Celebration of Scholarship - April 25, 2012 |
Messages
From President Michael Fiorentino, Jr.
Many activities this week, including our Celebration of Scholarship, are focused on “Honoring our Past, Embracing our Future”.
Scholarship in all disciplines follows this theme as they look at the history of their specialties and moves their field forward, hoping to make new discoveries or simply improve a specific area.
I am excited to be at Lock Haven University where learning and scholarship provides a door to the future. The new residence halls and Science Center will pave the way for continued success of our students. New programs will enable many more students to embark on a path of life-long learning. And yet, our roots remain strong in the education of teachers who inspire the youth of our communities to embrace their future.
Each graduate and retiree has left a mark on generations of new students to come. The student body, as they perform, demonstrate, and present, is making their imprint on not only the past, but also the future. Congratulations to our faculty, students, and staff involved in this great celebration of academic success.
Michael Fiorentino, Jr.
President
From Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs David L. White
Lock Haven University’s annual Celebration of Scholarship is, in essence, a celebration of who and what we are as a community of scholars.
Every day, Lock Haven University is alive with the spirit of inquiry and the passionate give-and-take of ideas. In all corners of the campus, students and faculty are engaged in independent research, learning by questioning and by doing, developing their talents and perfecting their skills. It is our honor and privilege to devote one day each year to an all-day, campus-wide event that showcases the research and achievements of our faculty and students.
Teaching and scholarship are essential in order to provide students with the education they will need to function well in our highly interconnected 21st century world. Lock Haven University faculty provide some of the best teaching available in the state of Pennsylvania and larger region. In their classrooms, they are presenting the most recent knowledge, ideas, and theories to enable students to develop critical habits of thought. The result is a heightened level of discourse, in which faculty and students are partners in the academic enterprise.
In all the disciplines, it takes student engagement to create the graduates our nation needs. Here at Lock Haven University, we pride ourselves on the opportunities we offer our undergraduates to be involved in serious research, to grow as artists and performers, to be engaged in service-learning activities, and to explore new ideas, new places, and new cultures. Guided by gifted, respected professors, our students learn by integrating their knowledge, testing their ideas, applying what they have learned, and making their own discoveries.
When students graduate and get a job, they will encounter new situations and new problems. At Lock Haven University, our students develop the habit of questioning, of experimenting and of testing, and of accepting real-world challenges. They develop the leadership and critical thinking skills that will enable them to solve problems and meet challenges head on.
The Celebration of Scholarship is an excellent venue to the university community just what it is that we are doing at Lock Haven University. It is an opportunity to show that we are active, that we are involved with problems that affect many, that we are investigating interesting issues, and that we are adding value to the education and lives of our students and the general public. This is indeed a cause for celebration.
David L. White
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
From Dean of the College of Education and Human Services
Mary Rose-Colley
Welcome to the Celebration of Scholarship at Lock Haven University and to everyone who is participating at this year's event. This day enables faculty and students to share individual research, joint research and other scholarly activities with the university community. Most important, the day creates the opportunity for the College of Education and Human Services and the College of Arts and Science to share and celebrate accomplishments across the university. Lock Haven University has an immense amount of talent embodied in committed professors and willing students and the COS enables us to showcase the results of their work. I am immensely proud to be a part of this institution that has nurtured the academic development of students through teaching, research, and service. Thank you to all faculty and students who have contributed their talents this year.
Mary Rose-Colley
Interim Dean College of Education and Human Services
From Dean of the College of Arts and Science Zakir Hossain
Since the publication of the Boyer report in the 1998, there has been an increased interest in undergraduate research and creative productions in both research, as well as, undergraduate institutions. At its core lies what David Hodge called “the Student as Scholar Model” which underscores a shift from a purely teaching paradigm to more of a learning paradigm, culminating in students making more connections between the classroom and the real world. The Celebration of Scholarship has been a successful part of Lock Haven University’s learning community for the last five years. The celebration is built upon collaboration among students and between faculty and students resulting in a more authentic teaching- learning environment where students are engaged in research involving real-world problems and presenting projects that are relevant to the learners' lives and aspirations. In the process students acquire skills conducive to living and working in a global society. Let us applaud our students who, through their research and creative work, epitomize our core value of developing students as scholars and citizens.
Zahir Hossain
Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Science
On Behalf of Faculty President Stanley P. Berard
Scholarship is the defining activity of a university. Scholarship takes numerous forms and its works vary in scale, but it always rests on an openness to new knowledge and new ways of knowing. This is the case no matter the form scholarship takes: basic research into the workings of natural or social phenomena; practiced and innovative modes of artistic performance and expression; the extension of inquiry into professional, clinical, and community environments where it informs and is informed by practice.
The university is at its best when students play a central role in the scholarly enterprise, and this is particularly so at a teaching university like LHU. The faculty is proud of the range of work in which our students are engaged at every level of development, from first-year undergraduate through the masters level, and across the widest range of disciplines. At this Celebration of Scholarship, you will see the work of our students and faculty in a range of contexts, all of it illustrating the fruits of committed teaching and dedicated learning—with the students and professors often exchanging those roles. We are pleased that you are here to share it with us.