GradInfo Newsletter--May 2006

In this newsletter:

Hooding Ceremony & Deans' Graduate Medalists
Important Dates & Deadlines
Graduate Student Honors & Notes

HOODING CEREMONY

2006 GRADUATE DEGREE HOODING CEREMONY MAY 19, 7:30PM in the Save Mart Center

The celebration of graduates who are receiving master's and doctoral degrees will take place Friday evening, May 19. In addition to the award winners announced at the ceremony, please check out the accomplishments of some of our other graduate students below.
Click here for more information for graduates and guests.

We'll have photos and video from the ceremony posted to our Web site within a week after the ceremony.

IMPORTANT DATES & DEADLINES FOR SUMMER 2006

Students who intend to graduate in the summer term must apply for graduation between May 22 and June 9. Students also must be enrolled in the summer in order to be eligible for August graduation. Thesis students must turn in their committee-approved drafts on or before June 26. The Master's Degree Clearance Form is due in the Graduate Office August 11. For more information, see our Dates & Deadlines page.

Please note that the Graduate Office will be on summer office hours May 22-August 18. The hours are 7am-noon, and 12:30-3:30pm, Monday through Friday.

GRADUATE STUDENT HONORS AND NOTES

As reported by their program coordinators, here are some of the achievements and accomplishments of some of our graduate students:

Master of Business Administration Program:

The team of Jennifer Cedar, Chay Thao, Mark Riley, and Hector Gonzalez (MBA) earned the Best Annual Report and Business Plan Award at the 42nd International Business Case Simulation in San Diego.

The team of Benjamin Schuster, Teavis Seymore, Flavia Takahashi-Flores, and Kathleen Walsh (MBA) won the program's Outstanding Project/Thesis Award for "BMW Motorcycle of Fresno: Marketing Strategy."

Haibo Wang (MBA) was the Craig School of Business Nominee for the Outstanding Thesis Award.  

Jennifer Guzman (MBA) is the Dean's Graduate Medalist for the Craig School of Business.

Robert Keeler (MBA) earned third place in the 3rd Annual Invention 2 Venture Business Plan Competition Sponsored by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovation Association and the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Mass Communication and Journalism Department:

Christine Park (MA, Mass Communication and Journalism) was awarded Top Scholar of KTA (Kappa Tau Alpha-- journalism honors society).

Physical Therapy Department:

The following graduate students from Physical Therapy were accepted in the 27th Annual Central California Research Symposium held on campus on April 28, 2006

Abigail Parker (MPT) : Poster presentation entitled "The Use of Partial Body Weight Treadmill Training in the Home on a Child with Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy: A Case Study."

Diane Robbins (MPT) : Poster presentation entitled "Normative Data for the Gaze Stabilization Test (GST) Protocols on the in Vision for High Performance Athletes."

Jill Caron (MPT) : Poster presentation entitled "The Effects of a Home-Based Partial Body Weight-Support Treadmill Program on a Child with Optiz Syndrome Who Is Not Yet Walking."

Kristina Singh (MPT) : Poster presentation entitled "The Effects of a Group-Structured Balance and Mobility Program for Seniors at Risk for Falls:" A Nonrandomized Controlled Study."

Leslie MacLaggan and Megan Cesario (MPT) : Podium Presentation entitled "Outcomes Following Total Knee Replacement in Subjects with Unilateral Versus Bilateral Osteoarthritis of the Knee."

Pam Campbell (MPT) : Poster presentation entitled " Inter-rater and Intra-rater Reliability of Physical Therapists and Physicians for Staging Knee Osteoarthritis by Radiographic Severity."

History Department:

Aimee Bogna (MA, History) earned the Outstanding Thesis in Ancient History Award from the Classics Program.

Edgar Castillo   (MA, History) is the College of Social Sciences Dean's medalist.   Edgar traveled to Russia for the spring semester for international study/research.

Shawna Herzog, Nathan Jones, and Anna Vallis (MA, History) were awarded graduate scholarships in History

Greg Morris (MA, History) garnered the History Department's Outstanding Thesis Award.

Stefanie Tacata (MA, History) was awarded a department graduate scholarship.   She also received a DGS Graduate Student Travel Grant for paper presentation at Zayed University's Second International Student Leadership Conference, "Women as Global Leaders," in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Health Science Department:

Tona Soto (MPH) will be spending some time at Harvard as part of a summer internship.

