A Leadership 310 class at Fort Hays State University is partnering with the Girls Scouts of Kansas Heartland to host Girl’s Summit, a young women’s leadership seminar.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in FHSU’s Memorial Union.
Topics include self-confidence, dating safety, interpersonal communication and a presentation about FHSU’s Women’s Leadership Project.
Lunch is included. Door prizes will also be awarded.
Sessions are designed for girls from middle to high school age. Parents are also invited.
Dr. Mirta M. Martin, FHSU president, will deliver the keynote address on the importance of leadership and volunteerism and will share her experience in these areas.
Dr. Jill Arensdorf, chair of the Department of Leadership Studies, will focus on self-confidence in an interactive workshop that will teach girls how to build confidence in themselves and others.
The next session will look at healthy and unhealthy relationships in teenagers. Dr. Christie Brungardt, assistant professor of leadership studies, will teach participants how to promote healthy relationships and how to prevent dating violence.
“Well This Is Awkward … Discovering the World of Interpersonal Communication & Listening” will examine the nature of interpersonal relationships. Various types of listening and how it functions within relationships will also be discussed. Marcella Marez, instructor of communication studies, and Amanda Fairbanks, adjunct professor of communication studies, will present.
Three FHSU students, Holly Weiss, Anthony graduate student, Sadie Lungren, Manhattan senior, and Kaitlyn Dinges, Cimarron senior, will speak about the Women’s Leadership Project and discuss the barriers that young girls face globally. Participants will make crafts to be sent to other girls around the world.
Registration is due on Monday, Nov. 24.
Attendance is free. Girls who are not already members of Girl Scouts will need to fill out paperwork to register. However, the normal fee will be waived, and registration for the summit does not require them to become involved in Girl Scouts activities.
To register, contact Girls Scouts of Kansas Heartland by phone at 785-625-5671 or email [email protected].
This event is sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland and the Leadership 310 students at FHSU.
The FHSU Leadership 310 Class — Water Wise Tigers Project Team — will be sharing tips on water conservation efforts by sponsoring the Nov. 29 Fort Hays State University home basketball games.
The game sponsorship is partnership with the city of Hays and the Kansas State University Big Creek Middle Smoky Hill River Watersheds and provides a service-learning opportunity for the FHSU students while providing a community outreach effort. There will be hands-on displays and activities located between Gates 2 and 3 in the north side of Gross Memorial Coliseum.
Participants can try their hand in Water Plinko or Water of Fortune to earn prizes, and take the Family Water Audit to have your name entered to win a Low-Flow Toilet. The Watershed on Wheels Trailer will be on hand with 10 hand-painted canvas panels, detailing the Smoky Hill and Big Creek watersheds flowing into Kanopolis Reservoir, showing both rural and urban sources of pollution.
Free low-flow showerheads will be given away during the games, as well.
Text (785) 769-3297 to get your name entered to participate in half-time activities. Plus, text to win during the Water Conservation Trivia Contest throughout the games and earn your spot on the basketball court during half-time.
The women’s team tips off at 2 p.m. Nov. 29, with the men’s game scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
For more questions or information, contact Stacie Minson, KSU Watershed Specialist, at (785) 769- 3297 or [email protected]
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More farmers are filing lawsuits against agrochemicals giant Syngenta in a legal battle tied to the sale of a genetically modified corn seed.
Agrisure Viptera is genetically altered to kill corn-eating bugs and is approved by the United States. It was marketed to farmers in 2011.
But China, a major corn market that refuses to buy genetically modified crops it hasn’t tested, had not agreed to import it. It began rejecting U.S. corn last year when Viptera was detected.
More than 50 lawsuits have been filed and hundreds more are being prepared. The lawsuits say losing China as a buyer has cost corn farmers more than $1 billion.
Syngenta says the lawsuits are without merit and upholds the right of farmers to use approved new technologies.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Brooklyn, New York, and Des Moines, Iowa, will host NCAA men’s basketball tournament games for the first time in 2016.
