Category Archives: Student stories

SJSU Students Talk “Convergence” Journalism, Win 13 Awards

At the Associated Collegiate Press’ National College Journalism Convention in February in Los Angeles, three San Jose State University School of Journalism and Mass Communications students participated as part of a panel entitled “Stuck in the Middle with News: Living Between Print and Digital,” while the Spartan Daily also took home 13 awards in a collegiate media competition.

Rain Stites, Raechel Price and Jeremy Cummings discussed the importance of print experience for journalism students in a world that is increasingly becoming digital.

“As journalism moves in the direction of digital, we really tried to drive home how important we felt maintaining a print product was for our education,” Stites said, via email. “We discussed that, while we understand journalism is living in the digital era, print helped us really learn and understand the fundamentals of journalism.”

Stites said she and her fellow SJSU panelists discussed the convergence model at SJSU that incorporates print, broadcast and online experience.

“Print, from my own experience, really teaches the importance of deadlines, problem solving, time management, working to produce the most up-to-date story and fact checking,” said Stites, Journalism, ’16, who is currently the managing editor of Access Magazine (print) and content/managing editor of South Bay Pulse (digital). “Print has a sense of permanence about it. If you get anything incorrect, you’re credibility could fly out the window.”

She said digital formats also teach important lessons about immediacy and accuracy.

“When working with digital news, it’s important to get the story out as quickly as possible while also checking every little detail to ensure you’re reporting the truth,” she said.

Students take home 13 awards

During the same conference, the Spartan Daily received 13 awards at the California College Media Association’s Award Banquet Feb. 20.

The Spartan Daily finished third in the statewide “Best Daily Newspaper” category, the second year in a row that the Daily has finished among the top three in the CCMA competition. Out of more than 50 student publications participating, the Daily finished fourth in number of awards won.

Linh Nguyen took two first place awards, one for “Best Features Photograph” and another for “Best Newspaper Page/Design Spread.”  Raechel Price also won two awards, with a second place for “Best Photo Illustration” and she shared the award for “Best News Series.” Randy Vazquez and Abraham Rodriguez shared third place honors for “Best Non-News Video,” and Vazquez received honorable mention for “Best Breaking News Story.”

Brandon Chew, who won a first place award last year for “Best Photo Series,” took the coveted first place award for “Best News Photograph”, for a photo of the closing of the Jungle homeless encampment in San Jose.  Jeremy Cummings took second place for “Best A&E Story,” while Raphael Stroud and Matthew Dziak shared honors for “Best News Series.” Two honors were awarded to the full Daily staff – third place for “Best Daily Newspaper” and second place for “Best Special Section.”

The Daily ad staff shined as well, picking up first place for “Best Online Ad,” and third place for “Best Online Campaign” and “Best Ad Campaign.”

Coffee with a Professor program launches

coffeewithaprofessorOLSJSU undergraduate students who want to chat with professors or graduate teaching assistants outside their classroom can take a coffee break between classes, with SJSU offering a free $12 VIP Gold Card to cover the beverages through the newly launched “Coffee with a Professor” program. The program is intended to foster informal, out-of-classroom interactions between students and faculty by providing a $12 VIP Gold Card that is redeemable at campus dining and retail venues.

Students are eligible to participate twice a semester and cards are available for pick up at the Center for Faculty Development (IRC 213.) To participate, students will need to provide a confirmed date and time of their meeting; their name, email address and student ID number; the name and email address of their professor or graduate teaching assistant; and the course section or class name if they are currently enrolled in a class taught by the professor. Students can meet with a professor or graduate teaching assistant with whom they are not currently taking a class, but the faculty members must currently be employed at SJSU. Participating dining locations include Le Boulanger in Union Square, On Fourth Café in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Just Below in MacQuarrie Hall and the soon-to-open Starbucks (in the Student Union.)

A newly created website, Coffee with a Professor, offers more details about the program. It also includes a “Table Topics” section to help students start their conversations with icebreaker questions. Students can use the time to seek advice on careers, the future of the industry in their major or other questions that can support their educational journey. Those who participate are encouraged to take a photo to share on Instagram with the hashtag #SJSUchatwithaprof.

The Coffee with a Professor program has been created with support from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Associated Students, Inc.

February 2016 Newsletter: Undergraduates Gain Skills with Research

Madiha Shah and Ashleen Sandhu, ’16, Biomedical, Chemical and Materials Engineering, both became interested in creating a new way to deliver insulin for diabetic patients because of a family connection to the disease.

Sandhu said her mother was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during a pregnancy.

“It was really hard because some people don’t like needles,” Sandhu said, noting that her father helped by administering insulin injections to her needle-averse mother.

Shah’s mother also has diabetes and she said her work at a pharmacy puts her in contact with patients who have the disease.

Through SJSU’s Center for Faculty Development Undergraduate Research Pairs program, they received a grant to support research on developing a noninvasive patch to provide a daily insulin dosage for pediatric patients. Dr. Folarin Erogbogbo is serving as their faculty mentor.

“He’s there to give us technical feedback and to help us network with the right people,” said Shah, who plans to study pharmacology after she graduates from SJSU this spring.

