Butler, Blind School Students to Plant Trees for Bees
PUBLISHED ON Oct 15 2015
Students from the Butler University World of Plants class and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) will work together on a tree-planting event on Tuesday, October 20, from 10:00-11:30 AM and 2:30-4:00 PM.
At the “Trees for Bees” event, students will plant trees to enhance the pollen sources for ISBVI bee hives.
The event is the result of a 2015 Tree Campus USA Mini-Award received by Biology Instructor Marva Meadows. She said the class project is trying to address some of the nutritional problems by planting 20 new species of trees and shrubs that are honey bee friendly.
“Honey bee hives will benefit by having a diversity of pollen and nectar planted close to the hives themselves,” she said. “This may allow the bees to resist some of the other stresses that are plaguing hives around the world. Our teams of Butler and ISBVI students have been learning about flowers and honey bees together and will culminate in planting their chosen tree on Tuesday.”
Honey bees are responsible for one-third of our food, Meadows said. Agricultural production of almonds, berries, fruits and vegetables are a direct result of honey bee pollination.
Unfortunately, honey bees are in decline from a number of pressures including Colony Collapse Disorder which may be caused by new parasites and pathogens like Varroa mites, nosema fungi and deformed wing virus, she said.
“No one is sure about how the liberal use of pesticides may be causing additional stress to the hives. And nutritional problems caused by a lack of variable pollen and nectar sources may also be weakening honey bees.”
Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822
Butler, Blind School Students to Plant Trees for Bees
'The Mall' Lets First-Year Students Publish
PUBLISHED ON Mar 22 2018
First-year class president Elizabeth Bishop is a Marketing and Strategic Communications double-major who has always had a passion for writing.
So when Jim Keating, the instructor in her First-Year Seminar (FYS) course Utopian Experience, and some of her friends encouraged her to submit her writing to The Mall, she said she would.
The Mall is a journal dedicated to showcasing exemplary FYS work. First-year students can submit a piece of literary analysis and criticism, a creative writing piece, or a personal essay. Bishop said she will be submitting an analysis of alienation in literature and why it is so common among characters.
"I'm so excited to have the opportunity to have my work published in The Mall," Bishop said. "I've really enjoyed my FYS and I feel as though it has definitely helped me develop as a writer. I think it's wonderful that Butler is giving us this opportunity and I'm highly anticipating reading everyone's entries!”
The Mall, now in its fifth year, was created by Adjunct Professor Nicholas Reading, with a push from English Professor Susan Neville.
"She sparked the idea of publishing student’s work, and just needed someone to take initiative and do it,” Reading said.
He said students are not required to have a certain grade on their work to submit. It is also possible to submit multiple papers, and in some cases, be published twice.
The most recent edition of The Mall was 201 pages, with all different kinds of pieces submitted by students. In all, 34 papers were published.
Reading said The Mall serves three primary goals:
-To present to the Butler community the FYS program and increase awareness about the program and the work that is produced in FYS courses.
-To build an FYS learning resource for instructors so that they will have the opportunity to use published essays as learning tools in the classrooms and to provide models of exemplary FYS writing to new students.
-To empower first-year students and give their voices and opinions a forum to be heard.
The Mall is edited by FYS students. Throughout the process, students exercise the peer-review and collaborative learning skills practiced in their FYS courses. Similarly, the journal provides a forum for students to be published and have an opportunity to showcase their work.
“Our purpose is to empower students in their writing," Reading said. "That is the end goal. To understand that the written word will always be an integral and indispensable facet of our existence. To understand that as writers, we have the opportunity to participate in larger discussions that work to elevate us all. To own that voice, and use it passionately and responsibly, can be an exhilarating feeling. And we try to showcase the results of that journey.”
Goals of FYS
- To reflect on significant questions about yourself, your community, and your world.
- To develop the capacity to read and think critically.
- To develop the capacity to write clear and persuasive expository and argumentative essays with an emphasis on thesis formation and development.
- To gain an understanding of basic principles of oral communication as they apply to classroom discussion.
- To understand the liberal arts as a vital and evolving tradition and to see yourself as agents within that tradition.
- To develop capacities for careful and open reflection on questions of values and norms.
- To develop the ability to carry out research for the purpose of inquiry and to support claims.
'The Mall' Lets First-Year Students Publish
The journal is dedicated to showcasing exemplary FYS work.
The journal is dedicated to showcasing exemplary FYS work.
Butler's Winner of the Realizing the Dream Scholarship Is ...
PUBLISHED ON Nov 15 2016
Jacklyn Gries, a second-year Pharmacy major from Evansville, Indiana, has been selected as Butler University’s 2016 winner of the Independent Colleges of Indiana’s Realizing the Dream scholarship.
This scholarship goes to students who are first in their families to go to college, have been selected by their colleges for outstanding achievement in their first year, and are successfully advancing towards completing their bachelor’s degrees.
Gries and 30 other students from Indiana’s independent colleges and universities, and their most influential elementary or secondary teachers, were honored on November 5 at the 27th annual “Realizing the Dream” banquet. The event, made possible by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to the Independent Colleges of Indiana, recognizes first-generation students attending ICI campuses, along with their inspirational teachers and families.
