Alumna Earns Grindstone Award

Photo by Linda Kramer, Berea City Hall

BW Alumna Sally King '94 will receive the 47th Annual Grindstone Award for being Berea's most outstanding citizen.

Since earning her Master of Arts in Education degree from BW, Sally has spent much time and energy in Berea working to make the town a better place to live.

Sally spent over thirty years at Parknoll Elementary, Roehm Junior High and Ford Junior High as a teacher, reading specialist and taught English as a second language after hours. She was named teacher of the year in 1996, and became the President of the Berea City Council and the local Rotary club.

And she has loved ever minute of it.

"Berea is a phenomenal small city," King told the Sun News. "It has so much to offer, with the college and the school district and our love of sports. Whatever you can think of, we have it."

Update: Sun News coverage of the awards banquet.

BW Sport Management Students Shatter Records

Top ticket seller Joseph Williamson '15

The 2014 Spring BW Sport Management Capstone class shattered the record for most tickets sold and revenue generated for the Cleveland Indians Collegiate Tickets Sales program in their first year of participation.

The Capstone class sold 1,225 tickets and generated $20,154 in revenue, more than doubling the previous record of 545 tickets sold. The class bettered eight other schools, raising twice as much as their nearest scholastic competitor, University of Findlay.

The four class leaders who sold the most tickets - Joseph Williamson '15, Kevin Moriarity-Napoli '14, Nick Ksenich '14, and Paul Liotta '14 - earned the opportunity to present their sales tactics to a panel of Indians front office executives and to attend Saturday's home game as guests of the team.

Williamson, the individual sales leader who sold 366 tickets and raised $6,584 in revenue by himself, had what he termed "the great honor" of pitching the first ball at Saturday's Indians game. Also, he will have the opportunity to interview for a position with the Cleveland Indians and will receive four club level seats to an Indians game of his choosing.

Second Round of Contest Produces Winning Ideas

The second and final round of BW’s Blackstone LaunchPad's 2014 Year of the Idea Contest produced a number of winning ideas, but Kara Gawelek '14 claimed the biggest prize. The neuroscience and biology major and chemistry minor drew on her experience in the lab as inspiration for a "Semi-Automatic Pipet Tip Cartridge," which not only won the $200 first place prize in the for-profit category, but claimed the $300 overall grand prize as well.

Kara's idea would speed up the research process for small labs and scientists who are frustrated by the slow pace of manually reloading sterile, plastic tips onto their micropipets (which are used to dispense small samples), but who can't afford expensive, fully automated equipment.

In this second round, students submitted more than 50 ideas in three categories. The first place non-profit idea was a Serving for Soldiers program suggested by Alexis Charara '14 and Christine Austin ‘15. In the Baldwin Wallace category, Nnaji Iwunze ’17 won with a BW Workout Buddy concept. Second place winning ideas came from Tim Gruskiewicz '15, Rachel Hoffpauir ’15,  Tom Jackson ’16 and Ashley King '16.

Judging was based on the originality and problem-solving power of each idea. The goal of the contest was to spark campus creativity and increase awareness about BW's Blackstone LaunchPad, which is sponsored by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Student-Faculty Research Results in "Outstanding Paper of 2013"

Students in a BW Human Resources class helped professor Lori Long with research that is now being recognized as the "Outstanding Paper of 2013." The award will be presented at the Academy of Management conference in August.

The Business Division professor published her article "Preparing Students to Collaborate in the Virtual Work World" after teaching an HR class that virtually collaborated with students at the University of Nebraska. Her research, published in Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, has been selected by the journal’s editorial team as the Outstanding Paper of 2013. 

In the article, Long shares how to structure a process that will ensure students can successfully communicate and work together in the virtual world. She stresses the importance of training students to use new technology for collaboration, and to allow time for students to experiment until they find the best way to work together.

Students Forge New Connections at National Enactus Exposition

Four students are just back from attending the Enactus US National Exposition in Cincinnati, where they presented service projects and networked with business sponsors, faculty and students from 220 other colleges and universities.

Enactus (formerly known as SIFE) is "an international non-profit organization that brings together student, academic and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need."

The BW team that attended the national gathering included Ethan Zoellner '14, Mara Kampe '14, Will Otto '15 and Tessa Louché '17, plus faculty adviser Phil Bessler from the Business Division. The BW Enactus members work with two different Northeast Ohio transitional housing organizations for the homeless, mentoring residents on resume writing, interviewing, computer literacy, life skills and more.

Ovation for Music Theatre Grad's Latest Broadway Star Turn

  Read the Playbill.com story

Ciara Renée '13 opened this week in the Tony Award-winning revival of Pippin on Broadway, taking on the starring role of Leading Player. Renée replaces Patina Miller who won a 2013 Tony Award for her turn as the Leading Player.

