The Youngstown State University Student Chapter of the American Marketing Association placed first in the Chapter Exhibit Competition for Best Use of Conference Theme at the AMA’s 37th Annual Intercollegiate Conference in New Orleans.

In addition, Kendra Fowler, assistant professor of Marketing and YSU-AMA faculty co-advisor, won Best Faculty Paper for her work, “Design and Facilitation of Online Discussions to Enhance Learning Outcomes,” co-authored with Veronica Thomas of Towson University and Mary E. Schramm of Quinnipiac University.

Students in the YSU Williamson College of Administration and YSU-AMA chapter officers Lexus Sparbanie, Angela Murphy, Krity Shrestha, Pratik Pradhan, Amanda Irwin, and Stephen D’Angelo were accompanied by faculty co-advisor, Christina Saenger, to the conference.

At the conference, students competed in a number of events, including marketing strategy and sales competitions, earned AMA Collegiate Role-Playing and Relationship Selling Certificates, networked with chapters from around the world, and attended trainings, keynote speeches, presentations and panel discussions.

Students’ travel was funded, in part, from a marketing research project for Litco International in Vienna, Ohio. The project included building a prospect database, and designing, distributing and analyzing prospecting and current customer surveys. Sparbanie, Murphy, Shrestha, Phil Rader, and YSU-AMA alumnus McKenna Goske worked on the project and presented the project to the client on March 31.

The YSU Chapter of the AMA is open to students of all majors across campus who want to gain real-world, hands-on marketing experience, participate in a variety of professional development activities, and give back to YSU and the local community. YSU-AMA meets bi-weekly in the Williamson College of Business Administration. For more information, please contact Saenger at csaenger@ysu.edu or 330-941-7256.

Two Youngstown State University math teams earned Meritorious Awards in this year’s international Mathematical Contest in Modeling and three teams won Honorable Mention.

Student teams winning the distinction of a Meritorious Award in the event are ranked in the top 9 percent of the more than 7,600 teams who competed around the world; teams earning an Honorable Mention are ranked in the top 40 percent worldwide. In all, YSU had seven teams and 21 students participating.

Meritorius Award-winning teams that worked on solutions to the problem titled “Eradicating Ebola”:

• Crystal Mackey of Bristolville, Gabbie Van Scoy of Leetonia and Teryn Jones of Vienna, advised by Assistant Professor Alicia Prieto Langarica.
• Kayla Zitello of Boardman, Camron Bagheri of Youngstown and James Tancabel of Boardman, advised by Professor George Yates.

Teams earning honorable mention:

• Ashley Orr of Columbiana, Jenna Wise of Hubbard and of Champion, advised by Associate Professor Tom Wakefield.
• Megan Chambers of Boardman, Tim Shaffer of Sharpsville, Pa. and Eric Shehadi of McDonald, advised by Yates.
• Zack While of Austintown, Christopher McComas of Marion and Matthew Ciccone of Austintown, advised by Associate Professor Paddy Taylor.

“I am so impressed by the outstanding performance of our students and their enthusiasm to model challenging applications using mathematics,” commented Angela Spalsbury, professor and chair of the Mathematics & Statistics Department. “Cheers to all participating students and faculty members who help prepare our students.”

Youngstown State University’s Nursing department faculty and students participate in a mock disaster drill 8:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 24 in Cushwa Hall to help prepare the campus in the event of a medical emergency in the area.

“This mock will be a learning experience for the students and the process and evaluation used in the planning of future disaster preparation for YSU,” said Molly Roche, clinical instructor in YSU’s Nursing department.

The drill is being held in partnership with the Mahoning County Health Department to establish YSU as a closed unit for public health assistance in case of a disaster.

A closed unit means that the needed medication will be provided to YSU employees and their families instead of waiting in line at the open units run by the county. The YSU Nursing department, in collaboration with the nurses and doctor at the YSU Health Clinic, would run the YSU site, where employees could pick up their medication for themselves and any extended family members.

The April 24 drill will focus on distribution of antibiotics in response to a mock anthrax contamination. The drill will include 93 Junior-level nursing students and four YSU Nursing faculty members, along with two nurses and the physician from the YSU Health Clinic and nurses and disaster personnel from the county.

Bill Mehalco

By Andrea Tharp

From opposite ends of the country, hotel patrons are getting a healthy dose of Youngstown hospitality from two Youngstown State University alumni.

Steve Bartolin and Bill Mehalco are making strides in hospitality management at two prominent hotels and at two different stages of their careers. While Bartolin is nearing the end of a stellar 40-year career, stepping down as president and chief executive officer of the historic Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Mehalco is proving himself as a talented young general manager of the trendy Hotel Indigo in New York City.

