April 2024
USU and the U Collaborate on NSF Grant, Working With Refugee Students to Install Cosmic Ray Detectors
Students with refugee backgrounds and faculty members from the University of Utah and Utah State University recently celebrated the installation of five cosmic ray detectors. The event, hosted at the Utah Refugee Center in Salt Lake City on April 9, was the culmination of a three-year research project that began with an after-school STEM program where refugee students and faculty constructed the cosmic ray detectors. These detectors were placed on the roof of the Utah Refugee Center building by a boom crane, where they will monitor the activity of cosmic rays.
Research & News
CEHS Researchers Collaborate With Canyons School District to Impact Youth With Disabilities
Assistant professors Stephen Kwiatek and Lu Lawrence have entered a unique research partnership with Canyons School District, located in Sandy, Utah. The group has built the long-term collaborative effort, Project UNITE, to impact the lives of young adults with disabilities who are transitioning from the district’s high schools to other programs for young adults. Recently, Kwiatek and Lawrence attended a Unified Sports event for special needs teens with Utah’s First Lady Abby Cox.
ITLS Professor David Feldon Receives Fulbright Scholar Award to Study Graduate Education
As a prestigious Fulbright Scholar awardee, Feldon will participate in collaborative research at the University of Newcastle in an effort to better understand how participation in an oral dissertation defense, a relatively new practice in Australia, impacts students and how they might best prepare for it. Feldon, professor and former CEHS associate dean of graduate studies, will enter the international educational exchange program in February 2025.
USU’s Sorenson Center Provides Groups and Workshops to Support Local Residents
The Sorenson Center at USU, which serves students and the Northern Utah community with an extensive array of clinical services, has recently expanded its group therapy and workshops offerings. Topics include caregiver burnout, behavioral parenting, women with ADHD, perfectionism, LGBTQ+ support, chronic tinnitus management, persistent pain management, eating disorders, and more. The newest offerings are designed to enhance the growing need for behavioral health services in the community.
ASSERT Program Welcomes Natalia Vodianova, International Supermodel, Philanthropist, and Founder of Naked Heart Foundation
In honor of April’s World Autism Acceptance month, Naked Heart Foundation founder Vodianova visited the ASSERT classroom to learn from executive director and founder Tom Higbee and his staff of early childhood educators. The ASSERT program aims to improve the lives of children who are on the autism spectrum. Vodianova hopes to bring awareness to autism and evidence-based programs like the ASSERT model throughout Europe and Russia as the Foundation expands its educational programs over the next two year.
Awards and Recognition
Utah State Rankings by U.S. News and World Report
U.S. News and World Report is among the country’s most recognized leaders in educational rankings. The following 2024 rankings highlight the consistent quality of offerings from the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services.
1st in Utah for Education for 24 years. CEHS continues to excel in both the state and region for graduate school programs in education.
29th Graduate College of Education among public institutions of higher education.
15th in the nation in extramural funding.
2024 CEHS Recipients of the Robins Awards
The Robins Awards are the most coveted of all Utah State honors. Students and faculty are rewarded for their hard work and dedication to their individual goals, as well as the goals of USU. The awards memorialize William E. Robins, a Sigma Nu at Utah State who served as USU’s student body president in 1949. When Robins and his wife Geraldine died in a plane crash in 1954 and left behind their one-year-old son Nick, Robin’s fraternity set up the Bill E. Robins Memorial fund to raise money for the boy’s higher education. Tragically, Nick died at the age of eight from leukemia. Since that time, USU has continued the Robins Awards tradition.
Samuel Skidmore Doctoral Student Researcher of the Year
Megan Bagley Graduate Student Teacher of the Year
Megan Raddatz Legacy of Utah State
Kelsey Kaufusi Female Athlete of the Year