• The Missouri Interscholastic Press Association honored Bob Bergland, professor of journalism and advisor for Griffon News, with its 2018 Taft Award for outstanding service to scholastic journalism. The award honors Dr. Bergland’s advocacy for Missouri’s Cronkite New Voices Act, which aims to protect the First Amendment rights of student journalists in public high schools and universities. Dr. Bergland has been working with state legislators for two years to try to get the bill passed into law.
  • GriffsGiveBack organized a week of activities to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, including dodge ball, Swishes for Wishes, and Stacks with Max, a pancake dinner. The group raised more than $1,850.
  • The Organization of Student Social Workers won the 2017 Best Fundraising

    OSSW Officers with award

    Event from the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness for its Walk for the Homeless. The funds are raised for the St. Joseph’s Social Welfare Board. Over the last six years of the Walk for the Homeless, OSSW has raised close to $20,000.

  • The Fountain City Brass Band won the 2018 North American Brass Band Championship this past spring. The ensemble has won eight U.S. Open Brass Band Championships and now seven North American Brass Band Championships since it formed in 2002. Members include Dr. Lee Harrelson, associate professor of music and department chair, who founded the group.
  • The Missouri Western Foundation awarded its annual Excellence in Philanthropy Award to the Greek Fraternity Phi Delta Theta. The group raised funds for ALS and Toys for Tots, and supported a local child with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a type of brain tumor.
  • Pam Clary, director of the social work program and assistant professor of social work, was named the University’s recipient of the 2018 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education. Dr. Clary has been on Missouri Western’s faculty since 2007. She received her Bachelor of Social Work from Kansas State University, her Master of Social Work from the University of Kansas and her Ph.D. from Kansas State University. In addition to her teaching experience, she has more than 17 years of direct clinical experience.
  • Corey White, assistant professor of psychology, was part of a multi-university

    Claudia Baer, student employment coordinator in the Career Development Center, with Evan Banks

    collaboration on testing the replicability of effects in psychological science, and their work was published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the premier science journals.

  • History major Evan Banks was named 2018 Missouri Western Student Employee of the Year, and Missouri Student Employee of the Year by the National Student Employment Association in conjunction with the Midwest Association of Student Employment Administrators.

    Banks was also one of two winners of the national Alpha Chi Gaston Scholarship competition for his submitted paper, “Breathing anarchy into luftballons: The role of music in European cold war history.” He earned a $3,000 scholarship.

    Alpha Chi is a national honor society that invites the top 10 percent of juniors, seniors and graduate students to join. Banks is the president of Missouri Western’s chapter, which is the Missouri Lambda chapter of Alpha Chi. PHOTO

  • The Missouri Western State University chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, was recognized with a National Best Chapter Award Academic Year 2017-18. This it the third time in four years that our chapter has been recognized for their scholarship and their active commitment to the discipline of political science.

  • Egnoma Fataki, second from left, in Washington, D.C.

    Political science major Egnoma Fataki was a policy and advocacy intern in Washington, D.C. last year. While there, he was invited to participate in the National Student Leadership Forum. He also visited with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver about the issues facing refugees.