Choosing Hospitality

For Mehalco, a career in hospitality has been a thing of destiny mixed with a little Disney magic.

“I was 7 when we took a trip to Disney and stayed at the Polynesian Resort,” Mehalco remembers. “I would walk up and down the floors, watch the staff, pay attention to the operations. I was fascinated being in this place that somehow housed all of these people.”

Whether the exotic Polynesian or a standard Best Western, Mehalco has been intrigued by the business since he can remember. So when it came time to start college at YSU, the Hubbard native found his fit in the hospitality management program and never looked back.

Steve Bartolin

For Bartolin though, also a Hubbard native, running a front desk took a temporary backseat to running the bases during his earlyyears as a top YSU student-athlete.

Pitching for the Penguins on some of the best baseball teams in school history would later earn Bartolin a spot in the YSU Hall of Fame and Penguin of the Year award. But in 1972, it first gave him a ticket to play professional ball for the Detroit Tigers—a career that was cut short by a shoulder injury.

“It was the first time I understood how fleeting life in professional sports could be,” said Bartolin. “I came back to YSU to finish my degree; I realized baseball wasn’t going to be the thing that would support me.”

Moving On Up

Graduating with a business degree in 1975, Bartolin was off to West Virginia for a job at the high-profile Greenbrier hotel. The job, however, was less glamorous than the property.

“I was running golf carts around and cleaning clubs,” said Bartolin, laughing. “But starting out in a place of such renown like the Greenbrier was lucky. It was an opportunity for great experience early on.”

The experience served him well over the next 12 years. Bartolin landed director and manager positions at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville and returned to the Greenbrier as general manager before his biggest opportunity surfaced four years later.

It was 1991 when the Opryland bought the Broadmoor Hotel and Bartolin’s old connections gave him the job offer of his lifetime – he would be recruited as the next leader of the famed Broadmoor.

Mehalco started out in an entry level position, as well. His first industry job came when he was a student – a part-time bellman position at the Boardman Holiday Inn.

“It was a sacrifice at the time,” said Mehalco, who had been working in a higher paying job at a Hubbard grocery store. “But I knew I had to put in the time before I was ever going to get a management position in hospitality.”

In just three months, Mehalco moved up to the front desk. And in two years, with a hospitality management degree in hand, Mehalco was hired as the hotel’s front office manager straight out of college.

Success in the City

But Mehalco was set on even bigger career goals. During his years in the Hospitality Management Student Society at YSU, he had traveled to New York for the annual International Hotel and Motel Show and fell in love with the city.

“I was 26, working at the Holiday Inn and thought, ‘If I don’t do this now, I don’t know if I ever will,’” said Mehalco. “So I packed up and moved to New York City.”

Settling into a tiny apartment in Manhattan with an “eye-opening” high rent and no job, Mehalco started interviewing. His first break came at the Soho House, a 30-room, members-only posh hotel in the meatpacking district of the city that boasted an A-list clientele.

“I was dealing with people like Madonna and Vin Diesel,” Mehalco said. “I was just a kid from Ohio used to working with your everyday person. Switching to something almost make-believe was a hard adjustment.”

But it was the experience that would set him up for his introduction to Hotel Indigo and later, the position he’d come to New York for.

In 2009, the Indigo was a newly built property in the Chelsea district of Manhattan looking for a front office manager. Mehalco fit the bill perfectly. “I would get to hire my own staff and get back to what I was familiar with because it was within the same franchise as the Holiday Inn,” he explained.

A trendy 4-star boutique hotel with a neighborhood story tapping into the floral, art, and fashion influences of the Chelsea district, the Indigo would finally be the hotel Mehalco could settle down with – and move up in.

Today Mehalco is general manager of Hotel Indigo, overseeing the operations of the hotel to ensure the property is at its highest value, profitable, and offering exceptional customer service. Last May he saw the opening of a new independent hotel in Soho and is at the helm of two more property openings planned for the near future. It’s a career that Mehalco had set a personal goal to reach by 30 – and had accomplished.

“There’s a lot of pressure that comes with New York,” he said. “Being a younger GM is also a huge part of the challenge. I’ve always got to be on my game to prove myself and deliver consistent results.”

Club Cleaner to CEO

Bartolin knows about proving himself. He’s had almost 24 years to do it as CEO and president of the Broadmoor and has more than delivered, earning such awards as Resort Executive of the Year, Colorado Hotel Executive of the Year, CEO of the Year, and Independent Hotelier of the World.

But when he was offered the job in 1991, he was not as confident that such success would follow.