In a Patriot News story on the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania native and BW Music Theatre grad, Renée said the role is physically demanding, but her hard work paid off on the April 1 opening night, "when she and her castmates received an enthusiastic ovation from a capacity audience."

Playbill posted a gorgeous "First Look" gallery of photos of Renée and new co-star Kyle Dean Massey on stage, while Broadway.com posted a great article and gallery on Pippin's new stars, including "first bows."

The production is ongoing at New York's Music Box Theatre.

One of the "first bows" photos on Broadway.com

BW Students Present at National Chemistry Meeting

Accomplished BW senior Chemistry majors Melissa Hoffbauer, James Dobscha, and Brad Minrovic attended the recent American Chemical Society's 247th National Meeting & Exposition in Dallas, Texas along with professor Ray Shively.

The meeting is one of the largest scientific gatherings in the world, with more than 30,000 participants, and all three students presented research that they had been working on since 2012.

All three students will be pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry starting the fall. They have all been accepted to multiple programs, but only Melissa has accepted an offer at this time. She'll be continuing her education at University of Notre Dame.

Athletic Training Alumnus featured in Apple iPad Campaign

BW Alumnus Jason Cruickshank '98 finds himself in the spotlight alongside local St. Edwards hockey player Mike Duffy in Apple's new "Your Verse" campaign for the iPad 2.

The two are quoted in an Apple testimonial highlighting The Cleveland Clinic's C3 Logix app which aids in measuring and detecting concussions in athletes. Cruikshank, a former Assistant Athletic Trainer for BW, shared his experience using the app in his current role as an Athletic Trainer for the Clinic. "In the past, evaluating a concussed athlete involved a lot of guesswork. iPad and the C3 Logix app have taken that subjectivity out of the process."

The Apple campaign that placed The Clinic and Northeast Ohio athletic programs on the technology map also resulted in a story on the front page of The Plain Dealer.

BW Alum's Triple Threat Career Comes Home to Cleveland

The successful career of BW Music Theatre alum, Corey Mach ’10, has finally brought him home to Playhouse Square starring as Nick Hurley in FLASHDANCE: THE MUSICAL. A native of Strongsville, Mach's previous national tours of WICKED and RENT did not play in his hometown.

In a preview article for FLASHDANCE in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, Mach says of BW and his former professors, "It's an amazing school. They're completely to blame for my success, especially Vicky [Bussert]. She's an incredible teacher and mentor for me. We still talk about once a month ... She's always been like my second mom."

FLASHDANCE runs through April 13 at the Palace Theatre.

Cool Cleveland Applauds BW Beatles Rockin' Performance

The BW Beatles "rocked the White Album," the last in their four-album annual cycle, at their Friday preview in Fynette Kulas Hall and their Saturday concert in John Patrick Kleist Theatre. Both venues were packed to standing room only and Saturday tickets sold out in less than 40 minutes. Cool Cleveland recounts "there were over 40 people waiting in the lobby for a spare seat. The atmosphere was electric."

Entirely student directed and led by seniors Patrick Hyzy and Jesse Hodgson, 57 multi-talented students and faculty delivered a sensational "note-for-note recreation of The Beatles' 1968 masterpiece."

 Videos captured by Cool Cleveland span the entire album from "Back in the U.S.S.R." to "Goodnight." Cool Cleveland also complimented dancers/choreographers Rachel Reszler and Cleo DeOrio on "a moody, sensuous movement piece during Revolution 9 on Saturday’s proscenium performance."

Next year, the band will restart the album cycle performing Abbey Road, including a special fifth anniversary performance in the Chamber Hall where their first Abbey Road concert took place.

BW Religion Professor Published

BW's Chair in Faith & Life, Alan Kolp, had his article "From Cloister to Classroom: Thomas Merton and Today's College Student" featured in The Merton Seasonal - A Quarterly Review, a joint publication of the International Merton Society and Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University.

The article is about Kolp's presentation at The Thirteenth General Meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society.

Student Wins IdeaLabs Contest for 2nd Year

Emerging entrepreneur Addison Carbone '14 took first prize at BW's 2014 EEC ideaLabs competition with his brilliant business idea, Smart Park.

For the second year in a row, Carbone, a senior marketing and management double major in BW's Business Division, won $1000 and the privilege to represent BW at the ideaLabs regional competition this Thursday. According to BW's faculty mentor for ideaLabs, business professor Phil Bessler, the regional contest is organized by the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium and sponsored by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Judge Bill Braun spoke further with Addison after his successful presentation.