American Idol isn’t the only favorite singing competition around. Oklahoma State University had 16 student winners at the Oklahoma District National Association of Teachers of Singing Vocal Competition held at Southern Nazarene University. More than ...

“Five hundred thousand Oklahomans will wake up today and wonder where their next meal will come from. Oklahoma ranks as the sixth hungriest state in the nation, but thanks to donors, volunteers and advocates, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is ‘...

Antron Brown, driver of the Don Schumacher Racing-owned Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, recently brought some high octane enthusiasm to the campus at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology.  After weeks of troubleshooting 180 horsepower cars...

Student Union project enhancing OSU treasure We have enjoyed record construction and improvements to the Oklahoma State University campus in recent years and we now are embarked on a historic renovation of the Student Union.  You may have noticed tha...

Dunham to cook at the James Beard HouseMarc Dunham, the Chef de Cuisine at the Ranchers Club on the Oklahoma State University campus, will be demonstrating his culinary skills as a guest chef at the James Beard House in New York City this summer. The J...

The College of Human Environmental Sciences has announced plans to relocate the Rise School of Stillwater to facilities on the Oklahoma State University campus. The move will integrate the Rise Program into the Human Development and Family Science Department’ s Center for Early Childhood Teaching and Learning which also houses the Cleo L. Craig Foundation Child Development Laboratory (CDL). The unified program will be open to children from 12 months through 5 years of age in the fall of 2010.

Stephan Wilson, dean of the college, says the move will provide more appropriate classrooms for the students in the Rise Program and expand the services of the current center to be a unified, more inclusive environment. The classrooms also serve as teaching laboratories for OSU early childhood education as well as research facilities for a variety of programs across the campus.

“The current laboratory in the center has a rich heritage of over 85 years and is a nationally recognized center for early childhood teaching, research, and outreach,” Wilson said. “Incorporating the Rise program into this premier facility will enhance the educational experience for future early childhood educators. The experience they gain will benefit the children of Oklahoma and beyond.”

The current space will double from two classrooms to four world-class early childhood teaching laboratory classrooms. Each of the classrooms will be staffed with certified teachers and teaching assistants. Music, speech, occupational and physical therapies will be provided for those children who need these services. In addition, OSU students majoring in early childhood education will be in the classrooms each semester as part of their professional practicum.

“We see this as a win-win for the ECE program and the Rise School as well as our myriad campus and community partners,” Wilson said. “The original Rise facility limited enrollment to 18 students half of whom were children with special needs. The new classrooms will be state-of-the-art design, and the larger space will allow for a total of 66 children. This will increase our capacity for inclusion of children living with developmental disabilities to 33.”

“The move will expand our capacity to provide services to the community, enlarge experiences for emerging professionals, increase the numbers of students and their families available for research projects, and deliver the land-grant mission of OSU for teaching, research, and outreach” Wilson said.

Sue Williams, Human Development and Family Sciences Department head, said integrating the two laboratories will provide important hands-on internship and observation opportunities for college students majoring in early childhood education, which will better prepare them to teach in Oklahoma classrooms.

“Students who participate in the teacher-preparation program will learn to match children’s needs with appropriate instructional methods according to each child’s intellectual and physical development,” Williams said. “When these students become teachers in Oklahoma’s pre-schools and elementary schools, their experience with the Rise Program will have a multiplier effect and benefit hundreds of special needs children throughout the state. Further, the many ways in which children develop beyond their learning are more completely present in this new environment – physical, social, emotional, aesthetic, cultural.”

Wilson pointed out the new lab’s proximity to the other research and teaching interests of the college such as interior design, the Center for Family Services, and childhood obesity prevention will enhance experiential learning experiences for other CHES students. He said having the unified programs on campus is likely to make them attractive to other areas of study such as engineering, elementary education, speech pathology, and art that have limited opportunities to facilities and programs the unified labs will provide.

“With better access for the rest of the campus for research and discovery, as well as outreach and service, the lab will be much more than a place focused solely on early childhood learning,” Wilson said.