“The Broadmoor was faded in its glory at that time, and I was almost a little afraid to take the position,” Bartolin admitted. “There was a lot of new competition coming onto the landscape, business was declining with the recession, and the place needed a major capital infusion.

“I set a goal early on that when the time came for me to hand it off, the Broadmoor would be in exceptional condition both fiscally and physically.”

Now as Bartolin passes the torch to a new Broadmoor leader this year, it’s clear that he’s accomplished the task.

The picturesque, 5,000-acre resort is the longest-running, consecutive winner of the Forbes Mobil Five Star Award and recipient of the AAA Five Diamond Award since its inception in 1977. Bartolin has not only kept the standard but enhanced it, leading the company through major renovations; bolstering its world-renowned golf, tennis, spa and dining offerings; and adding new value to its portfolio during his 24 years – which is the longest run of any Broadmoor president over the hotel’s nearly 100-year history.

“It’s a very successful, profitable business, and I’m not ashamed to say that,” said Bartolin.

Fiscal accomplishments aside, Bartolin will also leave a legacy of success with his staff, as he’s known for his personal relationships and hands-off approach in believing in his people.

“I care deeply about this place and our people. It’s nice to plan a succession in full faith that you’ll be leaving a good place in good hands,” said Bartolin, who stepped down as president this March and now serves as chairman of the Broadmoor and its related businesses.

And into the good hands of another Youngstown native the Broadmoor goes – the new manager is Bartolin’s close friend, Jack Damioli, who also attended YSU.

Youngstown Born and Built

Forty-five years after his YSU baseball career, Bartolin still keeps up with his teammates. A core group meets every fall at the Broadmoor. But they’re not the only familiar Youngstown faces Bartolin has had the opportunity to see in Colorado.

“There’s a hometown connection that exists here,” said Bartolin. “And I have to say that when I hire people from back home, they tend to be the hardest working. Even in my own experience, there were so many people equally smart or smarter than I was, but I would put in that extra effort. That’s Youngstown.”

Mehalco has a soft spot for his hometown, too. When he visits his family in Hubbard, he takes time to speak to YSU hospitality students and offers help whenever he can with a true passion for the program. He wants to see them succeed just like his professors had wanted for him.

“The faculty pushed me to be the president of our hospitality society,” Mehalco remembers, “and that opened my eyes to pushing beyond the envelope, not being ok with the status quo. I wouldn’t have made it in New York without that.”

Todd Beckham of Falmouth, Mass., ’81 BM, was one of 35 singers nationwide chosen to be part of the Royal School of Church Music in America’s National Choir.

Beckham, who is employed as music director and organist at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Falmouth, was one of three countertenors in the choir.The group rehearsed in Durham, N.C., then met again in London to perform daily Evensong services at Westminster Abbey from December 29, 2014 through January 2.

Beckham also directs the Meridian Singers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and tutors for harpsichord, early music and vocal ensembles in the chamber music program at Harvard University. He holds Master’s Degree in Music from Converse College.

Two veteran law enforcement officers, both YSU alums, have co-authored the book K-PhD School and Campus Shootings Awareness, published by Kendall Hunt Publishing.

The authors are Gregory Truhan of Strongsville, Ohio, ’81 BSAS, ’86 MS, a retired Secret Service senior agent, and James T. McBride of Mentor, Ohio, ’69 BSAS, a retired college police chief and public safety director.

Truhan is an associate professor of Criminal Justice at Lakeland Community College, an Ohio Basic Police Academy instructor and a police in-service crisis intervention trainer. McBride also holds an MPA degree from Cleveland State and teaches criminal justice at Lakeland Community College.

In their book, the authors combine 70 years of law enforcement experience to address the preventability of school and campus shootings.

Thomas R. Trube-Bourne, ’99 AB, left, and Eric Trube-Bourne.

Thomas R. Trube-Bourne of New York, N.Y., ’99 AB in Communications, is featured with his husband, Eric Trube-Bourne, in jeweler Tiffany & Co.’s new, national advertising campaign for engagement rings.

Married May 22, 2014, they are the first same-sex couple the retailer has spotlighted in an ad campaign.

Thomas is vice president of sales for Sophie Theallet, a fashion wholesaler, and an actor/model with Don Buchwald & Assoc. and CESD Talent Agency; Eric is a performer and choreographer for Parsons Dance Company and an indoor cycling instructor.

Jamie Marich of Warren, ’00 BA in History and American Studies, has completed her fourth book, Trauma Made Simple: Competencies in Assessment, Treatment, and Working with Survivors, published by PESI Education & Media in Eau Claire, Wis.

The book reflects Marich’s work as a humanitarian aid worker in post-war Bosnia, a trauma clinician and an educator.