Yolanda Randells   (MPH) will be presenting a paper at the annual meeting of the Directors of Public Health Education in   Washington DC this month.   She received a travel award from the DGS.

Tara Powers (MPH)   won the Statewide Alcohol Prevention award.

Andrew Robinson (MPH) has received an award from Blue Cross.

Linguistics Department:

Rami Alhazmi (MA, Linguistics) is an international student from Saudi Arabia. The Linguistic Department has nominated Rami for the Distinguished International Graduate Student Award.   Rami graduated in Fall 2005 and is now teaching English as a foreign language at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Saudi Arabia. He is planning to purse a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics next year in the United States or UK.

Kosue Nagasue (MA, Linguistics) is an international student from Japan.   She'll be presenting a paper to the 132nd Linguistics Society of Japan, June 17-18 2006, at the University of Tokyo, Japan.   She's also be published in the Proceedings of the 22nd NorthWest Linguistics Conference, to appear in Aug 2006

Wakana Pardo (MA, Linguistics) was the Linguistics Department's nominee for the Graduate Dean's Medal.  

Creative Writing Program:

Angela Armstrong (MFA, Creative Writing) has had her work appear in Atlanta Review and Bellingham Review .   

Jefferson Beavers (MFA, Creative Writing) is the Co-founder and President of the San Joaquin Literary Association.   He's been published in the Modesto Bee newspaper and is a regular contributor to the Fresno Famous online magazine during 2005-2006.   He also presented work at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Megan Bohigian (MFA, Creative Writing) received an Honorable Mention for the Trejo Award, "My Husband Sleeps," and has had seven poems published in the San Joaquin Review.

Stacy Brand (MFA, Creative Writing) won the Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize 2005, the Lillian Faderman Scholarship, the Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize 2006, and presented work at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Navdeep Dhillon (MFA, Creative Writing) won the Fresno Fiction Prize 2006.

James Espinoza (MFA, Creative Writing) was awarded a Graduate Equity Fellowship in 2005.   James has been published in La Voz, San Jose Metro, The Multilingual Educator, Pachuco Children Hurl Stones, and In the Grove:   California Poets and Writers. He also presented work at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Ricardo Garza (MFA, Creative Writing) was awarded the William Saroyan Scholarship, and is the editor of Pachuco Children Hurl Stones, 2006 .

Guiseppe Getto, Nigel Medhurst, Diane Miniel, Debora Palmer, and Eric Smith (MFA, Creative Writing) presented work at the 2006 SESA Conference.

Pilar Graham (MFA, Creative Writing) received a 2006 Graduate Research Merit Award, and had poems published in Mutant Mule Review Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, In The Grove, and the San Joaquin Review .

Dave Hurst (MFA, Creative Writing) is the editor of 2006 San Joaquin Review , and presented a paper at the 2006 SESA Conference.

Vicki Johnson (MFA, Creative Writing) won a 2005-2006 William Saroyan Scholarship.

Bruce Kincaid (MFA, Creative Writing) was published in the San Joaquin Review , Telos, and Flies, Cockroaches and Poets, and is the co-founder of the San Joaquin Literary Association.   He presented work at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Michael Maniquiz (MFA, Creative Writing) won the university's 2006 Outstanding Thesis Award for We Have To Go Inside , and has had individual poems published in the Crab Orchard Review, North American Review , and other journals.

Eric Parker (MFA, Creative Writing) earned an honorable mention for the Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize 2006.   Eric's been accepted by the Madrid Summer Seminars in Madrid, Spain, where he will participate in workshops and readings this summer.   He also presented his work at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Logan Perkes (MFA, Creative Writing) presented a paper at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities 2006,   the   2006 SESA Conference,   Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006, and won the Fresno Creative Nonfiction Prize 2006.

Deanna Pierro (MFA, Creative Writing) is the co-host of and a regular participant in Fresno's Inner Ear Poetry Jam.

Sasha Pimentel (MFA, Creative Writing) won the 2006 Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize and the   2005 Philip Levine Scholarship.   She's also presented her work at the 2006 SESA Conference and at Fresno's Rogue Festival 2006.

Emily Tallman (MFA, Creative Writing) earned an honorable mention for the Ernesto Trejo Poetry Prize 2006, was awarded a scholarship grant from EECU.   She's had various works published in the San Joaquin Review and is the current managing editor of Pachuco Children Hurl Stones.

Lejla Tricic (MFA, Creative Writing) was awarded the College of Arts and Humanities Graduate Dean's Medal.

