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In my role as Vice Provost of Scholarship and Experiential Curriculum, I was able to create dynamic co-curricular programming, but I began this kind of work years ago as a faculty member. In 2011 I worked with Dr. Kebret Kebede to organize NSC's first Medical Mission to Ethiopia with 8 pre-nursing and pre-medical students. Students were able to observe surgeries, shadow physicians in the emergency room, participate in orthopedic consults, and help remove and put on casts in a fracture clinic in Addis Ababa's only charitable medical institution, Black Lion Hospital.
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I also established NSC's undergraduate research program which has resulted in many new faculty research opportunities and several students going on to PhD programs, medical school, and laboratory positions. Below are some of the areas in which I have completed work in Student Development. |
Internships for Credit
In collaboration with the Dean of Students, Dr. Cresiski built NSC's first Internship for Credit Program. Modeled after a capstone course in NSC's Psychology major, this program offers students assistance being placed in an internship site, faculty mentorship via weekly or biweekly class meetings, and assignments to help students link internship experiences to theoretical or academic content. Dr. Cresiski authored the policy for Internships for Academic Credit and shepherded the policy through legal, faculty senate and administrative approvals. Over 40 students did internships for credit in Psychology, History, Business and Criminal Justice in 2014-15, and 2015-16 is projected to have over 60 students participate in the program. This year, Dr. Cresiski and her team are working with faculty to expand internships for credit in Environmental Science, Biology, and Visual Media.
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Undergraduate Research
Dr. Cresiski established NSC's first undergraduate research program in 2011, offering a handful of students the opportunity to participate in biology research over the summer utilizing an unused classroom and NSC's state-of-the-art technology. She secured $137,000 in funding from an NIH grant, the NV-Ideas Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), to expand this research to a greater number of students and faculty. Within four years, she expanded funding to $348,000 per year, covering 5 faculty in Chemistry and Biology, some staff, and stipends and supplies to support 18 undergraduates per year. She also worked with the Dean and facilities staff to creatively convert space into a molecular biology research area.
Dr. Cresiski is also working with faculty to integrate undergraduate research into courses. In her Summer Scholarship Institute, she mentors faculty in the creation of relevant research projects for their courses. One faculty member created a module in her statistics course where students analyze data from a local, non-profit felony re-entry program. The analysis reports generated by the students were then provided to the non-profit to improve their practice. |
Student of Concern
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