casnewsletterspring19

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Presenting Research at Academic Conferences, continued… STUDENT SUCCESS SAMANTHA BOT, who graduated in December with an English major, is planning to enroll in law school in the fall. Thus far, she has been accepted to law school at USD, UND, Drake and Creighton, with a final decision from Iowa still pending. KEVIN HEILMAN , a chemistry major who graduated in May 2018, was accepted to the Pharm.D. program at South Dakota State University. CHASE SIEVERS, a spring 2018 NSU graduate majoring in criminal justice, published an article titled “The American Torture Problem” in two partnered online journals: Compass and Starting Points. Sievers wrote the paper originally for his Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity Policy course at NSU. Both journals also accepted a second article by Sievers, “Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems and the Law of Armed Conflict,” his final paper for the International Law and Organizations course at Northern. Publication of this article is pending. for a class taught by Dr. Ric Dias. Two other students, Rachel Smith and Lauren Paatela, participated in the conference, commenting on papers. The students were accompanied by Drs. Ric Dias and David Grettler. PARKER HEGER, a sophomore chemistry major with minors in psychology and philosophy and a pre-med focus, gave a presentation titled “The Effects of Beer Draft Tubing on Biofilm Formation” at the 2018 SD EPSCOR Undergraduate Research Conference in July in Pierre. PEDRAM HOMAYOUNPOUR, a biology major with a pre-med focus, prepared a poster presentation titled “Effects of Anti- epileptic Drugs on Danio rerio Development” for the S.D. Academy of Sciences meeting in Brookings at SDSU. The poster, prepared in collaboration with Dr. Alyssa Kiesow, professor of biology, was also presented at the NSU Undergraduate Forum, and the abstract was published in the Proceedings of the S.D. Academy of Science. MATT MAYFIELD, a senior psychology major with a minor in chemistry and pre-med focus, presented his research at the National Collegiate Honors Council conference in Atlanta in November. Mayfield’s presentation was titled “Effects of Bacteriophages, Zingerone, and Vanillic Acid on Biofilms Formed by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.” ZACK NORTH, a political science major with a minor in public history, traveled to Pierre to represent NSU at the S.D. Legislature Undergraduate Research Poster Session in February 2018. North, who was accompanied by archivist Sarah Jones and Dr. David Grettler, professor of history, researched and processed NSU’s archival collection of Fine Arts event records as part of a summer internship in archival management. North is now enrolled in the MLA/Archival Management program at Simmons College in Boston. MIRANDA RISTAU, a biology major with a pre-physical therapy focus, graduated last spring and is currently enrolled in USD’s physical therapy doctoral program. While at Northern, Ristau prepared a poster presentation titled “The Effects of BPA on Xenopus laevis” for the S.D. Academy of Sciences meeting in Brookings at SDSU. The poster, prepared in collaboration with Dr. Alyssa Kiesow, professor of biology, was also presented at the NSU Undergraduate Forum, and the abstract was published in the Proceedings of the S.D. Academy of Science. SPEECH AND DEBATE TEAM TAKES FIRST PLACE INDIVIDUALLY, Hannah Higdon and Jacob Sigurdson took first place in parliamentary debate. Hannah was also fourth place in poetry and fifth place in debate speaker points. Jacob also placed fifth in extemporaneous speaking. Harrison Bruns and Lexi Gjoraas were quarterfinalists in debate. Harrison also placed third in point of information and third in debate speaker points. Dallas Johnson placed fifth in drama. Rachel Peterson placed second in prose. The team is led by Gus Foote, Director of Forensics and Instructor of Communication Studies. The NSU Speech and Debate team returned from the Dakotas’ State Championship Tournament as the 2018-19 state debate champions! Northern placed first as the top overall debate school and finished third in combined speech and debate points. All students in attendance were recognized as finalists in their respective events. Student Success