Kent State’s youngest learners walked and played on campus to raise money for a good cause in Kent State’s Child Development Center’s annual Walk-a-thon on Oct. 9-10.  The children walked both days from 10:30-11:45 a.m. to help fund new tricycles and other supplies for the center’s Outdoor Learning Lab.   Anyone who would like to contribute to support Kent State’s Child Development Center can do so by following this link.  Want to see YOUR photos in “IN A FLASH?” Submit your Kent State-related photos to InAFlash@kent.edu and y...

 While most people his age were settled in their careers, 50-year-old Ron Sonedecker was learning to direct, winning awards and swapping computer code for camera shots.“It’s not about age. It’s about what we’re all here for, and what our desires in life are,” Sonedecker told Kent State Today.Enrolling at Kent State in 2023, the junior digital media production major has taken a long journey to get where he feels he belongs. The former Air Force member and information technology professional found his calling during the pandemic after more than two decades in technology.“When COVID hit, it ...

Students in the insurance studies program do not have to search far to find someone who models what it takes to be successful in the industry. They only need to look to Diauntae Morrow, the new lead faculty for the program, who is helping promote the Kent State insurance studies program on a national level by being recognized as a leader in the industry.  In front of more than 1,300 insurance professionals representing 32 state chapters, Morrow received the 2025 Emerging Leader Award at the National African American Insurance Association’s conference in Philadelphia this past Septemb...

The College of Aeronautics and Engineering at Kent State University will host the 2025 National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) SAFECON Region III competition Oct. 19–24. The competition will bring collegiate aviators from across the region to the Kent State University Airport in Stow, Ohio, for a week of competition focused on safety, precision and professionalism.NIFA SAFECON (Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference) is the nation’s premier collegiate aviation competition. Students demonstrate their knowledge and flight skills through events in navigation, aircraft recognition, lan...

Jennifer Mapes, an assistant professor of geography at Kent State University, developed an interactive mapping project that reimagines how people connect with the places they live. Using 3D printing, data visualization and storytelling, Mapes' work explores the South End neighborhood in Kent, Ohio.The South End was historically home to laborers who built and worked on the railroads. “The majority of the homeowners were first-generation Eastern European immigrants and African Americans who moved north during the Great Migration,” Mapes said.Before the 1970s, only larger cities had access to nei...

Kent State senior Isabella Emerick has never been content with choosing just one path. As an English major with a concentration in professional writing and a minor in paleontology, she has found a way to unite two fields that may seem worlds apart. This past summer, she explored the surprising intersections of science and literature through the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program.The SURE program funds promising undergraduate researchers for eight weeks over the summer to engage in faculty-supervised research at Kent State. “I want students to feel that there can be re...