Achievements

ÿ�մ��վ Psi Chi Chapter Presented With Leadership Award

The Psi Chi officers at the University of Central Arkansas won the 2014-201515 Kay Wilson Officer Team Leadership Award.

This award honors Kay Wilson, Executive Officer of Psi Chi from 1991–2003, and her commitment to leadership and collaboration. Under Kay’s leadership, Psi Chi doubled its membership and increased its grants, awards, and national visibility. Like Kay, the ÿ�մ��վ team has not only demonstrated excellence in leadership but also realized the role Psi Chi plays in developing future leaders in psychology.

Psi Chi presented the ÿ�մ��վ chapter a check for $2,000 and an engraved plaque suitable for permanent honor in their department.

College Of Education Professor Elected To AERA Board

Dr. Alicia Cotabish, Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning and Gifted Education Program Coordinator in the College of Education, has been elected to serve a two-year term as a board member of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Research on Giftedness, Creativity and Talent special interest group (SIG).

The SIG deals with research studies that focus on how giftedness, talent, and creativity are developed and nurtured. The group encourages both international and national studies involving qualitative and/or quantitative methods in a wide variety of topics: Conceptions, Models, Identification, Programs and Practices, Counseling, Creativity, Thinking Skills, Disabilities, Parenting, and Diversity. Their mission is to provide leadership that encourages and promotes high-quality scholarship addressing giftedness, creativity, and talent, creates a community of scholars and leaders in the field, facilitates communication and dissemination of research both within and outside the field, nurtures future scholars, and advances research in the field.

Currently, Dr. Cotabish is the President of the Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators (AAGEA) and serves as an expert speaker for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). She is also serving a three year term on the highly selective Standards Committee for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

The College of Education is honored to have Dr. Cotabish among our distinguished faculty.

ÿ�մ��վ Honors Grad Appeared On ABC’s Hit Show “Shark Tank”

A 2005 graduate of the University of Central Arkansas appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” at 7 p.m. April 24, 2015

Brittany (Jones) Hodak and her business partner, Kim Kaupe, pitched their company, ZinePak, on the show.

“For months, my business partner and I couldn’t tell anyone we even filmed an episode, because there was no guarantee it would air,” Hodak said.

The company is located in New York City in a coworking space called WeWork. Hodak said other entrepreneurs from WeWork, along with some New York City media and about 150 of the company’s clients will attend a watch party to view the show live.

“There is so much anticipation!” she said. “It’s really exciting, but intimidating at the same time! We’re really looking forward to finally seeing it.”

The Fort Smith native got the idea of ZinePak while a student at ÿ�մ��վ. She was working as a college marketing representative for Warner Music group. National staff at that company often discussed declines of compact disc sales. It was then that Hodak said she envisioned a solution.

“If you want people to buy a physical music product, it should be superior to the same offering digitally,” Hodak said. “That’s where the idea for ZinePak came from, although I didn’t put it into action for several years later until I met my co-founder, Kim, at an advertising agency in NYC.”

ZinePak partners with celebrities and brands to create deluxe entertainment packages for super fans. The company has worked with artists such as Katy Perry, KISS and Luke Bryan and brands such as Unilever, MillerCoors and American Express. Since its founding in 2011, the company has grown into a multimillion dollar company with 10 full-time employees and several freelancers.

While at ÿ�մ��վ, Hodak majored in communication, concentrating in public relations with minors in honors and marketing. She was a Presidential Scholar and ÿ�մ��վ Academic Excellence Award Recipient all seven semesters. She graduated summa cum laude in 2005. She also led a group of students in setting a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest Christmas stocking.

College of Education Graduate Selected for 2015 Apple Distinguished Educator Program

Jessica Herring, teacher at Benton Middle School in Benton, Arkansas has been accepted into the internationally recognized Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Program’s Class of 2015.

There are, on average, over 900 applicants to this program in North America each cycle.

Ms. Herring is one of only 75 educators in North America elected this year to join the more than 2000 educators worldwide who are passionately committed to the improvement of teaching and learning through educational technology.

Herring is one of only three Apple Distinguished Educators in Arkansas.

The Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Program began in 1994, when Apple recognized K-12 and higher education pioneers who are using a variety of Apple products to transform teaching and learning in powerful ways.

Today it has grown into a worldwide community of over 2,000 visionary educators and innovative leaders who are doing amazing things with technology in and out of the classroom.

More information on this group of innovative educators is available online at http://www.apple.com/education/ade.

Jessica graduated from the Middle Level Education program at ÿ�մ��վ in 2010 and earned her Masters from the Advanced Studies in Teacher Leadership in Summer 2013.

She currently teaches 7th grade at Benton Middle School and serves as an adjunct professor in the ÿ�մ��վ Master of Arts in Teaching program. She is also a member of the Arkansas Council for Teachers of English Language Arts.

Students Attended Southwestern Psychological Association Annual Convention

Thirty-five (35) ÿ�մ��վ graduate and undergraduate students and 11 faculty presented research at the Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) annual convention in Wichita, Kansas on April 10-12, 2015.

Some students presented more than one paper. In the SWPA graduate research competition, Tiffany Wierzbicki and Danielle Umland were named finalists, placing in the top four out of all the submissions.

In the SWPA undergraduate research competition, Jonathon Halligan placed 2nd and Zach Stillman was named a finalist.

In addition to these accomplishments, Tiffany Wierzbicki, Brooklin Jackson, Brentnie Connor, and Shannon Perry all received Psi Chi student research awards.

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Achievements