Here’s a round-up of college news around Southwest and Southside. Want more education news? There’s no full-time education reporter west of Richmond. That’s one of the positions we’re raising money for. You can help fund us.
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Virginia Tech receives $1 million gift
A $1 million gift to Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business will establish an academic support space housed in the under-construction Global Business and Analytics Complex, according to a release from Virginia Tech. Omar Asali (accounting ’92), chairman and chief executive officer of Ranpak Holdings Corp., with his wife, Rula, made the gift through their Omar and Rula Asali Foundation.
Pending approval by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, the space will be called The Asali Learning Accelerator.
As within the Pamplin Engage Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Program, students can secure work as academic coaches based on their subject matter expertise. Students interested in accelerating academic competencies by subject matter area can sync up with a peer academic coach as part of the services provided to Pamplin students.
Asali served on the Board of the Virginia Tech Foundation since 2018, was a Wells Fargo Distinguished Lecturer at Pamplin, and guest lectured at the college’s Ethics Week 2021 on the role of sustainability in the future of business.
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Radford names two new deans
Radford University has names new deans for the the Artis College of Science and Technology. and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Radford University.
Steven Bachrach will become the new dean of the Artis College of Science and Technology. He comes to Radford after having served as dean of the School of Science at Monmouth University.
Stephanie Caulder will become the new dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Radford University. She also joins Radford as a professor of music. She previously taught music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she also served as both chair of the Department of Music and coordinator of graduate studies.
Both begin their new roles Aug. 1.
About Bachrach:
Before beginning his tenure at Monmouth in August 2016, Bachrach served as the assistant vice president for special projects at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where, during his 17-year career, he was also the Dr. D.R. Semmes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a former Department of Chemistry chair.
Bachrach began his academic teaching career at Northern Illinois University, where he earned the rank of full professor. At Trinity and Northern Illinois, he maintained active research labs and published with students and post-doctoral researchers in organic chemistry.
Bachrach has served as an American Council on Education fellow at the University of Redlands during the 2014-15 academic year and was a director’s post-doctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, from 1985 to 1987.
Bachrach has authored more than 150 publications, including his book “Computational Organic Chemistry” and a monograph with the same title. He served as editor-in-chief of the Internet Journal of Chemistry for seven years. He has received more than $2 million in grant funding, most notably from the National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society and the Welch Foundation.
About Caulder:
Caulder has been the principal oboist with IUP’s Keystone Wind Ensemble since 2002 and Pennsylvania’s Johnstown Symphony Orchestra since 2014.
In her capacity as a musician, Caulder has appeared alongside such artists as Joshua Bell, Marvin Hamlisch, Mannheim Steamroller, Bernadette Peters, Frank Sinatra Jr. and others, and with symphonies from Altoona, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Greensboro and Wilmington. In October 2015, she toured Russia with the IUP Faculty Woodwind Quintet, presenting master classes at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and at Moscow’s Wind College.
She is an active member of the College Music Society, Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Association for Music Education, the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and the International Double Reed Society and is a national honorary member of Delta Omicron.
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Appalachian College of Pharmacy to hold summer camp for high schoolers
Students who are interested in learning more about the profession of pharmacy have been invited to attend a one-day summer camp event hosted by the Appalachian College of Pharmacy July 15 at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon.
The summer camp day is geared toward high school students and those who are older and is designed to give them an opportunity to experience what it is like to be a college of pharmacy student and what it takes to be a pharmacist. It follows a June 3 day camp on the college’s Oakwood-area campus.
“Due to the overwhelming demand, we have decided to host a second pharmacy camp in Abingdon at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center,” said ACP Dean Susan Mayhew in a statement. “We had 50 students take part in our camp event at Oakwood earlier this month.”
She added that classes at the Higher Ed Center may also be taught there beginning in 2023 as the college has applied to the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education to also deliver its second year didactic courses at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center. Students will then have the option to attend second year classes either on campus or at the higher ed center pending approval.
The camp day on July 15 will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students taking part in the camp will learn from ACP faculty members who are experts in their fields, conduct patient assessment procedures, discover pharmacy compounding techniques, practice pharmacotherapy on a human simulator, hear from ACP students about their pharmacy school experience and attend an admissions workshop session.
The day-long event is free and is open to students who register online at
https://www.acp.edu/pharmacy-summer-camp/. Lunch and refreshments will be provided by the college.
For questions about the camp, interested persons may contact admissions@acp.edu or call 275-498-5272.
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Bluefield announces nursing scholarship competition
Bluefield University School of Nursing will host its first annual scholarship competition in July. Graduating 2022 high school seniors who are interested in receiving their baccalaureate in nursing at Bluefield University are invited to compete for a four-year scholarship valued up to $100,000. Five runners-up will each receive a $2,000 annual scholarship.
Scholarship application requirements:
1. Official high school transcript with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
2. One letter of recommendation from a teacher, coach, or clergy.
3. A two-page (double-spaced) essay that describes why you want to become a nurse.
4. Participation in a virtual interview with the Bluefield University School of Nursing Scholarship Committee.
To be eligible to compete, students must apply by July 8. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Interviews will be held in late June and early July. A final decision will be announced by July 15.
Students who receive the scholarship must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 or above and agree to serve 45 hours per semester as a campus tutor for nursing students. Only high school seniors graduating in 2022 are eligible to participate in this scholarship competition. The scholarship covers tuition only and cannot be used for room and board or fees.
Any eligible student who is interested can contact admissions@bluefield.edu.
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