Millersville University's commitment to programs of national distinction envisions an environment in which faculty and students are passionate about learning and in which free inquiry is guaranteed. Faculty scholarship and research expand the frontiers of knowledge, and the insights gained through these endeavors will enhance teaching and enrich student learning. We will continue to develop innovative programs to initiate students into the college experience and to stimulate their passion for learning through intense engagement with faculty and fellow students. Students sharing in faculty research and participating in programs that apply classroom lessons to community needs will be prepared to become life-long, self-actuated learners. Small class sizes, personalized instruction, and effective support services will be hallmarks of the Millersville experience.

University Success

Faculty and Staff Success

Program Success

Student Success

University Success

• In collaboration with the Benjamin Wiley Partnership Program, Millersville University hosted a new Creativity and Critical Thinking Institute camp for School District of Lancaster rising juniors.
• Through the Department of Community and Economic Development's 2+2+2 Workforce Leadership Grant Program, Millersville received funding to support up to 40 students to attend a camp specifically designed to help them with career decision making relative to advanced manufacturing occupations.
• The Department of Applied Engineering, Safety and Technology created and implemented the inaugural Creativity and Critical Thinking Institute for K-12 educators, under the direction of faculty member Dr. Scott Warner. More than 20 educators from a variety of disciplines participated in this intensive, week-long experience.
• This past spring, students representing 40 regional middle and high schools participated in the Central Pennsylvania Science Olympiad, coordinated by Dr. Maria Schiza, chemistry, and Dr. Mehmet Goksu, physics, held for the fourth time at Millersville University.
• Millersville hosted the 2011 Student Research and Visual & Performing Arts Conference, allowing students to showcase their research and creative work.
• Millersville University was awarded a $10,849 Nursing Education Grant from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Foundation to assist nursing students with their tuition.
• Computer Science student Ryan Garchinsky created MU Mobile, a new, free iPhone application that provides access to Millersville's online content.
• Dr. Thomas Neuville, special education, was awarded a $10,000 grant from Temple University to focus on best practices in working with students with disabilities. The grant "Ensuring Higher Education Opportunity for ALL" will replicate the Temple University model at Millersville, showing that faculty members are reaching beyond University borders to collaborate with colleagues from other institutions.

Faculty and Staff Success

• Millersville faculty and staff submitted 113 grant applications totaling more than $23.3 million (an increase of $1 million over last year) with awards totaling more than $3.1 million.
• Dr. Abdelhadi Halawa, wellness and sport sciences, presented his research paper titled "Treatment of Obesity in Women Employing Three Prescribed Low-to-Moderate Intensity Exercise Modalities," at the Intellectbase International Consortium Academic Conference. The purpose of his research study was to investigate the role and effectiveness of performing low-to-moderate intensity exercise in the treatment of obesity in women.
• Dr. Todd D. Sikora, earth sciences, presented at the 2011 International Ocean Vector Wind Science Team meeting in Annapolis, Md. The talk, "SAR Remote Sensing of Open Mesoscale Cellular Convection," was based in part on the undergraduate research of co-author Matthew D. Stepp '07. The technical presentation examined atmospheric roll convection within an Arctic cold-air outbreak using aircraft measurements and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery.
• Dr. Stacey Irwin, communication & theatre, received a faculty fellowship from the Television Academy Foundation's Education Programs department, which offers college professors opportunities to see how television entertainment works behind the scenes. The five-day program includes discussions, presentations and interactions with major studios, production companies, networks and interaction with top production and programming leaders.
• Dr. Jeffrey W. Wimer, wellness and sport sciences, traveled to Cambodia to participate in a National Science Foundation supported Chautauqua short course for college teachers sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin. The Chautauqua program allows invited scholars to learn current techniques while exposing them to innovative concepts related to teaching.
• Operators and engineers at Alcoa's Lancaster Works are reaping the benefits of Dr. Roger Webster's work on training software. Webster, computer science, helped to develop the Alcoa Rolling Mill Simulator (ARMS) V2.0 software. ARMS is an interactive tool that is used for training rolling mill operators and engineers at Alcoa, a local company that specializes in aluminum sheets and cast plates.
• Dr. Dominique Dagit, biology, received a $52,349 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the evolutionary relationships of ratfish. Dagit's work has contributed to NSF's larger "Tree of Life" project, which aims to construct a phylogeny – lines of descent – for the 1.7 million described species of life.
• Dr. John Wallace, biology, received a $9,000 grant by the Hunterdon County, N.J., Vector Management Program to conduct black fly surveillance in the South Branch of the Raritan River.
• Four agencies provided a total of $75,000 in funding to Dr. James Cosentino, biology, to support three research projects. The Keystone Innovation Grant provided Cosentino with $10,000 to support his research of an aptamer-based sensor for the detection of ovarian cancer. The National Science Foundation joined with Partnership for Innovation and provided Cosentino with $40,000 to support research concerning his novel approach to targeted drug delivery to tumors. The International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization provided $16,000 and $9,000, respectively, to supply university-level books and computers to developing countries in Africa.
• Dr. Mehmet Goksu, physics, and Dr. John Wright, applied engineering, safety and technology, received a $6,600 donation in photovoltaic modules from British Petroleum for alternative energy research and education.
• Dr. Kathleen Schreiber, geography, received a $250,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the NSF-sponsored Vector-Borne Disease Project, which measures how environmental temperature change influences the transmission and disease risk of malaria and dengue fever.
• Dr. Jean Boal, biology, participated in a study in which scientists identified a pheromone produced by female squid that triggers immediate and dramatic fighting in male squid upon contact. The aggression-producing pheromone, believed to be the first of its kind discovered in any marine animal, belongs to a family of proteins found in vertebrates including humans. Results of the study appear in a recent issue of Current Biology.
• Dr. Lisa Schreiber, communication and theatre, is piloting a new approach: Open Source Learning Support for Public Speaking. Two grants support the project: One provides funding for the development of a website with 20 open content modules to be shared with communication faculty at all PASSHE universities; the second supports publication of an interactive public speaking e-textbook.
• Dr. Mark Snyder, applied engineering, safety and technology, received the Fred J. Hartman Service Award from the International Graphic Arts Education Association. The award recognized his "devoted service over many years to the promotion of graphic arts education in industry and institutions of learning."
• Dr. Laurie Hanich, educational foundations, was awarded $20,000 by the Spencer Foundation for her research "Metacognitive Influences on Children's Mathematics Achievement." She is also pursuing research on self-regulated learning in collaboration with Hambright Elementary School.
• Dr. Dan Keefer, wellness and sport sciences, recently published an article titled "Identification of a Core Set of Exercise Tests for Children and Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy: A Delphi Survey of Researchers and Clinicians." This article, written in collaboration with 15 other researchers from around the world, identifies potential outcome measures to be utilized in a population of children with a disability.

