{"id":74818,"date":"2025-05-05T10:38:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T17:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=74818"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:48:20","slug":"in-the-spotlight-may-5-9-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlight-may-5-9-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Spotlight: May 5-9, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">E-mail your announcements to <\/span><a href=\"mailto:Inside@nau.edu\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Inside@nau.edu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or use our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/news-tip\/#.YEjwNWhKg2w\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">online submission form<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A group of students from NAU\u2019s Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation placed as finalists in the Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge hosted by the International Research and Exchanges Board. Led by assistant teaching professor <\/span><b>Josh Merced<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, team members <\/span><b>Colin Birnbaum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>David Boza<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Maxwell Farrell<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Adam Gilbert<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Madeline Kirchhevel<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Sinead Lavelle<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Jacob Orduno<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><b>Jack Spano<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><b>Simon Streeter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> collaborated with students from Al-Ahliyya Amman University in Jordan to develop a sustainable tourism model focused on increasing accessibility and reducing overcrowding. As finalists, the group earned the opportunity to virtually pitch their concept to a live international audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Creative media and film students <\/span><b>Tally Thompson <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and <\/span><b>Gabe Perez <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">worked with NAU\u2019s Center for STEM Teaching and Learning to produce <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nau.us10.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=6a2afdb844a75956276aedcaa&amp;id=85e199c3b2&amp;e=8619c3922c\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">videos<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> promoting the center\u2019s model-based inquiry science education program.<\/span><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Maiah Jaskoski<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, professor for the Department of Politics and International Affairs, hosted the Four Corners Conflict Network\u2019s (4CCN) 10th annual conference at NAU on April 25\u201326. The conference incorporated paper presentations on political and social conflict, Q&amp;A sessions and networking sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Martin-Springer Institute and the Center for International Education.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Souksavanh Keovorabouth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, assistant professor for the Department of Women&#8217;s and Gender Studies, earned the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianyouth.org\/dreamstarter-gold-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dreamstarter Gold<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> grant for the next three years in support of their Indigenous Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit Research Initiative, designed to build space for critical scholarship, community-based research and cultural work centering Indigenous queer, transgender and two-spirit voices.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Collins Ezea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an applied sociology master\u2019s student, published their first solo-authored paper, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajol.info\/index.php\/jswds\/article\/view\/294517\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cInvestigating determinants of suicidal ideation among university students: The role of social work interventions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u201d in the Journal of Social Work in Developing Societies. The study explores factors contributing to suicidal ideation by surveying 200 students attending the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, ultimately showcasing how poor academic performance, loneliness and financial difficulties contribute to suicidal though.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlight-may-5-9-2025\/\">Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs. Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community? E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form. A group of students from NAU\u2019s Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation placed as finalists in the Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge hosted by the International&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}