She has a PhD in counseling studies from Capella University and a master’s degree in counseling from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. A clinical counselor, she maintains a small private practice in the Youngstown-Warren area and travels as a continuing education provider for health professionals.

Monday, April 27. About 150 students from area high schools attend YSU’s Spring Press Day Monday, April 27, featuring a press conference with YSU Interim Provost Martin Abraham.

Monday, April 27, 11 a.m. YSU Dedicates the new John and Dorothy Masternick Nursing Simulation Laboratory in Cushwa Hall, Room 3521. YSU nursing students will demonstrate how Windsor the Sim Man, a lifelike robotic patient, is used to provide diagnostic experience with respiration, heart rhythms and blood pressure.

Monday, April 27, 6:15 p.m. College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Honors Convocation, DeBartolo Stadium Club, Stambaugh Stadium.

Tuesday, April 28, 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and Thursday, April 30, 3:30 p.m. First-year engineering students demonstrate their projects for the OH WOW! design project in Moser Hall on the YSU campus. Teams of three to five students have worked all semester to develop an exhibit intended to teach children at OH WOW! about a concept related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics. On Thursday, OH WOW! will select the best project to put on display in the museum.

Tuesday, April 28, 11 a.m. The YSU Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships presents a workshop on money saving strategies on loan repayment in the President’s Suite of Kilcawley Center. The presenter is Jeff Johnston of Sallie Mae. Among the topics covered is student loan repayment, loan forgivenes, and borrower rights and responsibilities. All students are invited to attend, especially all graduating student loan borrowers. For more information, contact Cindy Maldonado at 330-941-3398 or Susan Sahli at 330-941-2374.

Wednesday, April 29, 3 and 5 p.m. YSU women’s softball takes on St. Bonaventure at the field west of Fifth Avenue across from Stambaugh Stadium.

Wednesday, April 29, 5:30 p.m. YSU baseball plays Akron at Eastwood Field. The Penguins also play Oakland at Eastwood 11 a.m. Friday, May 1; 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2; and 1 p.m. Sunday, May 3.

Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m., Beeghly College of Education Honors Convocation, McKay Auditorium, Beeghly Hall.

Wednesday, April 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. YSU celebrates the good work being done on campus to support student learning through assessment at the 5th Annual Assessment Appreciation and Poster Event in the Chestnut Room, Kilcawley Center.

Wednesday, April 29, 12:15 p.m. Clarinets are featured in the free Music at Noon concert in Butler Institute of American Art.

Wednesday, April 29, 5 to 8 p.m. YSU conducts and Adult Learner Open House in the Ohio Room, Kilcawley Center. Included are campus tours and discussions on paying for college/financial aid, matching your strengths to a new career, getting support for your success and reflections of YSU adult students. More at www.ysu.edu/admissions.

Thursday, April 30, 6 p.m. YSU’s annual Student Awards Banquet will be in the Chestnut Room, Kilcawley Center, on campus.

Friday, May 1. Fifteen students in YSU’s Williamson College of Business Administration present lessons to more than 230 pupils at Poland Union Elementary School as part of JA in a Day on Friday. More here.

Friday, May 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. YSU celebrates Cinco de Mayo and the victory of the Battle of Puebla in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center. The event features live music, traditional dances and ethnic food. Free and open to the public. RSVP requested by April 27 to the YSU Office of Student Diversity and Programs at 330-941-2087. The event is coordinated by the YSU Office of Student Diversity and Programs, the YSU Latino Student Organization, and the Mexican Mutual Society.

Friday, May 1, 5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. dinner and awards. YSU’s annual Faculty and Staff Awards Dinner will be in the Chestnut Room, Kilcawley Center, on campus.

Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, 8 p.m. Ward Beecher Planetarium presents “Spring Skywatch.” The planetarium also presents “Flight Adventures” at 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2. Free.

Saturday, May 2, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. YSU Day of Percussion/Marching Pride Drumline Campus at the WATTS.

Lana M. Kontos

Lana M. Kontos, a board certified naturopathic doctor and lifestyle intervention practitioner, speaks to employees of Youngstown State University on Wednesday, April 29, in Kilcawley Center.

The free event is full to capacity and not open to the public.

Kontos is the founder of Your Skinny Kitchen and Your Skinny Kitchen: Wellness in the Workplace and is the author of the upcoming book, The Guide Book to Your Skinny Kitchen.

Kontos educates individuals, groups and corporations on how to restore optimum health and lower costs with science-based diet and lifestyle choices. She teaches how to prevent and, in many cases, how to reverse chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, GERD (acid reflux), colitis, Crohn’s and menopause issues.

