By CSC College Relations
CHADRON – The dedication of the Sports Complex Sept. 15 led a long list of Chadron State College achievements in 2018. A renovation of Elliott Field, Beebe Stadium and the Marshall Press Box was completed in time for the Eagles to debut the $8.6 million facility Sept. 1. In November, the Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees approved funding for the second phase of the project, a $1.8 million track facility.
Student achievements the past year include six students placing in the top 10 at Phi Beta Lambda’s National Leadership Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The students are Leyna Brummels of Chadron, Neb., Kelsey Brummels of Ewing, Neb., Jennifer Campos of Alliance, Neb., Cody Cooper of Gothenburg, Neb., Tierra Snyder of Beatrice, Neb., and Dawson Brunswick of McCook, Neb., who also served as CSC’s Student Trustee for the Nebraska State College System’s Board of Trustees in 2018.
Three students, Will Krause, of Spring Branch, Texas, Missy Jech, of Rushville, Nebraska, and Jessica Hurd, of Gordon, Nebraska, were award winners during the annual International Society of Range Management Convention in Sparks, Nevada.
Two Social Work majors, Jeff Mugongo of Aurora, Colorado, and Renee Spotted Thunder of Hay Springs, Nebraska, and Associate Professor of Social Work Rich Kenney published poetry in a variety of journals.
Six music students attended the National Association of Music Merchants show in Anaheim, California. Patrick Cassidy of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and Alex Rawlings of Chadron, each earned scholarships to support their travel expenses.
Farther afield, 27 students traveled to London, England, and Dublin, Ireland, as part of the Study Abroad program. This was the 39th year for Justice Studies students to travel overseas.
Six science students and two from the education department presented their research at the 128th Annual Nebraska Academy of Sciences Conference in Lincoln.
The student-produced “Tenth Street Miscellany” literary and art journal was published online with photos, poetry, art work, fiction and non-fiction stories.
Students studying wildlife research began a collaborative bat monitoring project in the fall with the Pine Ridge Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The CSC campus carried on with a culture of providing service to the community.
The Big Event, a day of service in April, included more than 410 volunteers painting, raking, cleaning and other work at 36 job sites in its sixth year. In October, members of the campus community donated dozens of food items at the annual Oxfam Hunger Banquet organized and hosted by students.
Art students brightened the hallways at Crest View Care Center by installing their large paintings of wildflowers and the Social Work 435 Class provided experts and research intended to help prevent suicide at its annual conference.
Accolades for academic departments included The Rural Law Opportunities Program’s 2018 American Bar Association Brown Select Award. Cheng (Kevin) Zhang of Alliance, Nebraska, who was a CSC student when he was accepted to the initial RLOP group in 2017, enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law this fall.
The Common Intellectual Experience pilot project was launched to help freshmen acclimate to academic life, examine important social issues, set academic expectations and foster critical thinking. It also included a Common Reading Experience, the book, “March: Book One.”
An original piece of choral music, commissioned especially for CSC, was performed in Memorial Hall by the CSC Concert Choir and Chadron Community Choir in April, thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor. “Three Nebraska Lyrics,” was composed by David von Kampen with original lyrics by Becky Boesen. In other arts news, “You Feel Like Waving,” a beaded sculpture by Krista Birnbaum, was dedicated in the Rangeland Complex.
The High Plains Herbarium collection will eventually be accessible online thanks to an imaging station worth approximately $8,000 funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
After two years of work, education faculty members Dr. Lori Entzminger and Dr. John Buttiglieri successfully established a student chapter of Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development on campus.
Faculty and staff continued to distinguish themselves with professional accomplishments.
Dr. Beth Wentworth, mathematics professor, received the Milton W. Beckman Lifetime Achievement Award at the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference in Kearney.
Kim Madsen, professor of Applied Science, received the college’s Teaching Excellence Award during the annual Faculty and Staff luncheon. Thirteen retirees were honored and 23 employees received years of service awards.
English Assistant Professor Markus Egeler Jones’ novel, “How the Butcher Bird Finds Her Voice,” earned two 2018 American Fiction Awards, one in the multicultural category and one in the literary category. Jones was also nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize for “Creature of the Dark,” and a 2019 Pushcart small press award for “Old Man Gloom.”
Jones and Director of Transitional Studies Tamara Toomey, received scholarships for a two-week institute at the National Center for Developmental Education.
English Assistant Professor Steve Coughlin’s second book of poetry, “Driving at Twilight,” was published. Coughlin plans to chronicle a 2017 trip of 2,000-plus miles he took along the 100th Meridian from Canada to Mexico for an online literary magazine and possibly a book.
Art Professor Mary Donahue described her experience on the set of an Ethan and Joel Coen film set during a Graves Lecture. Donahue appeared as an extra in the Netflix movie, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” She recorded her experience in a blog.
Alumni accomplishments were also in the spotlight.
During Homecoming, Judge Russell W. Harford and Dr. James Jaggers were honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award for achievements in their professions and demonstrating service to the college. Mitch Feldman of Litchfield, Nebraska, and Dr. Ethan Mann of Centennial, Colorado, received Distinguished Young Alumni Awards while the Bunch-Lingelbach, Epp and Neubauer families were each honored with a Family Tree Award for three generations of graduates.
Troy Lurz was selected as a recipient of the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals Distinguished Service Award. Brian Jahnke of North Platte, Nebraska, was named the 2018 Nebraska Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year, and Dr. Angela Hunke Brennan, a family physician in St. Paul, Nebraska, received the Outstanding Preceptor in Rural Family Medicine Award from University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Coach and Athletic Director Darin Monroe celebrated his softball team’s fifth consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association national championship in May. Monroe earned his master’s degree from CSC in December 2017.