This summer, the University of Southern Indiana is offering another opportunity for students to travel and conduct research in India through the University’s Global Engagement Initiative. Up to six USI undergraduates will spend four weeks (approximately May 27 to June 27, 2012) in India and earn three hours of course credit.

The Society for Development Studies (SDS) will first train the students in New Delhi in a United Nations award-winning community-empowerment model. The students will then visit and engage with a community in Alwar to experience how the model was implemented and, under the guidance of SDS faculty, will help design approaches to enhance the community’s empowerment. Visits to Agra and Jaipur also have been planned.

The trip will cost $1,000 including course credit, travel, room and board, airfare and local transportation, and some meals. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

The Society for Development Studies is a non-government organization based in New Delhi, but is part of an international United Nations network. SDS faculty members have worked with students from many universities including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and USI on applications of its community-empowerment model.

In summer 2011, three USI students – Amy Brown, Chanse Ford, and Daniel “D.J.” Horstman – spent two weeks in India working with SDS’s community-empowerment model through interviews and interactions with families in Alwar. One highlight of their trip was a visit to the village of Andhwari, where the USI group was welcomed with flowers, singing, and dancing. “It is amazing the progress these people have made since the implementation of Dr. Lall’s program,” Ford wrote in his blog about the trip. “It was an indescribable feeling to be there and have these people open up to us and share so much of their lives with us when they had only met us that day.”

Plans for the second trip were initiated when Dr. Vinay D. Lall, director general of the SDS, visited USI in January.

In October 2010, Dr. Ronald S. Rochon, provost, led a team of USI faculty including Dr. Sudesh N. Mujumdar, Dr. Nadine Coudret, and Dr. Ann White to India for an initial exploration of partnerships. In addition to SDS, they met with representatives of organizations such as the University of Mumbai and the Reserve Bank of India. A follow-up visit by Mujumdar, Dr. Niharika Banerjea, Dr. Scott Gordon, and Dr. Mohammed Khayum took place in March 2011 to further opportunities for joint work across disciplines. Last summer’s student trip resulted from their efforts.

Source: USI.edu

Three creative writing students at the University of Evansville have received awards in the 2012 Southern Literary Festival Student Writing Contest.

Miranda Stinson of Bloomington, Indiana, won first place in the poetry category for her poem “Renovation,” and “The Fire Dancers” by Danielle Weeks of Connersville, Indiana, won an honorable mention in the same category. Lacey Conley of Kendallville, Indiana, won first place in the creative nonfiction category for her essay “The Way the Catwalks.”

These students will participate in a public reading at the festival with other Student Writing Contest winners. The Southern Literary Festival runs from March 29-31 at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Source: Evansville.edu

New trees are being planted at City Parks, Golf Courses and at the Goebel Soccer Complex. The trees are being furnished from the Evansville Vanderburgh Levee Authority due to a Mitigation along the Eagle Slough. Two Hundred Fifty-seven (257) trees will be replaced by Five Hundred Fourteen (514) trees; for a two for one ratio as required by City Ordinance. The Evansville Parks will receive 175 of the trees. At present, 122 trees have been planted and crews should finish the tree planting by March 9th.

Trees have been planted at Garvin, Akin, Bayard, Bellemeade, Angel Mounds and Anthony Oates parks. The remaining trees will be planted at Willard, Eleventh Avenue, Sunset parks and at Helfrich and McDonald Golf Courses.

Trees provide a natural habitat for wildlife, help purify the air and reduce global warming. Trees shade and cool areas to help reduce air conditioning in the summer and break winter winds thereby lower heating costs. Trees protect our lands by reducing soil erosion and sediment deposit after storms. For a $250 minimal investment for a single street tree, $90,000 of direct benefits is returned from the lifetime of a tree.

This weekend, thirty-two University of Evansville students volunteered for the 42nd annual Balsa Wood Bridge Building Competition, which brought together more than 150 local elementary, middle, and high school students.

Since 1970, the UE student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers has hosted the competition as part of National Engineers Week. The event took place Saturday, February 25 in Eykamp Hall in UE’s Ridgway University Center.

During the fall semester, UE civil engineering students and ASCE members assemble balsawood bridge building kits and invite young students to participate in the competition as a fun way to learn about engineering, math, and science. The young students arrive at the competition with their completed bridges. Then, UE students put weight on each bridge to see how much it holds before breaking.

Prizes are given to the most efficient bridges (highest amount of weight relative to the weight of the bridge) for the various grade levels. A scholarship to UE is offered to the high school junior who wins his or her division.

“Typically, the competition takes place at one of several locations around Evansville. This is the first time in many years that we hosted it on campus, so we were excited to welcome young students to the University of Evansville and introduce them to the world of engineering,” said Mark Valenzuela, associate professor of civil engineering and faculty advisor to UE’s ASCE chapter. “I was thrilled to see UE students volunteering their time and giving back to the community by hosting the Balsa Wood Bridge Building Competition.”