Program Success

• In an effort to enhance school music programs, Music For Everyone, a local nonprofit organization, provided a new scholarship opportunity for Millersville University music education students, allowing future music teachers an opportunity to gain real life teaching/learning experience and providing mentors to young students. Future Millersville music teachers receiving the award will be required to work with teachers in Lancaster public schools.
• Millersville University students had the opportunity to interact directly with professional directors and actors from the production "Michael Archangel," thanks to a partnership with the Fulton Theatre. The University worked with the Fulton in preparing an in-residence day on campus.
• Dr. Heather Girvin and Professor Karen Rice, social work, developed the Family Arts Collaborative (FAC), a joint project between Millersville's social work department and the University's downtown campus. FAC creates connections between families, institutions of higher learning and the arts by offering opportunities for social transformation through exposure to Lancaster's vibrant arts community. Girvin and Rice are also working on the Campaign Against Sexual Exploitation, a county-wide initiative to raise awareness about the sexual exploitation of children and to educate individuals on how to protect children.
• Millersville's Department of Applied Engineering, Safety and Technology held a four-week course, "Advanced Problems: Water Craft Design/Construction," taught by Dr. George Kerekgyarto that provided students with hands-on woodworking experience building kayaks.
• Dr. Jeffery Prushankin, history, took his "Civil War Era" course students on a field expedition to McPherson's Ridge and Cemetery Hill, sites of combat during the Civil War battle in Gettysburg, Pa., to experience the Civil War first-hand.
• During spring 2011, Millersville University hosted the annual Anna Funk Lockey Lecture, which featured Rachel Simmons, who spoke on "Online Confidential: What Girls Do Online, Why They Do It and How To Parent Through It." The lecture had a large turnout from the campus and the community including school superintendents, K-12 teachers, mental health officials and parents.

Student Success

• Millersville University was represented by two teams at the 35th annual Association for Computer Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, held at Shippensburg University, competing against 157 teams from 64 Mid-Atlantic institutions. The Millersville Gold team placed 1st at Shippensburg and 20th regionally, while the Millersville Black team placed 11th and 87th, respectfully.
• A lesson plan created by two technology education majors at Millersville received first place in "The Alaska Design Challenge," a competition sponsored by the school district of Anchorage, Alaska. Seniors Jon Jarrett and Thomas Flick submitted their entry, "Innovation and Design: Communications Systems," to this national competition.
• Junior music education major Paulino Contreras won the 2011 Louis Vyner Award in Performance and received cash in the amount of the annual income from the fund established in 1980. He also presented a public performance at the University during his senior year with recognition as the Louis Vyner Performance Award winner.
• At the 69th annual convention in Los Angeles, five students from Millersville's Chapter of the National Broadcasting Society (NBS) were recognized and inducted into the National Broadcasting Society - Alpha Epsilon Rho (AERho). One Millersville NBS student was named national student of the year in AERho, the nation's oldest broadcasting honor society. Millersville University was also one of five schools recognized as a Model Chapter in the society.
• Twenty-three students attended the Chaka Fattah graduate school conference in Philadelphia, where more than 70 graduate schools were represented. Four Millersville University students won scholarships or prizes.
• Sixteen students from Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), under the supervision of Dr. Minoo Ghoreishi, marketing and management, competed in the SIFE regional competition for team activities in providing ethics seminars to local businesses, financial literacy programs to students and business counseling to aspiring entrepreneurs. They ranked as second runner-up.