Remember playing “The Oregon Trail” computer game in middle school? As a pioneer leading your family westward in a covered wagon, you hunted virtual deer, rabbits and bison—but not too many. You had to leave enough game animals alive to sustain your party until you reached Oregon. And along the way, you were subject to chance events such as snowstorms and snakebites, and the most dreaded fate: “You have died of dysentery.”
Yes, the game was delightfully unrealistic. But controlling the use of finite natural resources and adapting to changing conditions have been central to human survival in the American West for ages. In fact, WSU archaeologist Timothy Kohler and his partners in the Village Ecodynamics Project are using computer models to better understand the processes that affected prehistoric societies in the Southwest.
For the first time in almost a decade, the WSU Psychology Clinic is offering services for children, including assessment and treatment of learning disabilities.
Three doctoral students and their supervisors now offer services for individuals under age 18. The clinic, which continues to provide adult services, began offering child services in January. It is the only place in Pullman that provides child assessment and therapy on a sliding-scale fee based on income, said primary supervisor Dr. Masha Gartstein.
“It’s something we always wanted to do to fill the needs of the community,” she said.
Veterans’ families can use the clinic free of charge.
Two members of the CAS community will receive 2013-14 President’s Employee Excellence Awards at the Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet, part of the WSU Showcase annual celebration of faculty, staff, and student achievement on March 28.
The awards recognize civil service and administrative professional staff for outstanding contributions in work quality, efficiency, productivity, problem solving, work relations, and community service.
Kris Boreen
Kris Boreen, budget and finance manager for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, served in a number of WSU administrative and finance manager positions before landing in physics and astronomy two years ago. Since then, she has helped the department find optimal ways to invest resources, reduce expenses, identify resource needs and manage a complex budget. She asks questions, suggests options, provides answers and hammers out solutions, sometimes working late into the night and on weekends.
Boreen brought “an infusion of positive can-do energy” that helped improve staff morale. She cares about the success of the university, department, faculty, staff and “most definitely the students,” said a nominator.
Sisouvanh Keopanapay
Sisouvanh Keopanapay, academic coordinator in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, supervises about 40 interns working in Pullman-area courts and police departments and creates other innovative ways for students and faculty to connect with each other and with the justice community. After she revamped her department’s internship program, it added 25 students in two semesters, said one nominator.
Keopanapay coordinates a variety of tasks efficiently and creatively, including institutional research. She initiated a study abroad program and mentors other advisers. She also advises about half of the department’s undergraduates and “her evaluations are always at the top of the charts,” said a nominator.
From sewing a miniature book binding to seeing how to shape a stone tool, nearly 200 eighth-graders from Lincoln Middle School in Pullman took a whirlwind tour of library sciences and anthropological research at WSU to prepare for a special history project this spring.
The teens visited the WSU Libraries and the WSU Museum of Anthropology to glean ideas for their upcoming “Night of the Notables.” They are responsible for investigating an important historical figure, writing a paper, and answering questions while dressed as that figure in an event for parents and friends.
More than preparation for their big event, the field trip gave participants a chance to explore topics and places they might not normally see, said LMS history teachers.
Clinical associate professor Samantha Swindell is one of two recipients of the annual President’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-tenure Track Faculty at Washington State University.
Swindell has taught in the Department of Psychology since 1998. She teaches lab, lecture, and online courses to classes of all sizes, and mentors undergraduate researchers and graduate instructors individually. She is a member of the WSU Academic Advising Association and has served on its certification committee since 2008.
As director of the psychology undergraduate program, she coordinates the annual undergraduate research symposium. Her own research focuses on teaching methods, outcomes, assessment, and implementing what is discovered in order to improve teaching and learning.
Swindell’s award will be among those presented at the Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet on March 28, part of the WSU Showcase annual celebration of faculty, staff, and student achievement.
