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2024 KU seniors honor high school teachers with Wolfe Teaching Excellence Awards
LAWRENCE — Three outstanding high school teachers will be recognized with the Wolfe Teaching Excellence Award this spring at the University of Kansas. Recipients are teachers from Lyndon and Mill Valley high schools in Kansas and Webster Groves High School in Missouri. They each receive a cash award of $3,000, and their respective high schools receive $1,000.
KU undergraduate researchers receive Courtwright Awards
LAWRENCE – Two University of Kansas students are the recipients of the Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence for spring 2024 through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research. Parnian Arafi, a junior in biochemistry from Iran, is researching Alzheimer’s disease. Kaitlyn Sy, a senior in biotechnology from Olathe, is researching cancer. Finalists for the award are from Olathe, Overland Park and Salina.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Aspen Grender, School of Education & Human Sciences, [email protected], @KUSOEHS
2024 KU seniors honor high school teachers with Wolfe Teaching Excellence Awards
LAWRENCE — Three outstanding high school teachers will be recognized with the Wolfe Teaching Excellence Award this spring.
“Probably the highest honor that can be bestowed on a teacher is to have former students recognize them,” said Rick Ginsberg, dean of the School of Education & Human Sciences. “The Wolfe Teaching Excellence Award does just that as former students nominate a high school teacher that had a positive impact on them.”
Nominations are submitted by KU seniors. Students from any major can nominate their former teachers, and the winners can be high school teachers from anywhere in the world. The 2024 award recipients:
Cindy Parker, Lyndon High School, Lyndon
Kara Siebe, Webster Groves High School, Webster Grove, Missouri
Jeff Wieland, Mill Valley High School, Shawnee
Cindy Parker
Parker was nominated by Kaitlyn Moore, a senior in secondary English education at KU. Moore first met Parker during a job shadowing experience during Moore’s sophomore year at Lyndon High School. Parker later joined Lyndon High School as an English teacher during Moore’s junior and senior years. In the nomination, Moore wrote: “Mrs. Cindy Parker is a teacher who changed my life as a high school student … She gives so much of herself to her students, and I hope she knows how much of that love and care we carry with us as we exit her classroom, and that we continue to strive to pass on her kindness and goodwill to the rest of the world.”
Kara Siebe
Siebe was nominated by Quin Dolan, a senior in business administration and sport management at KU. Dolan, who had Siebe as a teacher in a marketing class at Webster Groves High School, wrote: “Mrs. Siebe is truly a one-of-a-kind teacher that the Webster Groves School District is lucky to have. For years, she has shown her commitment to the community, our school, and her students. In addition, she continues to open so many doors for her students by creating many amazing opportunities for us. She taught us how to set goals for ourselves, and more importantly how to achieve those goals.”
Jeff Wieland
Wieland was nominated by Sophia Klaudt, a senior in biochemistry at KU. In the nomination, Klaudt, who had Wieland as a history teacher at Mill Valley High School, wrote: “Mr. Wieland was not just a history teacher for us; his breadth of knowledge extends far beyond that of the classroom curriculum. His passion for educating and spreading knowledge to his students was truly remarkable, and the care that he put into each of his students did not go unnoticed … His teachings are a steady constant in my life that I have and will continuously utilize as I begin the next chapter of my life.”
Recipients each receive a cash award of $3,000, and their respective high schools each receive $1,000. The award winners were selected from a large pool of outstanding nominees by a committee of faculty, administrators and students from KU’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and School of Education & Human Sciences.
The Wolfe Teaching Excellence Award was created in 2006 with a $250,000 gift from R. Dean Wolfe, business administration, ’66, and juris doctorate, ’69, and Cheryl L. Wolfe, Spanish education, ’69, Clayton, Missouri, through the Wolfe Family Foundation.
The award fund is managed by KU Endowment, the official fundraising and fund-management foundation for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment was the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
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Contact: Erin Wolfram, Academic Success, 785-864-2308, [email protected]
KU undergraduate researchers receive Courtwright Awards
LAWRENCE – Two University of Kansas students who earned Undergraduate Research Awards are the recipients of the Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence for spring 2024 through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research.
The Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence was established at KU Endowment in 2020 through the contributions of David (Class of 1974) and Chris Courtwright (Class of 1983). The Courtwright Award seeks to recognize undergraduate students with majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences whose research and creative work stand to make meaningful contributions to their fields of study.
Courtwright Award finalists are selected from applications for the Undergraduate Research Awards each semester. This is the seventh iteration of this award.
The recipients:
Parnian Arafi
Parnian Arafi is a junior in biochemistry from Iran mentored by Michael Wolfe, professor of medicinal chemistry.
“Alzheimer’s disease is a major global public health challenge, with a growing number of people affected, raising serious concerns within the scientific community,” Arafi said. “My research focuses on uncovering the complexities of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis by investigating the impact of Alzheimer-mutant presenilin-1 on amyloid β-peptide production by γ-secretase. This study has the potential to offer new (Alzheimer) treatment strategies.”
This past April, Arafi gave a speech about her research during the annual MIKIW conference at the University of Illinois-Chicago — the longest-running and largest regional medicinal chemistry conference in the U.S. — and presented a poster with the same title at the 39th Mossberg Honors Symposium at KU. Arafi also presented a poster about her research at KU’s 27th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Kaitlyn Sy
Kaitlyn Sy is a senior in biotechnology from Olathe mentored by Jack Treml and Randall Logan, faculty members in biotechnology.
“Cancer, a devastating disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells, takes the lives of nearly 1 in every 6 people worldwide. My project investigates how cancer survives, thrives and wreaks havoc in the body despite constant surveillance by the immune system, which normally destroys abnormal cells,” Sy said. “The long-term goal of this research is to shed light on new approaches to treating cancer to ultimately improve outcomes for cancer patients.”
Sy shared her research through an oral presentation titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Is Lactate an Invisibility Cloak for Cancer?” at KU’s 27th Undergraduate Research Symposium. She also presented “The Role of the Warburg Effect in Immune Evasion in Solid Tumors: Assessing the Effects of Lactate on the Immune Responsiveness of T Cells in vitro” at the 2024 Hawk Talks Conference at the KU Edwards Campus. A manuscript has been submitted for publication in the Midwestern Journal of Undergraduate Sciences.
Other spring 2024 finalists
Emily DeMars, a senior in history and political science from Salina: “Sovereignty and Sobriety: Temperance, State-building, and Native Disenfranchisement in Oklahoma,” mentored by Kent Blansett, associate professor of history.
George LaHood, a senior majoring in film & media studies from Overland Park, “Unreal Engine and Virtual Production Short Film,” mentored by David Mai, assistant professor of film & media studies.
Kaitlyn (Kit) Savoy, a junior majoring in biology from Olathe, “Electric Dispersal Potential of Fungal Spores,” mentored by Benjamin Sikes, associate professor of ecology & evolutionary biology.
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