The NCAA announced Monday that the other 2016 preliminary round sites are Providence, St. Louis, Raleigh, North Carolina, Oklahoma City, Denver and Spokane, Washington. Regionals will be played in Philadelphia, Chicago, Louisville, Kentucky, and Anaheim, California.
The 2017 tourney games will be played in Buffalo, New York; Indianapolis; New York; Greensboro, North Carolina; Milwaukee; Orlando, Florida; Salt Lake City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Sacramento, California. Regionals will be in Kansas City; San Jose, California; Memphis, Tennessee; and New York.
The 2018 early round games will be hosted by Boise, Idaho; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dallas; Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; Pittsburgh; San Diego; and Wichita, Kansas. Regionals will be in Boston; Omaha, Nebraska; Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Dayton, Ohio will host the First Four all three years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says more than 1 million consumers visited HealthCare.gov this weekend as the second sign-up season under the president’s health overhaul got underway without the widespread technical problems experienced last year.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday that more than 200,000 people dialed the federal call center. About 20,000 of those calls were to Spanish-speaking representatives.
The administration says about 100,000 people submitted applications for 2015 coverage, as of Saturday, the first day of open enrollment. That includes new and returning customers.
Also, there were more than 500,000 successful logins to consumer accounts the first day. The same customer could have logged in more than once. That figure includes new and returning customers.
HealthCare.gov serves 37 states. One state-run website — Washington’s— had initial problems.
Private T.J. Roediger, Ellsworth, returned home recently after successfully completing 13 weeks of recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California.
Roediger will be on 10 days of leave before reporting for additional training at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Afterward, he will receive additional training for his Military Occupation Specialty, Military Police and Corrections, located at Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri.
Private Roediger is a May 2014 graduate of Ellsworth High School.
MANHATTAN – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has received the Kansas Home Care Association’s 2014 Legislator of the Year Award for his long record of leadership on initiatives that support and improve Kansans’ access to home care and hospice services. Sen. Moran is the sole recipient of KHCA’s Legislator of the Year for 2014.
“Access to quality, affordable health care determines whether Kansans can remain in their homes and communities as they grow older,” Sen. Moran said. “The special way of life we live in Kansas would not be possible without home care and hospice services in our communities. I am honored to receive this award and proud to support home care and hospice services in Kansas. I will continue working to see that federal policies reflect the value of this care in Kansas communities, and I am grateful to have KHCA as a partner in this effort.”
“It was our privilege this year to honor Senator Jerry Moran as our Legislator of the Year, at our annual meeting,” Kansas Home Care Association Executive Director Jane Kelly said. “Senator Moran has consistently supported home care and hospice in Kansas. He has been on visits where he has witnessed first-hand the care our providers give and the time it takes them just to fulfill the requirements CMS makes in order for them to provide the care and be reimbursed for it. We are proud that he showcased Kansas Home Care when he hosted CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner in Kansas to tour healthcare facilities and providers. We believe the Senator understands that home care is an economical way to care for vulnerable and elderly patients, and understands it is where people want to be when receiving that care. We appreciate his support and look forward to our continuing relationship with Senator Moran and his staff in working for the home care and hospice community.”
Sen. Moran’s efforts to preserve access to home care and hospice services in Kansas include sponsorship of legislation to improve federal regulations to better reflect the realities of rural health care by enabling qualified health care providers to certify patients for home care and hospice services under Medicare. Additionally, he sponsored legislation to provide incentives for home health agencies to use remote patient monitoring to improve care of seniors and reduce Medicare costs.
Sen. Moran has urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider proposals that would cut Medicare reimbursement for home health services and potentially jeopardize home health care access for patients in Kansas. In 2012, he hosted the current CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner on a tour of Kansas health care facilities to visit with a variety of providers across the state. During this tour, Senator Moran and Administrator Tavenner observed a home health care visit to witness firsthand how home care professionals provide care and support to patients in their homes to aid their recoveries and avoid costly inpatient hospital stays.
KHCA is a member organization of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice and was established in 1973 to provide leadership, support, and services to the home care industry in Kansas.
Wilma Augustine, 82, Hays, died Thursday, November 13, 2014 at her home.