The CDL is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and meets the criteria for a Three-Star Facility rating from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

The enrollment process for the unified program begins with a completed application that will place the child on a waiting list. Current students began enrolling in March. Available spaces are then filled with children from the waiting list. Parents may begin the application process by contacting the CECTL at 405-744-5730 from 8:30-4:30 Monday thru Friday.

Oklahoma State University men’s basketball coach Travis Ford and his wife, Heather, announced Monday that the Oklahoma WONDERtorium would be their family’s local non-profit organization of choice. The Fords made the announcement at Westwood Elementary in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Children from two Westwood classrooms were invited to attend.

Heather Ford is one of fourteen members of the Oklahoma WONDERtorium’s board of directors. She has lent her support to museum activities as a volunteer and the Ford children have participated in museum camps and programs.

“As a new member of the museum’s board, I have been impressed by the efforts of all concerned to develop fun and educational events and learning experiences for children and families in Stillwater and beyond,” Heather Ford commented.

“We (Heather and I) believe there is a real need for the Oklahoma WONDERtorium," Travis Ford said. "We realize that it is already fulfilling an important need in the development of the children in this area through its outreach programs, but there is an even greater need in this community for a place every child can go to learn and play in a safe and educationally stimulating environment.”

Currently, the WONDERtorium is a “museum without walls” and developed the educational outreach program of the same name in 2006 to further its mission of inspiring curiosity to learn through play. Museum Without Walls programming offers four developmentally appropriate programs for children in Payne County elementary schools, preschools and childcare centers. Program subject matter ranges from simple activities involving brightly-colored objects, simple dance moves and music for infants and their caretakers to cutting-edge information on nanoscience principles and plant viruses for fifth graders (expanding to fourth graders in Spring 2010). With a building site at 10th & Duck streets in Stillwater, the WONDERtorium is actively raising funds to open a permanent facility in 2012.

“We are honored by the Ford’s involvement in our efforts to give children more learning opportunities,” said Oklahoma WONDERtorium Executive Director Ruth Cavins. “The Ford’s endorsement and public support of us is a critical step to continuing the work we are doing through our Museum Without Walls program and in our effort to build a children’s museum in the city of Stillwater.”

Troy Herthel of Los Olivos, Calif., was one of 75 students who received the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree (DVM) during convocation and hooding exercises at Oklahoma State University (OSU) College of Veterinary Medicine on Saturday, May 8, 2010.

Herthel is the son of Doug and Sue Herthel of Los Olivos. He graduated from Santa Ynez Valley High School in Santa Ynez, Calif., and earned a B.S. degree in Animal Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Recently at the veterinary center’s Annual Awards Banquet, Herthel received the highest honor an Oklahoma State veterinary senior can earn—the Dean Clarence H. McElroy Award.

Named after the first dean of OSU’s veterinary college, recipients are chosen by faculty and the fourth year class for their high academic achievements, leadership and outstanding clinical proficiency. On hand to present the award was the granddaughter of the late Dean McElroy, Ms. Patricia McElroy of Baton Rouge, La.

Herthel also received one of two $100 American College of Veterinary Surgeons Awards, one of three $1,000 Dr. Kip Doran Memorial Scholarships, and the $1,200 Lester and Lucille Johnson Scholarship for his interest in large animal veterinary medicine and surgery.

“We pride ourselves in graduating competent, confident, practice-ready veterinarians,” says Dr. Michael Lorenz, professor and dean of the college.

“Our graduates are highly sought after with most having multiple job offers upon graduation. While many chose private veterinary practice, some veterinarians pursue careers in academia, research, public health, or the military. We believe these young graduates will make OSU proud as they begin their careers in veterinary medicine.”

Following graduation, Herthel will start a year-long internship at Weatherford Equine Medical Center in Weatherford, Texas. He will be involved in lameness, surgery, medicine and equine reproduction primarily on cutting horse bred quarter horses. After that, he hopes to be admitted to an equine surgical residency program. Herthel’s ultimate goal is to become an equine surgeon and work with his father at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos.