Southern Nazarene University received a faith based grant
from Central Oklahoma Turning Point under the Oklahoma County Health Department.
The grant, Healthy Choices, is an active effort to provide a health/wellness
seminar and summer activity/exercise opportunities for the community.
A
health symposium was held in May in the Bethany Elementary
School cafeteria. The symposium offered classes for
both adults and children interested in healthy lifestyles. The evening program
emphasized seven breakout sessions on contemporary health issues. Participants
selected classes of interest that included healthy snacks, fitness activities,
water safety, tobacco dangers, aerobic exercise class, safety education, and
drug trends: what every parent needs to know.
Registration was open for
summer enrollment in water aerobics, lap swimming, pedometer walking program,
and aerobic classes.
The health forum and all activity classes were free to the
public.
The
Kirkpatrick Foundation partnered with the SNU Department of Art and Design to
provide a workshop featuring Caddo potter Jereldine RedCorn. Jereldine RedCorn is the last living Caddo potter,
and she is passionate about preserving the heritage and art of the Caddo
potters. RedCorn has been an artist in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago
(2004), a Rockefeller Fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago (2005), and a
Smithsonian Community Scholar (2006). She has been commissioned this year to
design two additional Caddo pots for the Smithsonian collection. RedCorn travels
extensively throughout the U.S. sharing her knowledge,
expertise, and Native American culture.
The workshop was divided into three sessions and included lunch in the SNU Commons for all participants. Art teachers from Bethany, Putnam City and Piedmont school districts joined SNU faculty members and students in attending the workshop. The opening session focused on RedCorn’s historical roots and relationship with Caddo pottery. The second session provided hands-on opportunity for workshop participants to make a clay pot using a coil technique. In the afternoon, RedCorn demonstrated burnishing techniques with smooth stones and etching techniques with flint—the natural tools available to the earliest Caddo potters.
This workshop is the beginning of a guest artist series that the SNU Department of
Art and Design plans to offer in the years ahead.
Southern Nazarene University (SNU) is pleased to announce a Metanexus Institute grant award to its Division of Science and Mathematics and School of Theology and Ministry to foster dialogue on the interaction of science and religion. The Oklahoma Society for Science and Faith, newly formed by faculty members from these two areas, will administer the grant. Activities will include invited speakers, book studies and a resource room in the university library. With matching funds from SNU, the award totals
$30,000 over the next three years.
Although the Society’s focus centers on the ways in which a Christian world view informs these scholarly pursuits, it recognizes that issues at the interface of science and religion extend across all faith traditions and, therefore, the Society is open to discourse with persons from a wide variety of backgrounds. Participation in the Society is extended to all faculty, students, and interested members of the community.
The School of Nursing at Southern Nazarene University (SNU) has received a grant in the amount of $40,000 from The Butterfield Memorial Foundation. The Butterfield Memorial Foundation will grant funds to Christian 501(c)(3) organizations for medical and health-related projects. Funded projects must give evidence of an active Christian presence, as stated in their guidelines.
The project monies will be used as follows:
- Need-Based Academic Scholarships - $27,500
- Missions Stipends - $2,500
- Testing Software (Software for test preparation and analysis to better prepare students to take the computerized NCLEX licensure exam) - $10,000
“The SNU School of Nursing is vitally connected to the core mission of Southern Nazarene University. Our nursing graduates are serving in local communities, area hospitals, and international missions, as well as teaching in Oklahoma colleges and universities. We are experiencing steady growth in this academic program and increasing student interest in nursing as a profession and a ministry,” said Dr. Loren Gresham,
University President.
Dr. Carol Dorough, Chair of the of School of Nursing, stated, "We are grateful to the Butterfield Memorial Foundation’s investment in the SNU School of Nursing. At a time when the nursing shortage is so critical, in Oklahoma and nationwide, the funds will play an important part in extending the opportunity to more students to pursue a nursing degree."
Southern Nazarene University has been awarded a Student Support Services (SSS) grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s TRIO Program. This $1+ million award will provide five additional years of expanded funding for the existing SSS program at SNU.
The goal of the SSS program is to help at-risk students overcome barriers to successfully completing a college degree. SNU’s program currently serves 138 students who are either low-income, first-generation, or students with disabilities. At least fifteen of these students will graduate from SNU this year. Participating students benefit from peer and alumni mentoring, career counseling, tutoring support, technology access, graduate and professional school application assistance, cultural events, field trips, and student scholarships.
SNU announces funding of the new SNU McNair Scholars
Program, designed to assist eligible SNU undergraduates in building the skills and confidence required to pursue a doctoral degree. This competitive program targets student scholars who demonstrate sound academic performance, strong potential for success in graduate school, and the intent to pursue a career in which a doctorate is required. SNU will receive a total of $1,100,000 of federal funding through the U. S.
Department of Education’s TRIO Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program. This includes a fifth extra year of funding, awarded because SNU scored in the top 10 percent of proposals submitted nationwide. SNU competed for the McNair grant along with 318 other institutions nationwide. Of the four institutions in the state awarded in this competition, SNU was the only private university in Oklahoma to receive funding.
A unique feature of the McNair Program is a paid research internship for each participant. Each McNair Scholar will work directly with at least one Ph.D. faculty mentor and receive individualized academic advising, preparation and mentoring focused on academic achievement, research experience, and professional acculturation. McNair Scholars build credentials that enable competitive applications to top graduate schools. Numerous universities across the country offer specially designated scholarships for McNair Scholars accepted into their graduate programs. Recent SNU graduates have gone on to doctoral degree programs at universities including Baylor University, Boston University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Rice University, Texas Tech University, Yale University, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The McNair Program, one of six federal TRIO programs funded through the Department of Education, is designed to prepare low-income and first-generation students along with those from other groups typically underrepresented in graduate studies. Almost one third of SNU undergraduates meet these qualifying
criteria.