Ohio University named finalist for innovation and economic prosperity awards

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities has named Ohio University a finalist for the third annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity University Awards Program.

Alongside schools like Auburn University, Clemson University and the University of Minnesota, OU is one of the six public research institutions APLU has recognized as advancing the economic well-being of its local communities through economic development.

The awards will be announced at APLU’s annual meeting on Nov. 17.

“Public research universities have a core responsibility to take their wide array of expertise and put it to work in their region by helping to grow businesses, strengthen the economy and advance society,” said APLU’s President Peter McPherson in a press release by APLU. “The six institutions that are finalists for the 2015 APLU Innovation & Economic Prosperity University Awards Program have all demonstrated a clear commitment to economic engagement and have followed through by delivering results.”

OU is competing for both the Place Award and Connections Award. The Place Award honors a university that excels in community, social and cultural development work, while the Connections Award distinguishes an institution with outstanding initiatives in all aspects of innovation and economic prosperity, according to APLU’s website.

“We did something a little different,” Laura Myers, chief of staff for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, said. “We kind of turned (the Place Award category) on its head, and we said we are not going to create a place, but our place creates us.”

“When applying for the IEP University Awards, Ohio University highlighted recent projects qualifying them for the Place and Connections Awards,” Vice President Dr. Joseph Shields of Research and Creative Activity at OU said in an email.

“We showcased three examples, consisting of our infrastructure for launching startup companies, our expansion of the Heritage College (of Osteopathic Medicine)… and our launch of the Innovation Strategy to promote interdisciplinary approaches for major problems that challenge our region and society more broadly,” Shields said.

According to the Innovation Strategy Interim Report, published in September 2014, OU has developed the Innovation Strategy over the past two years to provide funding for interdisciplinary projects to increase innovation and collaboration across colleges to better serve Appalachian Ohio.

“One part of the Innovation Strategy is the Innovation Fund, which will be an annual process for individual researchers or scholars or even administrators and staff to submit proposals for new innovative ideas,” Myers said. “This is very much an intentional program by the provost to take these monies and invest in very promising ideas that are coming up from the faculty and students.”

Myers also emphasized that the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is a top producer of primary care physicians. Its expansion to include campuses in Dublin and Cleveland ultimately created “one medical school for three communities.” The goal was to listen to what community members wanted and try to match that.

“There are some things we can’t change, but try to meet the needs the best we can is most helpful to the people we are serving,” Myers said.

APLU identified the OU Innovation Center, which helps launch startup businesses, as one of the key roles to OU’s award designation. According to Associate Director of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem branch, Stacy Strauss, the OUIC has generated nearly 200 companies and 2,000 jobs since opening its doors in 1983.

According to the 2014 Economic Analysis, OUIC created an estimated 140 jobs in Athens County. These jobs generated an about $6.1 million in labor income, up from 123 jobs and $4.4 million in labor income in 2013.

According to Shields, Ohio University is “currently in the process of identifying new areas for targeted investment in research and innovation more broadly.” Future success of the Innovation Strategy will benefit economic prosperity in the community through the continuation of  interdisciplinary collaborations between faculty and students.

“As we were researching and writing about these case studies, it just made me really proud of what we do,” Myers said. “I mean we don’t do everything right every day, but we do really good stuff here.”

Photo by Austin Linfante
http://thenewpolitical.com/ohio-university-named-finalist-for-innovation-and-economic-prosperity-awards/

Peace, love and fashion at OU

Fashion Associates (FA) brought peace, love and fashion to Ohio University with their annual Mom’s Weekend Fashion Show on April 11.

“The theme is Woodstock so we’re going for kind of a festival, 70’s, Coachella vibe,” said model Halley Hinderer.

The scene included models strutting down the sunflower dusted runway dressed in outfits with a modern spin on the 60s hippie fashion. Songs from Woodstock performers like The Byrds and Bob Dylan turned Baker Ballroom into Bethel, NY in the summer of ’69.

“[The style is] flowers in the hair and bronzed makeup, very free spirit and sun-kissed,” said Hinderer, who was also the Hair and Makeup Chair for the show.

Mimi Stillman and Lisa Baker get ready for the show backstage.

The bohemian aura of music festivals, like Coachella and Bonnaroo, has become a “cultural phenomenon, a movement to express the vision of love, peace and freedom [for 20-somethings]”, said Page Corwin of SMU Fashion Media.

The eclectic music festival fashion is an increasingly prevalent trend among millennials, popularized by celebrity fest frequenters like Kendall Jenner and Vanessa Hudgens, according to Corwin.

“There are a lot of fests coming up just in the summer, like Coachella, all of that. I think it’s really relatable and youthful,” said Mimi Stillman, a Media Arts and Studies major and model in the show.

Baker Ballroom was packed with OU students and their moms on April 11th.

Not to forget about the main audience of the event: the mothers of this Coachella-crazed generation. This year’s theme resonated well with the adult audience, being a “blast from the past” for moms.

