K-State Current - December 1, 2021
K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.
K-State News
All-university retirement reception to honor President Richard Myers
The K-State community is invited to an all-university retirement reception honoring President Richard B. Myers and first lady Mary Jo Myers from 3-5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, in the K-State Student Union Ballroom. As previously announced, President Myers will be retiring from Kansas State University.
Doors will open at 3 p.m. and face masks will be required. The program will begin at approximately 3:20 p.m. and will include remarks from university leaders and several surprises. Call Hall ice cream and other refreshments will be served.
Several have asked about making donations in recognition of the leadership and service that the Myerses have contributed to the university over the past five and one-half years. Contributions may be made to the Richard and Mary Jo Myers K-State Excellence Fund through the KSU Foundation website or checks can be made payable to the KSU Foundation with Richard and Mary Jo Myers K-State Excellence Fund (M47378) in the memo line and mailed to the KSU Foundation, 1800 Kimball Ave., Suite 200, Manhattan, KS 66502. The Myerses will designate how the funds are to be used by the university.
Please join the K-State community in recognizing President Myers’ career at K-State and wishing him and Mary Jo well in retirement.
G
ary Pratt, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for K-State, has been selected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Commission on Information, Measurement, & Analysis (CIMA). Pratt will serve on the committee for three years.
The executive committee is responsible for positioning the commission as a vehicle to share, discuss, and disseminate innovative ways to combine and leverage data across campus to advance student and institutional success.
“K-State’s presence at the national level will help keep us in the forefront of the conversations in many areas related to data management, governance, analytics, and associated practices,” commented Pratt.
CIMA was founded in November 2014 to create space for APLU institutions to come together to create communities of practice around the effective and efficient use of data to guide campus planning and decision-making. Given the dispersion of activities and responsibilities within an institution that relies on a vast array of data sources, CIMA provides opportunities for cross-functional discussions on creating and improving the data infrastructure and the strategic analysis capacity on campuses.
K-State Faculty Highlights
Virginia Naibo recognized as Professor of the Week
Virginia Naibo, professor of mathematics, was recognized as Professor of the Week at the Nov. 17 men's home basketball game.
Faculty Senate, the Office of the President, K-State Athletics and the Division of Communications and Marketing wish to recognize her contributions to K-State.
Naibo is an exceptional classroom teacher who thrives in every type of classroom. She has been successful working with pre-service elementary teachers, beginning calculus students, advanced STEM majors interested in applications, and graduate students pursuing doctorates in pure mathematics. Naibo's student evaluations are uniformly excellent no matter what she teaches. Her department head believed one of the few lucky breaks they got last year was that Naibo was coordinating the Engineering Calculus class when K-State suddenly had to shift to online instruction. She didn't just have to pivot her own teaching, she also had to work with a second lecturer and six different GTAs teaching nine recitation sections to keep the class moving forward successfully, and she did very well. Naibo adapted polls in Zoom to provide an online version of a classroom response system which let her maintain active learning in online lectures. Having her on the faculty has improved instruction in many classrooms, and not just hers. Her influence is not felt just at K-State. Because she does especially well in Math for Elementary School Teachers, she gets assigned this frequently. By now, she has hundreds of former students teaching mathematics, improving mathematics instruction all across the state and beyond.
Naibo has also been very active in curriculum development, designing an entirely new Digital Image Processing class and adding a lab component to the Applied Matrix Theory class, which has also been used by many other faculty. She has supervised three doctoral students who are now productive faculty members at other schools — and has a fourth in progress. She has supervised five undergraduate research projects and is active in supporting and developing outreach activities.
Brandy Shaw recognized as Professional Staff of the Week
Brandy Shaw, interim chief flight instructor, was recognized as Professional Staff of the Week at the Nov. 28 men's home basketball game.
Faculty Senate, the Office of the President, K-State Athletics and the Division of Communications and Marketing wish to recognize her contributions to K-State.