She was born September 30, 1932 in Catherine, Kansas the daughter of Frank and Bertha (Rohleder ) Schmidt. On August 10, 1957 she married LeRoy “Dick” Augustine in Catherine. He died October 6, 1987. She was a registered nurse at St. Anthony’s Hospital and later Hays Medical Center for 43 years, from 1954 until her retirement in 1997, working in the OB Obstetrics Department and delivering thousands of babies. She was a member of St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church, was a graduate of St. Anthony’s School of Nursing, and loved gardening, the outdoors, animals, babies, and especially family and her church. She was an excellent cook, noodle maker, and candy maker and enjoyed sharing her candy and peanut brittle at the holidays. She sewed blankets and embroidered tea towels and was always quick to help with church funeral dinners and soup suppers.
Survivors include a son, Richard Augustine and wife Tawnita of Hays, two sisters, Rosemary Walters of Hays and Frances Schmidt of Long Island, NY, two grandchildren, Bryce Augustine and wife Lacy of Gardner, KS and Kylee Augustine of Hays, a great granddaughter Addie Augustine, a special niece, Elaine Werth, and extended family Larry Staley, Jim Staley, and Barb Elliott. She also survived by many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, five brothers Francis Schmidt, George Schmidt, Eugene Schmidt, Gerard Schmidt, and Ervin Schmidt, and three sisters, Anne Schueler, Kay Campbell, and Dorothy Vonfeldt.
Funeral services will be at 10:00 am on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at the St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church. Burial will be in the St. Joseph Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until 8:00 on Monday and from 9:00 am until 9:45 on Tuesday, all at the Hays Memorial Chapel Funeral Home, 1906 Pine. A parish vigil service will be at 6:30 pm on Monday at the funeral home. Memorials are suggested in Wilma’s memory to St. Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church, in care of the funeral home. Condolences may be left for the family at www.haysmemorial.com.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Douglas County judge has ruled that a University of Kansas student who was expelled over tweets to an ex-girlfriend must be allowed to re-enroll.
But Judge Robert Fairchild issued a stay of his ruling Monday to allow the university to appeal.
The university says it expelled Navid Yeasin last November because he violated an order not to contact the ex-girlfriend by sending the tweets.
Fairchild ruled in September that the university had not followed its own rules of student conduct because it did not show that Yeasin posted the tweets while he was on campus.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports Yeasin, a senior in petroleum engineering, said no other school in the state offers the program he needs to graduate and he does not want to pay out-of-state tuition.
After a possible voting machine mistake, the Ellis County Commission will vote on whether to allow a recount from the Nov. 4 election. The discussion is on the agenda at Monday’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the courthouse.
County Administrator Greg Sund said in his memo to the commission it’s believed the vote-counting machine was not zeroed out between early voting and the Nov. 4 election. It will take a recount to verify the correct number of votes.
If approved, the county also will need to schedule a special meeting to canvass election results.
The commission will also discuss two proposed updates to the 718 Main Administrative Building.
The first is a proposal for network cabling for $63,345. The second project is access control to the building. The low bid submitted was $13,780.
Sund will also present the commission with a notice of award document for the courthouse and Law Enforcement Center.
The document gives MW Builders the authority to begin preparations to start the project once the building is vacated.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A woman who was sexually assaulted and set on fire is in critical condition Monday as police turn to the public for help in finding her assailant.
Lt. James Espinoza said Monday police have been unable to interview her at the hospital due to her medication and condition. She gave a brief description of her assailant at the scene.
Firefighters responding to a grass fire at a Wichita park found the 36-year-old woman with severe burns over 55 percent of her body and cuts on her head.
Espinosa calls it a heinous and cruel act. Officers have been contacting residents in the area. Police ask anyone who may have seen anything to contact authorities.
The attacked occurred near Wichita State University, but the victim was not a student.
Fort Hays State University officials announced two gifts today that bring the Power of One scholarship campaign close to meeting its goal of $12 million by the end of this year.