“Yeah you know what, I think the theme of the show today is really fun and youthful, it’s lighthearted… and captures a lot of energy,” said Laura Stillman, mother of Mimi Stillman. “I’m always excited to see whatever artistic endeavors Mimi has in store and I’m looking forward to a great Mom’s Weekend.”

Model from Athens Underground.

According to Jordan Lemke, Fashion Show Coordinator, the Mom’s Weekend Fashion Show has been an event for FA since the 1980s with themes like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and “What Happens in Athens.”

The “hippie chic” wardrobe for the 2015 show was pulled from local stores, who have long standing relationships with FA, including Figleaf, Cato, Athens Underground, and The Other Place who donated their spring fashions to benefit the runway show.

“In return they get free advertising or we can put any of their promotional items in our program and they can set up a table,” said Allison Hoyt, Fashion Show Coordinator.

Among the promotional tables set up were Kelly Zabonik and Ashely Driscoll with Trend Tribe. According to trend-tribe.com, they are a New York City-based accessories company with on-trend and affordable jewelry that gives college students hands-on experience as “philanthropic fashionpreneurs.”

“We are ‘Trendsetters’, so it’s kind of like a campus ambassador situation,” said Zabonik, a Retail Merchandising major. “It’s more empowering because we kind of get to have our own business and work directly with the CEO of the company.”

Some of their jewelry was featured in the show, and one piece was donated for the raffle.

Model twirls at the end of the runway

The raffle, which comprised of donations from local businesses, is a key component to putting on the show every year and the proceeds go towards the FA scholarship fund.

“It’s really exciting we get to do this,” said Hoyt. “It goes to someone who’s enrolled in an internship this summer, so it helps them out a little bit, especially if they’re relocating.”

This year they were able to raise $620 from the raffle, according to Hoyt, which will help fund a member of FA’s internship.

Other than putting on an annual fashion show, FA holds weekly meetings that centralize around activities that heighten knowledge of the retail fashion industry.

Most of the members are in the Retail Merchandising major program so speaking with alumni from FA, networking trips to Chicago, and Skype interviews with representatives of companies like Designer Shoe Warehouse and The Limited help expand their connections with the retail industry.

“For me, my favorite thing is probably just meeting people within my major,” said Hoyt. “It’s also really great for networking, I’ve had a lot of friends graduate who I’ve talked to who’ve gone off to work in retail companies, so that’s been really nice.”

Conducting a student run fashion show that reaches over 500 people in attendance, according to a donation letter sent by FA, is a great skillset to show future employers, and this year’s show blew previous years’ out of the water.

“Oh my gosh the show went so well,” said Lemke. “The models did everything we needed them to… the show was a success! It was so much better than last year.”

Allison Hoyt poses with her family after the show.

FA will start planning next year’s show at the start of the spring semester.

Hoyt, a graduating senior, said, “I’m definitely excited for them to pick up here for next year, I think that they can only improve.”

This video recaps the annual Mom’s Weekend Fashion Show from Fashion Associates. This even was on Saturday April 11, 2015 and featured Woodstock-estque clothes from Figleaf, The Other Place, Maurices, and more!

All photo credit to myself

OU plant biology professor loved by students

 Situated in the depths of Porter Hall’s 4th floor, you would find a professor with a salt and pepper beard clad in a Hawaiian shirt sitting around a hodgepodge of papers and exotic looking seeds that only students of his Tropical Plant Ecology course would recognize.

“Tropical seeds tend to be giants,” said Dr. Glenn Matlack, picking up a seed bearing a resemblance to a 3-foot long peapod. “For some reason tropical evolution has produced very large seeds, [which] have unconventional means of dispersal.”

Matlack is a 12-year veteran of the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology and holds a doctorate in plant population biology from the University College of North Wales.  He travels the world studying landscape history and has led field courses in Thailand and Australia.

Traveling along with him on these international studies is his family. “[We] like to travel, my kids have been to most of the places I talk about, before they were in high school they’ve been to five continents,” said Matlack.

So how does he keep a room of 20-somethings engaged in his intellectual ramblings on seed dispersal?

“I run around and jump up and down,” said Matlack. “I have a very physically demonstrative lecturing style, I make a conscious effort to memorize peoples names. In a classroom, how do you keep 120 people focused? You learn their names and call on them randomly.”

This unconventional teaching style seems to reflect well with his students, while his American and Their Forests course was named one of the “6 OU Classes You Need To Take Before Graduation” by Tim Hanrahan of Campus Casa.

Hanrahan said, “The only thing better than discussing the American Redwood is the copious amount of Hawaiian shirts that Dr. Matlack frequents.”

Hannah Shaw, a freshman studying journalism, took the online version of Americans and Their Forests and said online courses just aren’t for her. “I loved the professor though, I’m taking it in the lecture hall next semester. “

Matlack seemed pleasantly surprised to hear such an overwhelmingly positive response saying, “I’m glad people like it! It’s fun to teach.”

Photo credit to Boss Flight