Several groups of students traveled to conferences this semester to interact with professionals in their future career fields.
Criminal justice majors Luis Silvestre, Jordyn Stone, Aiden Michel, and Alyssa Messina accompanied Todd Hiestand, JD, a tenured professor of criminal justice, to the American Criminal Justice Association Conference near Dallas, Texas, from March 17 to 22.
In addition to hearing from experts in crime scene investigation and FBI behavioral analysis, the students competed in physical agility, academics, and crime scene analysis. Luis placed in the academic juvenile justice competition and was a contender in physical agility. Students in the crime scene analysis competition were placed in three-person teams and graded on investigation, procedure, and conclusions drawn.
“It was super valuable for the students to meet professionals and see what a law enforcement career might look like for themselves,” Hiestand said. “It helps them know that they can do it and what they are learning is comparable to what is actually done in the field.”
Hiestand gave his students high marks for their conduct during the experience.
“The gratitude they displayed when they visited the Grapevine, Texas police department, and their professionalism was impressive,” he said. “I was proud of them.”
The following week, Sage Friedline and Brett Jackson accompanied Darin Tuck, PhD, associate professor of history and Lon Dagley, assistant library director, Marge Smith archivist, to the Kansas Association of Historians 95th annual conference at Ft. Hays State University.
The MNU contingent presented to the association focused on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails. MNU’s Marge Smith Archives houses the Kroh and Marshall map collections featuring the frontier trails traversing Missouri and Kansas. They cover the years 1820-1870 and provide the most detailed maps known to exist. Dagley, Kansas City Area Historic Trails Association and the Kansas Historical Society worked in partnership to digitize this, the largest digital map collection in Kansas.
“We are fortunate to have such strong partnerships with local community organizations and historians who have been working on the history of the trails for decades,” Tuck said. “Their expertise about westward migration and their donation of wonderful maps and other materials has allowed our students to engage with historical material while engaging with the public.”
Also in March, Chelsea Comadoll, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry and six of her PhD-bound chemistry students attended the American Chemical Society’s national conference in New Orleans. Students attending were seniors Stanley Baldwin and Noah Beal; juniors Aidan Thomas, Samuel Powell, and Javan Surtan; and sophomore Alexandra Cummins. They enjoyed talks and poster sessions highlighting top research being done across the country. Baldwin, Thomas, Powell, and Surtan presented their own research, as did Comadoll.
“Attending a conference such as this as an undergraduate is an invaluable experience,” Comadoll said. “They returned with a greater appreciation of and excitement for the research process as well as an awareness of the importance of networking. Each of them made connections with top researchers in their fields that may open doors for them as they look toward graduate school.”
None of these enriching experiences would have happened without the gift of funding from donors. MNU students and professors are profoundly grateful for the opportunities these gifts provide.