Kontos is a member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with a private practice in Northeast Ohio. She is not a medical doctor, does not prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, diagnose disease or treat conditions. Her consultations are not a substitute for primary care physician.

Poland Union Elementary School

Fifteen students in the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University present lessons to more than 230 pupils at Poland Union Elementary School as part of JA in a Day on Friday, May 1.

The YSU students, both undergraduate and graduate, will teach business and free enterprise using lessons developed by Junior Achievement.

“Our mission is to prepare students to be leaders in their careers and their communities,” said Betty Jo Licata, WCBA dean. “Sharing our time to educate children about free enterprise is a wonderful opportunity for our students. We are proud to partner with Junior Achievement and Poland Union Elementary School for this exciting program.”

The YSU students are part of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest recognition a business student can receive in a business program accredited by AACSB International.

Youngstown State University students in the Student Nonprofit Leadership Organization program gained hands-on experience in philanthropy this spring through the Pay It Forward: Strengthening Communities through Student-Led Philanthropy Initiative.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, students in the Nonprofit Community Service class will award $3,000 to a regional nonprofit organization in the atrium of the Williamson College of Business Administration at YSU. Students held various activities throughout the year to raise the donated funds.

The students focused funding decisions on programs/projects related to: animal welfare, community revitalization and youth education. They reviewed more than 17 proposals with requests totaling more than $40,000, while narrowing it down to four organizations to interview.

The Pay It Forward Program helps students learn how to be engaged citizens and to understand the important role philanthropy plays in the health of our local communities – while meeting course specific goals. The initiative addresses critical economic needs in the Mahoning Valley through student-led fundraising and volunteerism.

About 150 students from area high schools attend Youngstown State University’s Spring Press Day Monday, April 27, featuring a press conference with YSU Interim Provost Martin Abraham.

The press conference, which begins at 9:30 a.m., will be led by WFMJ TV anchors Lauren Lindvig and Mike Case, Vindicator editor Todd Franko and others. After receiving tips about how to ask questions from the media professionals, the high school students will then ask Abraham questions.

Later in the morning, students will spend time talking about how to improve their school newspapers, broadcasts, literary magazines and websites. The last event at 11 a.m. is an awards ceremony where students will be recognized for achievement in a wide range of fields from video commercials to news stories.

Alyssa Lenhoff-Briggs, director of Press Day and a journalism professor at YSU, said the events give high school students great exposure to new ideas and knowledge that they then take back to their high schools.

“Students learn so much at Press Day,” she said. “During the Fall Press Day event, they can learn how to tell a video story, how to build a website or how to assemble a staff that will work together. At the Spring Press Day, we don’t have as much time. During the Spring, we just like to do a quick bit of learning and then celebrate their accomplishments.”

For more information, contact Lenhoff-Briggs at 330-402-1016 or ajlenhoff@ysu.edu.

Youngstown State University celebrates the good work being done on campus to support student learning through assessment at the 5th Annual Assessment Appreciation and Poster Event 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in the Chestnut Room, Kilcawley Center, at YSU.

On display will be posters in the 4th Annual Best Practices in Student Learning Assessment Poster Competition, as well as results from completed mini-grant projects on student learning.

At 12:30 p.m., there will be a recognition ceremony for assessment volunteers and committee members, with remarks by President Jim Tressel, Interim Provost Martin Abraham and the Vice President of Student Affairs Jack Fahey. Winners of the 2015-2016 Assessment Mini-Grant and 2015 Poster competitions will also be announced.

For more information, contact the Office of Assessment at ysuassessment@ysu.edu or 330-941-2451.

Attending the SACNAS conference, from left, Chrystal Mackey, Assistant Professor Alicia Prieto-Langarica and Eric Shehadi.

Two YSU mathematics majors brought home honors for research presentations they made at the national Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science conference in Los Angeles.

Crystal Mackey, a junior math and chemistry major from Bristolville, Ohio, took home a 2014 SACNAS Undergraduate Student Presentation Award for her poster, titled “Special Values in Learner Monoids.” She based her study on research completed during a summer research experience in Hawaii last year.

Senior Eric Shehadi of McDonald, a geography and math major, earned a third place award in the competition, which included 95 oral presentations and more than 1,000 student research posters. His poster was titled “Safeguard Fair Voting: Mathematically Diagnosing Gerrymanders.”

Alicia Prieto-Langarica, assistant professor, Mathematics and Statistics, attended the conference with Mackey and Shehadi. She said the event, the largest of its kind in the United States with nearly 4,000 students and professionals attending, gives students background in how to deal with issues related to minority scientists and allows them to rub shoulders with professionals working in their chosen fields. Prieto-Langarica hopes to establish a SACNAS student chapter at YSU in the near future.

