can with the skills and knowledge that I have obtained. I have grown in humility, compassion, and dedication to the cause of hunger and homelessness.”

Our goal for summer 2016 is to provide 15 nutrition lessons at three community partners: Operation Sunshine, Little Willie Center, and Third Street Community Center. This is an increase in community partners as well as total lessons from last year’s programming. After each lesson youth clients are asked to complete an evaluation/post-test including their thoughts about the lesson and snack served as well as a question to gauge how well the lesson content was received.

Volunteers are asked to write a reflection piece about their experience to be logged on OrgSync and featured on our blog, which will be built upon as we facilitate summer lessons. Our hope is that this blog serves as a way to share stories, recipes, and pictures with our team and everyone involved.  Additionally, Campus Kitchen will serve two hot meals in June and July at Joy Community Center and Ronald McDonald House, as well as recovering healthy snacks from ECU orientation and family and parent programming. The recovered food will provide snacks for all six community partners throughout the summer.

LGBT Resource Office News

Collaborative Presentations

Mark Rasdorf, Associate Director for the LGBT Resource Office, partnered with Roxie Patton, Office of Equity and Diversity, for a presentation entitled “An Overview of Serving Gender Minorities” at the 2016 Annual Eastern Region Adult Services Conference held at the Holiday Inn Express in April.  This marked the second year that Mark and Roxie collaborated to serve mental health providers from across eastern North Carolina.

In May, Leslie Veach, staff counselor at the Center for Counseling and Student Development, joined Mark to present “Understanding Sexual and Gender Minorities” at the 2016 Vidant Collaborative Care Conference.  Healthcare providers and staff from the Greenville area attended the daylong conference.

Pirate Ally Launches!

In April, the LGBT Resource Office launched a new ally training program for students called Pirate Ally.  This initiative was in response to repeated requests from students to participate in a program similar to Safe Zone, which has historically been limited to ECU faculty and staff.  The curriculum was fine tuned to more closely complement student experiences at ECU.  Chris Chappell (Central Reservations Office), Mandy Messerli (Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities), and Maya Pittman (Center for Counseling and Student Development) worked with Mark to prepare the material.  Chris, Mandy, and Maya served as facilitators for the inaugural Pirate Ally Training.  Associate Vice Chancellor Erik Kneubuehl and Coach Scottie Montgomery offered opening remarks to the audience of more than 80 students.

Dean Smith Named ACUI III Region Director

Congratulations to Dean Smith, Director for Student Centers in Student Involvement and Leadership.  Dean has been named the Association of College Unions- International (ACUI) Region III Director through 2018.

ACUI is the professional organization for student center professionals. In a more personal sense, it is a place where friends come together to help one another navigate the complexity of what it means to be the living room of campus. It is an honor to be able to give back to an organization that has given so much to me.

Region III is composed of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. The Regional Director is a two-year appointment that starts July 2016, which directly oversees a team of 15 volunteers.

ACUI went through a massive restructure of regions five years ago that doubled the size of each region. Dean was fortunate enough to be the first Business Manager for ACUI Region III. As the region is still relatively new, he felt there is work to be done in defining it. During his term, Dean hopes to accomplish the following:

1. Create a vision statement for Region III
2. Create a mission statement for Region III
3. Set quantifiable, measurable goals which align with our vision, mission, and values
4. Clearly communicate goals, educational opportunities, and a shared vision.

Congratulations to Dean Smith!

2016-2017 Career Fairs

ECU Career Services will be hosting two career fairs this fall. The Fall Career Fair will be on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Greenville Convention Center and the Health Careers Fair will be on Thursday, November 3, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the East Carolina Heart Institute.

The Fall Career Fair will have over 150 employers from across the country recruiting for internships, part-time and full-time career opportunities for all majors. The Health Careers Fair will feature over 40 employers that focus on recruiting students in the fields of human services and healthcare. During both events a photographer will be available to take professional head shot photos for students to utilize on their social media accounts. Both events are open to all students and alumni.

SAVE THE DATES

Spring Career Fair
March 1, 2017
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Greenville Convention Center

These events are also open to all faculty and staff who would like to attend or volunteer. For more information contact ECU Career Services at https://career.ecu.edu/ or call 252-328-6050.

