Dr. Paul Spies, Assistant Professor of Secondary Education at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN Paul Spies, an assistant professor of secondary education at St. Cloud State University and a 1989 MSUM alumnus, will deliver the keynote address at Minnesota State University's Moorhead's Student Academic Conference at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday, April 11 in the student union ballroom. Spies, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a specialist in multicultural education and school reform issues. He has nearly a decade's experience teaching in urban and suburban high schools where he developed multicultural faculty and student organizations. He's also the author of "Interdisciplinary Teams for High Schools" published by Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation (1997) Fastback Series, and is associate editor of "Voices from the Field," the journal of the National High School Association. Spies has been teaching at St. Cloud State for the past two years. Before that he served on the faculty at Viterbo College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Student Panel

Each year four student panelists are selected to respond to the keynote address. These four students represent the four academic divisions of the university: Arts & Humanities, Social & Natural Sciences, Business & Industry, and Education & Human Services. These students are selected by the Dean of each academic division following a review of nominations received from members of the MSUM campus community. This year's panelists include:

Leah Lindsey, Education & Human Services Leah is a senior at MSU Moorhead and is originally from Grafton, ND. She is majoring in School Health Education and minoring in Community Health Education. This past semester, she was named the Health Education Major of the Year for MSU Moorhead. She says she has had a very positive experience here on campus over the last four years. She has been involved in Student Orientation for three years. Being a SOC led her to other activities including STARs (Student Telecounseling Admissions Representatives) which she is the co-supervisor for the program. Additionally she is a Peer Advisor and this past semester co-taught the First Year Experience (FYE) course with Dr. Andrew Conteh. She has also been involved with the Education Minnesota Student Program (EMSP) and also a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an honors society for education majors.

Patrick Carpenter, Arts & Humanities Patrick's major is Speech Communication, with emphasis in Professional Communication. He grew up in Minot, ND and graduated from Minot High School in 1997. At MSUM, he participates in Wind Ensemble and Pi Kappa Delta. He has been a captain of the MSUM Speech and Debate team since 1998. He is the secretary of the Association for Communication Enrichment (ACE), and is the coordinator for ACE's powerpoint tutoring lab. Patrick will graduate in May and plans to attend graduate school next fall. His ultimate future goal is teaching and research at the post-secondary level.

Yanick Dalhouse, Business & Industry Yanick's majors are Mass Communications with an emphasis on broadcast journalism and Economics and is originally from Moorhead, MN. She transferred to MSUM two years ago from Luther College following a major change from Biology to Mass Communications. She plans to pursue a career in television reporting. She currently works as a reporter at our local ABC television station, WDAY Channel 6 News, as well as helps to anchor the morning news on 970 News Talk radio. In addition to that she hosts and is associate producer for a live call-in community talk show called Voices of Moorhead, as well as anchors and produces a Half-Time News Break Show.

Neal Gamradt, Social & Natural Sciences Neal's major is Computer Information Systems originally from Sauk Centre, MN. He has worked on the Student Technology Team for the last 3 years, a member of the Student Web Server Committee, and currently a member of the Web Advisory Board. Some significant projects include assisting with the College for Kids program this last summer, where he designed the database and website for the program. He also participated in a MnSCU conference where he helped in a presentation of the FirstLink website which he helped design through a grant. Currently he is interning at Sundog Interactive in Fargo. He plans to do web design when he graduates. Neal isn't new to the conference as he has participated in the Student Academic Conference twice as a presenter.

Student Academic Conference
Dr. Andrew Conteh or Ryan Sylvester
Box 500
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Moorhead, MN 56563
(218) 236-4019
acconf@mnstate.edu

MSUM is an equal opportunity educator and employer