Sandhu wants to find employment in a research lab after graduation.

“I am gaining essential skills that will allow me to apply for work,” Sandhu said. “We are working with machines and gaining lab skills from being exposed to those machines. One of the benefits of undergraduate research is that SJSU has a lot of up-to-date equipment.”

Morgan Chang, a computer science student, partnered with Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, from biological sciences, as part of the Undergraduate Research Pairs program. They studied the impact of a high-fat diet on glucose levels in mice.

“She is easing me into research,” he said, noting that they had just completed a proposal for grant funding to study the impact of obesity on the risk of falling. “I recently decided I want to go to med school so I want to do something with neurophysiology.”

This year, 34 students received grants to work with 20 faculty mentors, including students from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business, the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, the College of Science and the College of Social Sciences.

Join the ‘Celebration of Research’ on Feb. 10

celebrationofreserachStudents, staff, faculty and members of the public are invited to the SJSU Celebration of Research on Wednesday, Feb. 10, from 4-6 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.

This year’s event will feature presentations from the 2015 Early Career Investigator Award Winners Aaron Romanowsky and Virginia San Fratello. An assistant professor in the College of Science’s physics and astronomy department, Romanowsky has produced 47 refereed publications in journals such as “The Astrophysical Journal” and recently received $40,718 from the National Science Foundation to continue his research. He and his students are credited with discovering a hypercompact cluster, or one of the densest galaxies.

An assistant professor in the College of Humanities and the Arts design department, San Fratello has successfully secured funding for her work that includes materials and fabrication processes, including 3-D printing. She recently received a $90,000 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. San Fratello is an active architect who is working with manufacturers and distributors to launch innovative and sustainable building components into the market place.

In addition to the presentation of the faculty awards, student researchers will also be highlighted at the event. Students and faculty involved in the Center for Faculty Development’s Undergraduate Research Pairs program will have their research exhibited at the event and will be available to talk with guests. The program has paired 32 undergraduate students with 20 faculty members. Some of the research topics include:

  • Developing culturally-tailored mental health programs for Vietnamese caregivers
  • Resilence of college students following a failure
  • Developing nanodelivery of insulin to improve diabetes treatment
  • The impact of individuals tracking their own fitness levels
  • The effect of obesity on metabolic markers
  • Outcomes of mentoring first-year, first-generation graduate students of color
  • See the full list of 2015-16 awardees and research topics

Students who competed in the 2015 CSU Research Competition will also be recognized at the event. Light refreshments will be served.

The Celebration of Research is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, SJSU Research Foundation, the Office of Research and the Center for Faculty Development.

 

Head of Mineta Transportation Institute receives national award

Karen Philbrick, executive director, Mineta Transportation Institute and the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium.

Karen Philbrick, executive director, Mineta Transportation Institute and the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium.

Karen Philbrick, the executive director of Mineta National Transit Research Consortium (MNTRC) and the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI), has been awarded the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) Women Who Move the Nation Award in the academia category.

“I am so incredibly honored to be the recipient of this fine distinction,” said Philbrick, who has served as executive director of MNTRC and MTI since 2014. The programs are housed in the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business at San Jose State.

Philbrick was nominated by former Secretary of Transportation and former Congressman Norman Mineta, Nuria Fernandez, the CEO of VTA and Rod Diridon, MTI’s emeritus executive director. The trio nominated Philbrick for her role in developing MNTRC’s university partner relationships with four Minority Serving Institutions including SJSU, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“Your status and role in the transportation industry is an inspiration to all women, particularly women of color,” wrote Mioshi Moses, the president and CEO of COMTO, in the award notification letter. “Your professional achievements and pioneering spirit have opened career paths for women across the country.”

Philbrick said the university transportation center is focused on research, education, technology transfer and workforce development.

“In our particular field, we have a crisis of people available to enter the workforce,” she said, noting that a majority of people in the transportation sector are eligible for or nearing eligibility for retirement. “It includes everything from bus drivers to logistics managers to pilots. It includes everything from management all the way to the people on the ground maintaining the system.”

The center offers a master’s of science and transportation management as well as undergraduate courses. It also is involved in a variety of initiatives for K-12 students, including the Summer Transportation Institute that is designed for underrepresented minority and female high school students. Since 2012, the four partner universities have received $10.8 million to support initiatives.

MTI’s research informed the placement of new bike lanes in San Jose and formed the basis of the Caltrans Bus Rapid Transit handbook. The research has statewide, national and international impact. A recent focus of research has been on connectivity.

“We are looking at how to connect people and we are seeing a lot of different trends,” she said, noting that recent research is finding that millenials want to live, work and play where they can walk or take public transit.

Prior to being appointed as executive director of MNTRC and MTI, Philbrick served as MTI’s research director for five years, with two years as deputy executive director and research director for both MTI and MNTRC. She led three MTI research subcenters, directed more than 200 principal investigators for both agencies, oversaw the completion of 122 research projects and the production of more than 175 peer-reviewed research reports and journal publications.

She serves on the U.S. Department of Transportation Transit Advisory Committee for Safety and as treasurer of the Executive Committee of the Council of University Transportation Centers.