Career Services featured in WalletHub article on Summer Internships

Assistant Director of Career Services Patrick Roberts was featured in a WalletHub article where he answered questions about summer jobs and internships.  Patrick provided insight to the following questions:

• What tips do you have for a young person searching for a summer job / internship?
• What types of summer jobs / internships will best equip young people with the skills and experience they need to secure a full-time career after graduation?
• What are the most common mistakes young people make when taking a summer job / internship?
• How can local authorities encourage companies to provide summer jobs / internships for young people?  Should government subsidize the cost of summer employment for young people?

Click here to read the article and Patrick’s answers.

ECU joins SALUTE

ECU recently became a chapter member of Service, Academics, Leadership, Unity, Tribute, Excellence (SALUTE).  SALUTE is the first national honor society for veterans headquartered out of Colorado State University.  One unique element of the honor society includes the 4-tier system, which is designed to encourage student veterans to strive to improve their GPAs and advance to higher tier levels in the honor society during their academic careers.

SALUTE recognizes veterans, active duty service members, National Guard members and reservists who have been honorably discharged, or who are currently serving. One of the primary goals of SALUTE is to recognize members who have shown courage, strength, leadership, excellence and perseverance in their military endeavors and who are now showing that same commitment to their academic careers.

For undergraduate ECU students, the cumulative grade point average must fall within these guidelines:

Delta tier 3.00-3.24;
Charlie tier 3.25-3.49;
Bravo tier 3.50-3.74; and
Alpha tier 3.75-4.0

A graduate student with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 may be eligible as a SALUTE Gold member.

ECU will honor its first inductees Spring 2017 at an award ceremony celebrating the accomplishments of its student veterans.  Each student inducted this Spring will be presented with a certificate and a challenge coin.

Assessment Summer Series 2016

Register for each session via CORNERSTONE

Student Affairs Assessment and Annual/Strategic Plan Reporting Support Sessions
Can elect to attend one or both sessions as needed.
1 Wednesday, July 20; 10:00am-noon; Mendenhall Student Center 244
2 Tuesday, July 26; 10:00am-noon; Mendenhall Student Center 244

Facilitators: Student Affairs Assessment, Research, and Retention Staff

The deadline for submitting 2015-2016 Assessment and Annual/Strategic Plan Reports is Monday, August 1. This workshop serves as a “last chance” opportunity to consult on inputs related to results, and documentation as well as any needed revisions to outcomes, measures, and criteria for success. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop. Participants will be asked to summarize needed support and offer suggestions/consultation to others during the first half hour with the remaining time designated for individualized consultation. Participants only need to stay as long as consultation support is needed.

New Staff to Student Affairs

CLCE Welcomes Tara Kermiet

Tara Kermiet is the new Associate Director for Curricular Programs in CLCE and most recently served as Assistant Director of Leadership and Service and Assistant Director of University Commons and Student Involvement at the University of West Florida (since 2013).  Prior to her time at UWF, Tara served as Residential Learning Coordinator at Virginia Tech.  Tara also taught leadership studies courses at both West Florida and Virginia Tech.

Student Affairs New Hires Since May 1st

• Viniciu Vargas – Student Services Specialist – SIL – May 16
• Jacob Jones – Tech Support Analyst – Tech Services – May 23
• Sydney Roach – Administrative Support Associate – Campus Living – May 23
• Brad Avenia – Assistant Director of Facilities – CRW – June 13
• Dr. Greg Corack – Associate Director for Leadership & Programs – CRW – June 13
• John Stowe – Career Counselor – Career Services – June 16
• Christopher Cooper – Administrative Support Associate – SIL – June 16
• Esmeiling Cabral – Assistant Director for LLCs – Campus Living – June 22
• Tara Kermiet – Associate Director for Curricular Programs – SIL – June 27

Student Affairs Staff Departing Since May 1st

• Michaella Moser – Campus Living – May 5
• Nick Pittman – ECU Transit – May 13
• Holly Bowen – Campus Living – May 31
• Sydney Rager – Campus Living – May 31
• Ashley Cooper – Campus Living – May 31
• Adeea Rogers – SIL – May 31
• Brian Mattern – CRW – May 31
• Anne Marie Sherwood – Dean of Students – June 1
• Christopher Howell – Student Rights & Responsibilities – June 10
• Lauren Byers – Parent and Family Programs – June 15
• Elliott Nytes – Campus Living – June 21
• Jonathan Blount- Campus Living – June 24
• Laura Sweet – Dean of Students – Retirement – June 30