Kelly VanHorn (MFA, Creative Writing) has been published in the journals Epicenter , Edgz , and Curbside Review.   She was awarded a scholarship for study in St. Petersburg, Russia.   Kelly has been hired to teach poetry at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in Maryland.

Burlee Vang (MFA, Creative Writing) is the recipient of the 2006 Poetry Prize in the Hmong American literary journal Paj Ntaub Voice (also published in three of its issues); published an essay, "A Red Spoon for the Nameless," in Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers from Random House; and received a grant plus paid trip to Thailand and Laos by Ly Pao and Robert Yang for a memoir on family.

Kinesiology Department:

Wendy Baxter (MA, Kinesiology) won a research grant from the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology.

Sarah McCord (MA, Kinesiology) was the Department of Kinesiology co-nominee for the Dean's Graduate Medalist Award and the Department of Kinesiology Outstanding Thesis Award.

Adam Smith (MA, Kinesiology) has a Ronald E. McNair Fellowship.

Trevor Winton (MA, Kinesiology) was the Department of Kinesiology's co-nominee for the Dean's Graduate Medalist Award.   He received a Far West Athletic Trainers' Association (FWATA) Scholarship.

Chemistry Department:

Alicia Hill (MS, Chemistry) is "The Outstanding MS Student in the Chemistry Department" this year.   This recognition is awarded based on academic achievement, research accomplishment, service to the chemistry department, and faculty recommendation.   Alicia earned her BA Chemistry degree here and completed the MS degree under the supervision of Professor Coticone in the area of Biochemistry.   While studying here, she also worked in the Chemistry Department stockroom, contributing significantly to the stockroom functioning.  Her thesis work involved collaboration with the Sheriff's Department Crime Lab; they subsequently offered her and she accepted a permanent job position.

 

 

Travel Grants--2006

The Division of Graduate Studies Travel Grants assist students with the costs of going to professional meetings and conferences to gain experience presenting their work to their peers.

Brenda Carrasco (MS, Rehabilitation Counseling), 6 th Annual National Rehabilitation Educators Conference in San Diego.

Janny Yang (MS, Rehabilitation Counseling), 6 th Annual National Rehabilitation Educators Conference in San Diego, "Barriers to Independence: Immigrant Welfare-to-Work Participants and Disability."

Kari Carter, Andrea Osteen, and Jaclyn Hardy (MA, English), College Communication and Composition National Conference in Chicago,   "Teaching Is Writing: Refocusing the Pre-Service Student's Literacy Orientation."

Karin Kawagoe (MS, Psychology), Annual Convention of the National Association of School Psychologists in Anaheim, "Repeated Reading as an Academic Intervention."

Kosuke Nagasue (MA, Linguistics), 22 nd Northwest Linguistics Conference in Burnaby, British Columbia, "Two Types of Pre-Nominal Quantifier in Japanese."

Linda Donnelly (MS, Biology), Plant and Annual Genomes XIV Conference in San Diego, "Molecular Characterization of a Host/Pathogen System, Pepper (Capsicum annum ) and Phytophthora capsici. "

Marion Spearman (MS, Criminology), 9 th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences in Las Vegas, "Sexual Assault on College Campuses."

Rohit Sharma (MS, Geology), Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, "Ancestral Cascade ARC Volcanism in the North-Central Sierra Nevada."

Stephanie Tacata (MA, History), Women as Global Leaders Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, "Radicalized Feminism and Motherhood in Twentieth-Century Cuba."

Terri Barber (MS, Psychology), Annual Convention of the National Association of School Psychologists in Anaheim,   "Increase of On Task Classroom Behavior Through Self-Management."

Timothy Denney (MS, Rehabilitation Counseling), 6 th Annual National Rehabilitation Educators Conference in San Diego.

Tontantzin Soto (MPH, Public Health), American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance in Salt Lake City,   "Influence of TV Ads in Childhood Obesity Among Latinos."

Vanessa Cadiz (MS, Biology), American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, " Mycobaterium smegmatis Transposon Mutants Disrupted in Genes Encoding Universal Stress Proteins."

William Hansen (MS, Rehabilitation Counseling), 6 th Annual National Rehabilitation Educators Conference in San Diego, "Substance Abuse/Dependancy in Relation to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Yolanda Randles (MPH, Public Health), DHPE/CDC National Conference on Health Promotion and Education in Arlington, Virginia,   "Instrument to Increase the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables in the African American Community."