Youngstown State University is requiring all students who receive refunds of credit balances on their student account to have the money directly deposited into their personal checking or savings account beginning summer 2015.

“We are making this requirement because it’s faster and it’s more secure for our students,” said Gloria Kobus, YSU bursar.

About 8,000 credit balance refunds from the university are generated each term, mostly the result of students receiving financial aid, scholarships and student loans in excess of tuition, fees, room and board charges. Currently, about half of the refunds are issued via a standard paper check.

Kobus said the University is making the change to direct deposit because:

• It gives peace of mind – the payment is always there, no matter where the payee is located.
• It allows faster access to the refund – there is no trip to the bank to cash a check and no waiting for a check to clear.
• Direct deposit eliminates the possibility of a lost refund check – whether that is lost in the mail, or misplaced or accidentally destroyed.
• Direct deposit is safe; no payments have ever been lost.
• Direct deposit reduces attempted check fraud by eliminating the possibility for a check to be stolen or misappropriated.
• Direct deposit is more confidential – fewer individuals handle the transaction as opposed to a paper check, and there is more security and control associated with electronic transactions.
• Direct deposit is cost effective, and environmentally friendly.

Students can sign up for direct deposit through the YSU Portal. For step-by-step instructions, go to http://www.ysu.edu/dd-signup . Under the Quick Links heading, click Online Instructions, then sign up for Direct Deposit. Students also can visit the Bursar Office at 227 Meshel Hall for one-on-one help.

“Students are encouraged to see the Student One Stop or Bursar Office for help in setting up Direct Deposit,” Kobus said. Failure to set up direct deposit may result in delays of refunds. As a reminder Direct Deposit of student financial aid is separate from Payroll Direct Deposit.

For more information, visit http://web.ysu.edu/saur or call 330-941-3142.

Barbara Brothers

Ikram Khawaja

Two respected, long-time faculty members and administrators receive the Heritage Award at Youngstown State University’s annual Faculty and Staff Awards Banquet on Friday, May 1, in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center.

The recipients are Barbara Brothers, former chair of the English Department and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Ikram Khawaja, former chair of Geological and Environmental Sciences, provost and interim university president.

Also at the banquet, the following YSU employees receive Distinguished Service Awards:

Classified Service Awards
Darlene Aliberti, Community Counseling Clinic
Ellen Banks, Maag Library
Tiffany Buck, Janitorial Services
Cheryl Coy, Grants and Sponsored Programs
Roger DiFrangia, Delivery Services
Christine DiIanni, Center for Student Progress
Gary DiPasquale, Grounds
Mark Eisenbraun, Facilities Maintenance
Carol Franklin, Peace Officer Training Academy
Paul Gucwa, Facilities Maintenance
Rachell Joy, Media and Academic Computing
Margaret Kolar, Registration and Records
Jeannette Modarelli, Registration and Records
Linda Moore, Human Resources
Nancy O’Hara, Economics
Sandra Olmi, University Bursar
Michael Thornburg, Delivery Services
Renee Vivacqua, Media and Academic Computing

Professional/Administrative Service Awards
Susan Carfolo, Dean’s Office, Williamson College of Business Administration
Carrie Clyde, Human Resources
Amy Cossentino, University Scholars and Honors Programs
Susanne Miller, Dean’s Office, Bitonte College of Health and Human Services
Robin Sakonyi-White, Center for Student Progress
Sandra Torres, Financial Aid and Scholarships
Angie Urmson Jeffries, Graduate Studies and Research

Classified Exempt Service Awards
Gary Snyder, Parking Services

Professional/Administrative Exempt Service Awards
Joy Polkabla Byers, Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center
Arlene Floyd, Associate Degree and Tech Prep Programs
Anna Pascarella, Delivery Services
Gary Sexton, WYSU-FM

The Heritage Award, started in 1981, recognizes former YSU faculty and professional/administrative staff who has made major contributions to the university during their years of service. A 16-person Heritage Award Committee comprised of representatives from each college, the administration, alumni and the YSU Retirees Association reviews nominees. Award recipients are honored with plaques mounted on the wall of the concourse of Maag Library.