The gifts came from Henry Schwaller, the mayor of Hays and an FHSU instructor in Management and Marketing, and from Jerry Van Allen, Sharon Springs, who came to FHSU as a non-traditional student.
“Henry Schwaller, who was born and raised in Hays, and Jerry Van Allen, who served in the Navy, farmed for more than 10 years and then attended Fort Hays State as a non-traditional student, are creating scholarships for our students,” Dr. Mirta M. Martin, FHSU president, said. “We have now come very close to meeting our campaign goal thanks to the generosity of these two members of the Tiger family.”
“Today’s students face challenges we did not face,” she said. “These gifts from two remarkable gentlemen go to the heart of who we are. Their scholarships will help provide access to higher education for the next generation of leaders.”
Tim Chapman, president and CEO of the FHSU Foundation, announced that the latest gifts bring the campaign total to $11.6 million.
He noted that the Power of One scholarship campaign, in recognition of the 27-year leadership of former President Edward H. Hammond, was announced last December with an ambitious goal of raising $8 million by the end of the 2014 calendar year. “Thanks to the help and support of alumni and friends of the university, the goal was surpassed in June,” he said. “Due to that overwhelming support, a new goal of $12 million by December of this year was established.”
Henry Schwaller, IV
Schwaller said he believes students living in Kansas have an opportunity to experience and test ideas and that FHSU is the driving force behind the growth of western Kansas. Much of Schwaller’s entrepreneurial vision comes from his respect for his grandparents, who he said were among a generation of people who took chances and were very successful. Now, Schwaller has established a scholarship to support FHSU students willing to take chances like his grandparents.
“It is critical that we educate students to have an entrepreneurial mindset,” he said.
The Schwaller Entrepreneurship Scholarship will benefit an undergraduate or graduate student who has shown an interest in the variety of entrepreneur-related events happening throughout the university, or who is working toward a minor or certificate in entrepreneurship. One scholarship will be awarded each year and preference will be given to applicants of Hispanic origin.
“We need to retain students from their freshman year to their senior year here in western Kansas,” Schwaller said. “We have to provide opportunities that not only help students develop skills, but also help them become part of the community.”
Jerry Van Allen
Van Allen, who earned bachelor of arts and master’s of science degrees in communication at FHSU, remembers how he enjoyed his time at the university and the personal impact professors and other non-traditional students had on him. Knowing the big impact scholarships have on students’ education, he hopes to have a positive impact on students’ lives at Fort Hays State University. “I am proud of FHSU and what it has done for western Kansas,” Van Allen said.
He described the circumstances that caused him to have a late start in pursuing a higher education. He said his father farmed and sold farm implements, and with seven kids in the family, there was “never a dull moment.” He went to community college on a scholarship, but with no jobs in Hays and no scholarships for juniors, he enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He returned to the family farm for about 13 years, but when an accident left him unable to farm any longer, he enrolled at FHSU.
“I don’t know when I’ve ever enjoyed anything more,” he said, noting the special relationship between non-trads and their professors.
The Jerry Van Allen Memorial Scholarship will benefit up to four students at a time who have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and come from western Kansas. This will be a 4-year renewable scholarship with preference given to students who have a relationship with the Order of the Eastern Star, one of the largest fraternal organizations for both men and women. Members of this group sincerely reflect the spirit of fraternal love and the desire to work together for good.
“It is with the help of people such as Henry Schwaller and Jerry Van Allen that Fort Hays State can continue to improve and lead the progress of western Kansas by ensuring that students can afford a quality education,” Chapman said. “The FHSU Foundation thanks Henry and Jerry for their support of our students. Gifts and investments like these represent current and long-term security for student support. With the growth of our student population, we must keep pace with scholarship assistance. We encourage all to consider being the one, the Power of One, that will put us over our $12 million goal.”
Those who want to join the effort before Dec. 31 may visit https://foundation.fhsu.edu to make a gift in support of students at Fort Hays State.
FHSU University Relations
Attendance is free. Girls who are not already members of Girl Scouts will need to fill out paperwork to register. However, the normal fee will be waived, and registration for the summit does not require them to become involved in Girl Scouts activities.
