Highlights from BYU Colleges

Family Home and Social Sciences

• Gerontology professor Jeremy Yorgason recently published a study finding that parents continue to worry over their adult children. The study discovered that husbands supported their adult children more frequently, often losing sleep because of the added stress. Only 10 percent of husbands and six percent of wives reported not worrying at all about their children.

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

• The Advancement Council for Engineering and Technology learned from BYU alumnus and CEO of Progressive Leasing Ryan Woodley at a leadership training meeting for clubs held March 30. Woodley emphasized the importance of being aware in the workplace, working hard and having confidence.
• Elder Peter F. Meurs of the Seventy spoke to engineering students about the importance of applying good work principles to real life. He emphasized gospel principles relating to the workplace.

David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies

• Donald Wright, director of Middle Eastern Studies at Hood College, will speak about documenting human rights violations in Iraq on April 26 at 3 p.m. in room 238 of the Herald R. Clark building.
• The Kennedy Center is hosting an academic conference call about governing cyberspace on April 20 at 1 p.m. in room 237B of the Herald R. Clark building.
• The Student Association for Latin American Studies will host a homemade salsa competition at their closing social on April 19 at 7 p.m. in room 238 of the Herald R. Clark building. Registration is required to enter the competition, and the top three contestants will receive prizes from $25 to $50.

Marriott School of Management

• A team of five BYU MBA students won the Sawtooth Software’s Marketing Analytics Consulting Challenge held on March 17-18. Gabriel Chiararia, Derek Egan, Chase Thomas, Jason Alleger and Megan Spencer took home $3,000 for their work.

• Ten first-year MBA candidates were recognized as Eccles Scholars by the Marriott School of Management. The award was presented by the Whitmore Global Management Center and each recipient was awarded up to $9,000 in financial aid. The recipients include Andrea Ascione, Spencer Goodrich, Oliver Munn, Joshua Tidwell, Sam Swamynathan, Zach Brough, Colin Ludlow, Alexandra Hirst, Lei Wang and Tiago Uhlmann.

  

• Eleven second-year MBA finance students were awarded $5,000 for the George E. Stoddard Prize. The students were chosen based on academic performance and commitment to the finance program.

David O. McKay School of Education

•  Twelve students received Educational Leadership Awards for the 2016-2017 school year. Tyler Howe, Misty Rocha, Huili Tang, Shelly Karren, Joseph Jensen, Heather Balli, William Sherwood, Aaron Wilson, Heather Porter, Catherine Lui, Lori Cunningham and Trevor Wilson all received the award for their leadership potential and academic coursework.

  

• Professor Todd Pennington spoke about the value of motivating students and helping them to believe in themselves in a recent lecture. He told his personal story about succeeding in college despite having two learning disabilities.

College of Humanities

• On March 9, Colgate University religion professor Georgia Frank explained how being Christian in late antiquity was characterized by sensory experiences. Her lecture was part of a visiting lecture series in connection with the Maxwell Institute and the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters.

College of Life Sciences

• Bailey Mortensen, Natasha Szilagyi and Whitney Westhoff won first place for their case study at the Society for Public Health Education conference held April 3-6 in Denver.
• Kate Strickling and Jessica Wilkinson won $10,000 for their virtual reality fitness app, Calorei Quest, at Samsung’s Games4Health app competition on March 30.

College of Fine Arts and Communications

• Department of Design Chair Eric Gillett spoke at BYU’s weekly devotional on April 11. He explained how doubt is as essential to building a testimony as investing effort and time. He advised students to break up their spiritual routines if they become monotonous by thinking about their spirituality in new ways.

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

• Geology professor Brooks Britt and his team, including BYU Museum of Paleontology curator Rod Scheetz and biology professor Michael Whiting, recently published an article about their discovery of Moabosaurus utahensis, a relative of the Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus. An assembled skeleton of the dinosaur is on display at the BYU Museum of Paleontology.

• Physics professor Brian Anderson demonstrated the use of targeted sound vibrations, or time reversal, to topple legos in a recent video published by the “Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.” This technology can be used to destroy kidney stones, locate underwater objects and locate cracks in nuclear waste storage containers.

J. Reuben Clark Law School

• Each March, the fifth-grade students at Wasatch Elementary participate in a mock trial as part of BYU Law School’s student-run elementary school mentoring program. This is a chance for them to experience what the judicial branch is all about. BYU Law’s fifth-grade mentoring program was started almost 20 years ago by BYU law professor Brett Scharffs, who wanted to instill a love of learning, a sense of community and to help young students feel invested in by an adult.

  

• Karl Kowallis won first place and Erika Nash won runner up in the 1L Moot Court Competition on April 3.
• George Handley shared principles he learned from environmental advocacy as part of BYU Law’s Conflict Resolution Forum on April 5.

Library

• The Harold B. Lee Library opened a new fifth-floor art gallery by student Michelle Stevens, a graphic design major born with a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. The gallery features art pieces by Stevens at her eye level, and is called “In a World Full of Little People.” The gallery will be open until April 27.