Gries will receive a $2,500 check to help with college costs. Additionally, each student’s selected most influential teacher/mentor will receive a $1,000 professional development grant. Gries chose her high school science teacher Carl Voegel from Mater Dei High School.
Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822
Butler's Winner of the Realizing the Dream Scholarship Is ...
Jacklyn Gries has been selected as Butler University’s 2016 winner of the Independent Colleges of Indiana’s Realizing the Dream scholarship.
Jacklyn Gries has been selected as Butler University’s 2016 winner of the Independent Colleges of Indiana’s Realizing the Dream scholarship.
Grant Helps Butler Create Student-Run Insurance Company
PUBLISHED ON Aug 17 2015
The Butler University College of Business will establish a student-run insurance company with the goal of having the company fully operational by the 2019–2020 academic year, thanks to a $250,000 gift from MJ Insurance and Michael M. Bill.
The Butler business, known as a “captive insurance company,” will insure certain programs at Butler, perhaps including the live mascot, Butler Blue III, or physical damage to University vehicles.
College of Business Dean Steve Standifird said the idea behind the internal insurance company is to give students hands-on experience and prepare them for an industry that expects to need tens of thousands of new employees over the next seven years to replace workers who will be retiring.
“This captive insurance company builds on Butler’s model of experiential learning,” said Zach Finn, Clinical Professor & Director of the Davey Risk Management and Insurance Program in the College of Business, who will supervise the students. “We have students who manage a $2 million financial endowment, and many universities around the country do that. There’s no reason students with the proper setup couldn’t manage an insurance company.”
Finn said the program will give students the opportunity to look at risks that face the university, assess the financial impacts, and determine whether the risks would be best retained and paid for with university assets as they occur, through traditional insurance markets, or through a captive insurance company.
Students will learn how to write the insurance policy, what the coverage terms will be, how to finance the company, and more. They will be able to apply their risk-management expertise in accounting, investments and numerous other areas.
“We are excited about this partnership with Butler University and the Davey Program,” said Jon Loftin, President and COO, MJ Insurance. “Butler has consistently graduated students from the College of Business more prepared to enter the workforce due in large part to their emphasis on experiential learning and providing their students with the unique opportunity to apply the academic principles in a real-life setting.”
MJ and Bill’s initial gift will cover the minimum amount of capital that’s needed to fund a captive insurance company at its outset. The College of Business also will be soliciting gifts to fund the operating costs.
“The insurance industry has been very rewarding to me over my lifetime, and I appreciate all that it has given to me, my family, and the opportunity to be the founder of MJ Insurance, Inc. for the past 51 years,” said Michael M. Bill, chairman and founder of MJ Insurance. “If we can instill a path to the students via the kind of training that I had as a very young man, it will be not only rewarding to the students that graduate through the Butler University College of Business in Insurance and Risk Management, but will provide them with a livelihood and personal reward every day that they are in our industry.”
According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the insurance industry will need to replace 104,000 insurance sales agents, 71,900 claims adjusters, 67,400 claims/policy processing clerks, 28,900 underwriters, 8,500 software developers/programmers, 7,500 computer/information analysts, and 6,900 actuaries by 2022.
Finn estimated that even if the approximately 50 colleges and universities that offer an insurance program were able to graduate about 50 students each year—an optimistic estimate, he said—that would still leave an enormous shortfall of people ready to step in and do the jobs.
“Our students, through this program, will graduate with those skills in hand,” Standifird said. “In an industry that is in desperate need of talent, we’ll not only be providing them talent, but talent that is much closer to being job-ready than they’re going to find anywhere else. That’s one of the big motivations for doing this—to give our students a significant advantage going into the workforce.”
Added Loftin: “We are encouraged by the increasing interest of the millennial generation in the insurance and risk management industry which has historically been viewed by college graduates as boring or stale compared to some other careers. We are finding that most young adults today are simply unaware of what extraordinary opportunities exists within this industry that often times align more closely with their career, financial and, most importantly, their life goals.
“Therefore, we believe that it’s merely a matter of creating awareness and educating these young adults of the career benefits and opportunities that do exist. We believe that many colleges and universities are sleeping on this industry that has a dire need for qualified talent. In fact, those universities that do have insurance and risk management programs are experiencing 100 percent job placement rates in most cases. Therefore, we cannot think of a better opportunity to assist our industry in generating interest in this field than by partnering with Butler University in creation of a student-run captive.”
Recent news coverage of this story:
http://www.captiveinsurancetimes.com/captiveinsurancenews/article.php?article_id=4154#.VgxJFbflvIU
http://www.insurancebusiness.ca/news/morning-briefing-college-to-train-nextgen-insurers-with-campus-insurance-business-194724.aspx
http://www.ibj.com/articles/54463-butler-plans-student-run-insurance-agency-as-lure-to-boring-field
http://www.indystar.com/story/money/2015/08/15/business-insider-want-secure-job-bet-insurance/31797013/
Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822