Barbara Brothers

Barbara (Hoover) Brothers earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Youngstown University in 1958, a master’s degree from Western Reserve University in l962 and a PhD in English from Kent State University in 1973. She taught English at Austintown Fitch High School and was an adjunct faculty member at Youngstown University from 1960-1967, serving as director of Humanities and teacher for Upward Bound in 1966 and 1967, at which time she joined the YSU faculty as an English instructor. She rose through the ranks and was promoted to full professor in 1983. From 1974 to1992, she chaired the Department of English and played a significant role in shaping many academic and outreach programs that still exist today, including Professional Writing and Editing (now Professional and Technical Writing), Peace and Conflict Studies, Women’s Studies and American Studies. In 1993, after serving as acting graduate dean, she was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Encouraging excellence in others, Brothers set a high standard for herself as well, publishing numerous scholarly articles and a monograph, co-editing five scholarly books and two national journals, serving as the writer or co-writer of more than $3.5 million in grants, delivering numerous presentations at state, national and international scholarly conferences and reviewing manuscripts for scholarly journal and presses. She was named a Distinguished Member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, received College English Association Professional Achievement Awards in 1999 and 2001 and a Distinguished Service Award in 1994, Kent State English Department Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994 and YSU Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumnus in 1991. She received the Watson Distinguished Professor Award in 1974, the YSU Distinguished Professor award three times and the Watson Distinguished Department Chair Award four times. At the state and national levels, Brothers provided leadership to the College English Association of Ohio, the Ohio Humanities Council, the national College English Association, the Association of Departments of English, the Modern Language Association, the State Library Board, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. On campus, among her many service roles were the Senate Executive Committee, Chair of Graduate Council, Chair of Academic Standards and Events and hiring committees for University President and two deans. She has also served and continues to serve the community through participation and leadership in numerous organizations, including the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, YWCA Capital Campaign, Youngstown Symphony, Park Vista Board, Youngstown Chapter of AAUW and the Citizen’s League of Youngstown. She helped to endow the YSU Poetry Center through the Drs. Barbara Brothers and Gratia Murphy Fund. She is a Gould Society Member, the local YSU liberal arts honor society, to which she was elected in 1958, the year of its founding. She is the mother of two children, Mark and Jill Brothers, and two step-children, Emily Ludwig and Marla Haims Cohen. She is married to Lawrence Haims, and they have nine grandchildren. Brothers retired in 2001 and was bestowed the title Administrator Emeritus.

Ikram Khawaja

Ikram Khawaja taught thousands of students and worked with hundreds of colleagues on numerous projects both on and off the campus during a 40-year career at YSU. He served as faculty, department chair, director of faculty relations, dean, interim dean, interim provost, provost and interim president. He received the YSU Watson Merit Award for outstanding performance as a department chair on two occasions. He has served as advisor to student organizations with interests in Geology, Pakistan, Islam and Cricket. Khawaja holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, a master’s in Geology from Southern Illinois University and a PhD in Geology from Indiana University. His research has been focused on the relationship between minerals and humanity. He has also worked on oil and gas, groundwater and geoscience education in both the United States and Pakistan. In 1976, the National Science Foundation funded Khawaja’s collaboration with Pakistani scientists on groundwater problems in Pakistan. In 1997, the United Nations sent him to Pakistan via the U.N. Token Program to help Environmental Geology programs at the University of Balochistan in Quetta and Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. Between 2003 and 2005, he returned to Pakistan to help Fatima Jinnah Women University develop their environmental studies program. Khawaja was instrumental in the creation of the YSU Center for Islamic Studies and an endowed Professorship in Islamic Studies. He also led the university’s efforts in soliciting a donation of gems and minerals appraised at more than $1 million and creating the Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum in Moser Hall. He was director of Faculty Relations from 1997 to 2000 and served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from July 2001 to July 2002 before retiring in December 2002. He returned to the university as interim dean of the College from July 2005 to July 2007. He was appointed interim provost in 2007, and named provost in 2008. In 2010, Khawaja co-chaired the committee to envision the future for YSU. The result of that committee was the document, YSU 2020: The Strategic Plan of Youngstown State University, 2011-2020. Khawaja was named the interim president, a position he held from March through June 2014, when he retired.

YSU President Jim Tressel, left, celebrates the dedication of the new nursing simulation lab with Dorothy Masternick and her son, John J. Masternick.

Located on the third floor of Cushwa Hall on the YSU campus, the John and Dorothy Masternick Nursing Simulation Laboratory was made possible by the Masternicks’ substantial gift to YSU’s Department of Nursing.

“We are so grateful to the Masternicks for making this beautiful, high-tech lab available to the young men and women who are working to become compassionate, well-trained health care professionals,” said Jim Tressel, YSU President. “This facility will provide invaluable learning opportunities for our student nurses.”

The late John Masternick, an attorney and a 1954 graduate of the Youngstown College of Law, founded Windsor House Inc. with his wife, Dorothy, in 1959. Their family-owned business now operates 11 skilled care facilities and four assisted living communities across Northeast Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania that employ more than 1,500 people.

