MSUM hosted the National Park Service’s 2008 workshop focusing on non-destructive archaeological investigations in May 2008. The field exercises took place at the Biesterfeld Site, an 18th-century earth lodge village on the Sheyenne River east of Lisbon, N.D. Excavated by a Columbia University professor in the 1930s and reported by W.R Wood in 1971, the site is on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 40 archaeologists from around the country attended the workshop, along with 12 instructors, including Rinita Dalan, Anthropology and Earth Science.
Planetarium Coordinator Dave Weinrich traveled to Ghana in the summer of 2008 to assist in developing Ghana’s first science center, including a planetarium. Audio Visual Imagineering, Inc., donated a refurbished Mediaglobe digital projector to the center, and Weinrich worked with Center Director Dr. Jacob Ashon in the planning and implementation of the planetarium. He also trained Center staff and volunteers on how to run the digital projector.
Jane Bergland, Nursing, and six senior nursing students completed the seventh annual medical trip to Jalapa, Nicaragua, where students participated in each of the following areas: emergency room, pediatrics, dentistry, ophthalmology and pharmacy. Care to children with handicaps was a priority and students were able to do home visits to some of these families. Students also did health teaching to individual patients, families, school children, and education/training to participants of the local American Red Cross Chapter. Plans are being made for a trip in February 2009.
Deborah Kukowski, Paralegal, reached out to the Senior Connections program in Moorhead by having her Elder Law class prepare general information sessions for senior citizens to explain the purpose and use of health care directives. The students prepared overview sessions, a questionnaire to determine what each senior wanted or needed to include in their directive, then drafted the directives, which were reviewed by Kukowski. Through this community outreach, seniors received a great service and students received valuable practical experience.
MSUM’s Continuing Studies is a community partner working with, and for, businesses and professionals in our region. MSUM collaborates with the United Way of Cass-Clay and the Bremer Foundation to present comprehensive leadership training for nonprofit professionals. MSUM is now taking the program “on the road’ and partnering with Alexandria Technical College and Heart of Lakes United Way to extend the learning to other nonprofit agencies. Now in its fourth year, more than 100 nonprofit professionals have been trained in vital areas such as fundraising, board governance, legal issues and more.
Continuing Studies partners with other local agencies and organizations as well, such as Prairie Public Television and Eide Bailly LLC, to coordinate national training for Franklin Covey and Dale Carnegie, as well as state training for the Department of Public Safety, Department of Commerce and the Board of Nursing Home Administrators.
MSUM is one of 36 universities nationwide that offers string music instruction to area elementary school students as part of “The String Project,” based on a project by the American String Teachers Association. The program brings together MSUM, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony and Moorhead Public Schools to provide low-cost stringed instrument instruction for area students in small schools that are unable to financially support the extra cost. MSUM provides a supply of select students to serve as teaching assistants, and the FM Symphony assists financially by awarding the program an annual grant.
The MSUM Chemistry Club’s outreach program to fifth graders at Moorhead’s Ellen Hopkins Elementary School is just one component of an extensive K-12 outreach program by the College of Social and Natural Sciences. On average, college faculty, staff and students conduct outreach activities for more than 4,000 area students and 700 teachers each year.
MSUM’s Small Business Development Center has been serving the western Minnesota area since 1980. Small businesses and individuals starting a small business can receive one-on-one counseling in financial projections and loan packaging, accounting and record keeping, market analysis and research and strategic marketing. Additionally, the SBDC offers workshops on starting a business and other topics relating to small business. SBDC has served 786 clients and delivered 25 workshops in the past three years.
More than 8,000 elementary school students from more than 60 schools annually attend MSUM’s fall children’s theatre production. Generally, the production features two separate casts and stages two performances daily during an eight-day run with public performances on the weekend. The annual children’s theatre production entertains local students and is an educational outreach opportunity.
To date, 3,000+ students have completed more than 45,000 service-learning hours through Academic Service Learning, linking student education to community volunteer activities.
DragonTech is a private company owned by two MSUM biochemistry/biotechnology faculty that partners with the university and is dedicated to working with students and faculty in the program. DragonTech offers scientific resources, consulting expertise and research development for biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations and academic researchers. Clients include Procter and Gamble, the USDA and the Mayo Clinic, among others. DragonTech’s core services are cell and protein-based analysis and separation technology and consulting. This unique partnership provides students with a rare experience to work in an industrial biotechnology laboratory in a real-life setting.
