Two student journalism competitions have named Kent State University students among the best in the nation for 2019-2020. In the Hearst Journalism Awards — often known as the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism — Kent State placed seventh in the nation for radio/TV news and eighth in the nation for photojournalism. Placements were determined by the total number of points students earned in categorical competitions. Individually, senior journalism major Nathaniel Bailey will be one of six semifinalists in the nation competing in the Photo Championship. With the in-person competition ...
From making her mark on campus during Destination Kent State to joining the recreational skate team, Marissa Belock, a sophomore biology major, has already created so many amazing memories during her college career.Thanks to her mother and Kent State alumna, Lori Belock, ’86, these memories are now wrapped up in a beautiful quilt of blue and gold T-shirts. “I first saw a post on social media about a T-shirt quilt. I thought, ‘I can do that!’” Lori said. “This is my sixth T-shirt quilt and I get better every time.” Lori included one of her daughter’s favorite Kent State T-shirts...
Experiencing the burn of a leather car seat in the heat of the summer or catching a nosy neighbor peering into your kitchen window could soon be things of the past with the new dual-mode liquid crystal smart glass material. Yingfei Jiang, a College of Arts and Science graduate student in the Chemical Physics program and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI) at Kent State University, and his advisor Deng-Ke Yang, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physics, have invented the first ever dual-mode smart glass technology that can control both radiant energy flow (he...
Today’s Flashes of Inspiration features David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, who is sharing the poem, “Thank You, Tree.” The poem was written by Fatou M’Baye, a fifth grade student at Holden Elementary School in Kent, in honor of a favorite tree that was on her school playground, where she would gather with her friends. Hassler selected this poem to celebrate spring, Earth Day, and how all can enjoy and celebrate the beauty of nature even during a pandemic. The poem is features on the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas community poetry site, un...
Graduate students in the College of Communication and Information spent the second half of the Spring 2020 semester applying course material in real time as they examined how classrooms were adapting to new ways of learning during COVID-19. In the seminar course Communication in an Information Society (offered in the School of Communication Studies), the students had been reading and discussing literature on the effects of communication and technology in our world. When educational institutions across the country shifted to remote instruction in mid-March, it became clear that technology wa...
Students in the class Communication in a Global Society worked in teams throughout the Spring 2020 semester to educate audiences about one specific aspect of globalization and ecology: fast fashion. The goal, according to Associate Professor Stephanie Danes Smith, was “to look at whether Kent State students can present information about highly relevant issues like fast fashion and get their fellow students to commit to a single, simple behavioral change.” The students were required to create events around fast fashion and its harmful impacts on both the planet and people. “The w...
School of Theatre and Dance
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Porthouse Theatre has decided to cancel all of its educational programs for the summer of 2020, including the High School Shadow Program, the Porthouse College Academy, and the Porthouse International Academy. Porthouse Theatre looks forward to resuming its education programs in the summer of 2021. For further information, please visit www.porthousetheatre.com. ### Media Contact: Joni Koneval, jkoneval@kent.edu, 330-672-0116 ...
Study of a 1,000-Year-Old Tsunami in Indian Ocean Reveals Previously Unknown Hazards for East Africa
College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Joseph D. Ortiz, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Geology at Kent State University, was part of an international team of researchers that co-authored an article about a deadly tsunami that occurred about 1,000 years ago in Tanzania. The study suggests that the tsunami risk in East Africa could be higher than previously thought. Ortiz processed and interpreted the grain size data using a multivariate statistical analysis method, demonstrating the deposit was composed of sediment from both terrestrial and marine origin, which supports the tsunami in...