In addition to the gift used to fund the new nursing simulation lab, the Masternicks established a scholarship endowment for YSU nursing students in 2004, and the John and Dorothy Masternick Foundation has made contributions to the university so far totaling more than $50,000.

“My parents met at Youngstown College in 1947, so YSU was always near and dear to their hearts,” said John J. Masternick, the couple’s son and also an attorney, who serves as president and chief executive officer of Windsor House Inc. “Our purpose with the gift was to help grow the nursing department at YSU and to help the nursing industry as a whole in our community. We’re grateful that we could do it, and grateful to YSU for honoring our family in this way.”

The new nursing simulation lab features computerized manikins that have programmable vital signs – heart rate and rhythm, respiration and blood pressure, coughing and respiratory distress – to offer nursing students a lifelike patient care experience. The laboratory also includes classroom and seminar space, equipped with the latest in electronic media, and a row of medical exam tables where students can practice their patient assessment skills.

“I proposed that we create a dedicated simulation lab space because our nursing lab was bursting at the seams,” said Nancy Wagner, associate professor and department chair. “This is a really versatile space that meets our needs in so many ways. It allows our students to gain practical, hands-on experience in a realistic and safe environment.”

The largest and most advanced of the lab’s manikins is a high-fidelity adult version, valued at $85,000, that students have named “Windsor” in honor of the Masternicks’ business, Windsor House Inc. “He breathes, he cries, he sweats, he has bowel sounds,” Wagner said. “This is an amazing teaching tool for helping our students to develop critical thinking skills.”

Undergraduate and graduate nursing students also have access to a child-sized and an infant-sized manikin in the new nursing simulation lab, and mother and baby manikins will be added soon. Video cameras are mounted above the simulation manikins, and faculty monitor the students from a nearby observation room, where they can remotely adjust the manikins’ symptoms and vital signs to simulate a wide range of real world critical care scenarios.

YSU’s Department of Nursing is a part of the Dr. Dominic A. and Helen M. Bitonte College of Health and Human Services and has more than 400 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled. The department offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree with entry level and RN completion tracks, and a Master of Science in Nursing degree program with the following five specialization options: Adult-Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Anesthesia, School Nursing, Nurse Education, and Family Nurse Practitioner.

For more information about YSU and its nursing program, visit web.ysu.edu/bchhs/nursing.

Tuesday, May 5. The YSU Board of Trustees meets on the following schedule: 11:15 a.m., Lunch; Noon, Executive Committee; 2 p.m., Intercollegiate Athletics Subcommittee; 2:30 p.m., University Affairs Committee; 3:30 p.m., Special Board Meeting. All meetings are in the Board Meeting Room on the first floor of Tod Hall.

Carl F. Chuey

Thursday, May 7, 11 a.m. The herbarium at YSU is dedicated in memory of the late Carl F. Chuey, associate professor of Biology, who led the effort to grow the facility into one of the largest in the state of Ohio. More here.

Thursday, May 7, 6:30 p.m. The Beeghly College of Education honors outstanding graduates at the 13^th Annual BCOE Alumni Awards Dinner in McKay Auditorium, Beeghly Hall. More here.

Friday, May 8. Morris I. Friedman, founder of United Steel Service, Inc. in Brookfield, Ohio, receives YSU’s 2015 Friend of the University Award at Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna, Ohio. More here.

Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, 8 p.m. “Skywatchers of Africa” is presented in the Ward Beecher Planetarium. Also, “Flight Adventures” is shown 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 9.

An initiative to change the approach to health and healthcare in the Youngstown community kicks off 7:30 a.m. Friday, May 8, in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center on the campus of Youngstown State University.

The Well-Being Collaborative of Ohio, formerly Lake to River Healthcare Coalition, is a multi-stakeholder collaboration of local business groups, healthcare providers, health systems, health plans, academic institutions, municipalities, healthcare consultants, food retailers, religious groups, non-profit health groups, and community influencers in Mahoning Valley.

WBC-OH focuses on improving the well being of the Mahoning Valley by providing sustainable initiatives that will positively impact the overall health of its members in the region.

The May 8 event features a light breakfast, followed by remarks from YSU President Jim Tressel; Dr. Ronald Savrin of Executive Medical Consultants; Troy Vincent, president and chief executive officer of Live Healthy America; and Gary Earl, health and well-being ambassador for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Registration is free. Register here.

Contributing WBC-OH sponsors are YSU, Anthem BCBS, UAW-GM, Aetna, Mercy Health (formerly HMHP), Salem Regional Medical Center, Southwoods Health, ValleyCare Health System of OH, Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Alkermes, Live Healthy America, Primary Healthcare Associates and local health departments.

For more information, click here.