During the past 18 months, Shaw has gone above and beyond her duties as assistant chief flight instructor. In early 2020, the chief flight instructor, the late Bill Gross, had to step away from his duties at K-State due to cancer. Shaw stepped up and assumed many of the responsibilities normally covered by the chief flight instructor. She has a heart for students and wants them to succeed but expects them to attain high standards.
Furthermore, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus, it was especially troubling for the flight program. Shaw, along with her colleagues, devised solid plans on how to continue with flight training and getting students safely back into the cockpit. Her continued efforts in these areas and numerous other tasks as interim chief flight instructor contributed greatly to the ongoing success of the flight program during difficult times. Shaw highly deserves this honor. We commend her service, dedication and loyalty to the flight program.
K-State Student News
K-State Sales Team places first in 2021 Collegiate World Cup of Sales
Members of Kansas State University's 2021 Collegiate World Cup of Sales championship team, from left: Hunter Hartner, Colton Williams, Lydia Johnson, Jacqueline Anzalone, Cameron Pavelschak and Kellie Jackson, team coach.
The Kansas State University Sales Team is the 2021 Collegiate World Cup of Sales university champion, winning the International Collegiate Sales Competition. The competition was hosted virtually by Florida State University, Nov. 9-13.
Members of the championship-winning team include Hunter Hartner, sophomore in professional strategic selling and marketing, Belleville; Colton Williams, junior in professional strategic selling, Osage City; Cameron Pavelschak, junior in professional strategic selling, Mascoutah, Illinois; Lydia Johnson, junior in professional strategic selling and Spanish, Prior Lake, Minnesota; and Jacqueline Anzalone, senior in marketing and supply chain management, Kansas City, Missouri.
The Collegiate World Cup of Sales is the ultimate measure of a university sales program's focus on overall business revenue-generating skills, including strategic decision making, relationship development, sales management problem solving, and presentation and speech skills. Eighty universities competed in various events as part of competition, including a sales management simulation, role-play, sales management case competition and speed selling event.
The sales management simulation was conducted during spring 2021 as a qualifying event for the sales management case competition, which took place at the International Collegiate Sales Competition. The sales management simulation mirrored the decision-making process of a sales manager. The K-State Sales Team placed third in its flight, qualifying as one of the 32 university teams competing in the sales management case competition. During the onsite sales management case competition, Anzalone and Pavelschak represented the K-State Sales Team, advancing to the final round of six teams and placing fifth.
The role-play competition had 160 student competitors competing in the event. This four-round, tournament-style role-play scenario is similar to a real complex selling situation where needs are developed in early meetings leading to a solution presentation and final purchase decision. Johnson and Williams represented the K-State Sales Team in this event, with Johnson placing first and Williams placing second out of 160 student competitors.
The speed selling competition had 145 student competitors. This competition consisted of speed interviewing to demonstrate professional and presentation skills in an elevator pitch format. Anzalone, Hartner and Pavelschak represented the K-State Sales Team in the event. Anzalone placed first out of 145 student competitors.
The competition also included a Set Sale on Your Career event where students could earn points and prizes by participating in the career fair. All five members of the K-State Sales Team competed in this event, attending virtual sessions with up to 32 sponsor employers. Pavelschak tied for first place out of more than 250-plus student competitors in participation, attending 31 virtual sponsor sessions.
"This team and these five students went in with a goal, put in the work at practices and came out on top," said Kellie Jackson, managing director of K-State's National Strategic Selling Institute and sales team coach. "To have representation in the finals for the role-play competition, speed selling competition, and the sales management case competition is a huge accomplishment."
The K-State Sales Team is part of the College of Business Administration's National Strategic Selling Institute, which has been named one of the top sales programs in the country for 10 straight years by the Sales Education Foundation. The team consists of students who are enrolled in the major or certificate in professional strategic selling. In fall 2018, Kansas State University became just the 19th university in the U.S. to offer a major in professional strategic selling. Students can also earn a certificate in professional strategic selling, which is open to all majors at the university. The professional strategic selling program introduces students to the fundamentals of sales and the innovative curriculum and sales labs allow students to develop the skills needed to be successful.
