Month: June 2024

Southeastern has been named a Military Friendly® School for 2024-2025. This is the 12th consecutive year Southeastern has received the designation.

Southeastern continues to strive to be one of the best military and veteran-friendly institutions in the state of Louisiana and in the nation. Viqtory Media, publisher of “G.I. Jobs,” states the listing honors the top colleges, universities and trade schools that are doing the most to embrace the nation’s military service members, veterans, and spouses as students and to ensure their success on campus. This year Southeastern was awarded Gold Status, which is the highest award currently in the state of Louisiana.

“We are proud of our consistent listing, as it illustrates Southeastern’s continued commitment to serve active military, veterans and their families. It also places us among some of the top universities in the nation,” said President William S. Wainwright. “Most importantly, we know the designation means we are doing our best to serve those who have made many sacrifices in service to our nation.”

Southeastern enrolls 492 veterans, dependents and military service members. The university maintains a Veterans Upward Bound program; provides academic and other counseling services; offers scholarships specifically for military students and veterans; and maintains a wide range of online and distance learning programs that provide students with flexibility in scheduling.

Southeastern’s ROTC program, which is a sub-unit of the Southern University Army ROTC program, returned to Hammond in 2016 after more than a 20-year hiatus. Forty-six students now participate in the program, with 19 of them being contracted scholarship cadets.

Southeastern also serves as a resource center for thousands of Louisiana veterans in an effort to help active-duty military service men and women successfully transition to college through a new program called LaVetCorps.

Southeastern has a specific office dedicated to serving veterans and their family members. The Office of Military and Veteran Success has two full-time employees, a LaVetCorps Navigator, 10 student workers. The office processes all education benefits sponsored by the VA and DOD, conducts VA benefits counseling, offers priority registration for classes and on-campus housing, and more.

Director of Military and Veteran Success Emily Anthony, who is currently serving as a Captain in the Louisiana Army National Guard, said Southeastern recently became designated as a Purple Heart University by the Military Order of the Purple Heart, signifying an unwavering commitment to continuously improve services to combat-wounded veterans.

“The Southeastern community is passionately committed to serving our veteran community, and it truly shows through our customer service across campus,” said Anthony. “Each office works collaboratively to ensure a seamless experience for our students, and we continue to improve every day. We have created a network of resources involving countless local businesses and organizations that provide services to veterans. As a veteran myself, I am extremely proud to work here because of what we represent.”

Institutions competed for inclusion on the Military Friendly Schools list based on such categories as military support on campus, graduation and employment outcomes and career and job counseling services. The firm Ernst and Young independently tested the data provided by schools.

The 2024 list of Military Friendly Schools shows the commitment of those institutions in providing a supportive environment for military students, the company said in announcing the list.

Viqtory Media is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business founded in 2001. In addition to “G.I. Jobs,” the company also publishes the magazine “Military Spouse.”

Southeastern’s Department of Communication and Media Studies is now offering a graduate degree in strategic communication. Designed for working individuals looking to expand their career horizons, this degree is 100% asynchronous online and requires no GRE score.

Interim Department Head Joe Burns said communicators with skills in digital strategy are in demand.

“Students in the program will learn to begin with the end by planning a high impact course of communication; respond effectively to new technologies, emerging media and market trends; and serve an important role in achieving strategic success,” Burns said.

Enrolled students will take courses in digital communication systems, integrated marketing communication, visual design for strategic communication, emerging media entrepreneurship, and strategic communication for non-profits.

Jobs associated with the degree include media planner, social media strategist, digital content developer, digital account executive, public relations specialist, and digital traffic analyst.

For more information, email stratcomm@southeastern.edu or call 985-549-5408.

A recent Southeastern honors graduate has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant to further his academic career at Pennsylvania State University. Devin Schwaibold, who graduated from Southeastern in May with a degree in chemistry, was offered a position in the PhD program at Penn State to continue the research he began at Southeastern.

The NSF Fellowship is a prestigious award aimed at supporting graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The fellowship provides financial support, including a stipend and allowances for research and professional development, allowing recipients to focus on their studies and research without the burden of financial concerns.

“The NSF GRFP is a highly competitive and esteemed recognition that provides financial support and networking opportunities to outstanding graduate students in STEM disciplines,” said College of Honors and Excellence Dean Claire Procopio. “This achievement not only highlights Devin’s academic excellence, but also signifies his potential for significant contributions to the field of chemistry.”

A resident of Ponchatoula, Schwaibold worked with Associate Professor of Chemistry Prem Chanda in the Chanda research group at Southeastern the past two years on diastereoselective aldol reactions of arylacetamides. His future goals are to go into the synthetic materials field and apply the reactions he has been working on to make a potential precursor to aromatase inhibitors. According to Schwaibold, this will give him the ability to continue doing synthetic work, the most enjoyable part of chemistry for him.

“Aromatase is a protein within the human body that has the potential to cause breast cancer due to an overproduction of estrogen, especially in postmenopausal women,” he explained. “An aromatase inhibitor can occupy the active site of the aromatase protein, ceasing its ability to produce estrogen, and therefore majorly lowering the risk of breast cancer.”

To be accepted into the fellowship program, applicants had to submit a research proposal on a project that could be completed over the course of graduate school. The proposals were judged in two areas—intellectual merit and broader impacts. Intellectual merit is the ability for the research to advance the knowledge in the selected field, while broader impacts is the potential impact the research may have within society as a whole.

“These are very competitive programs,” said Chanda, Schwaibold’s thesis director. “Devin is above and beyond in his studies, and I expect him to do well at Penn State.”

“This scholarship allowed me to be competitive when searching for graduate schools,” Schwaibold said. “This is an honor, and I certainly look forward to the next five years of working on my Ph.D. in chemistry.”

Schwaibold said Southeastern did a great job in preparing him for his future research, particularly the work he has done with Chanda’s group.

“Dr. Chanda has given me the freedom to develop as an independent researcher, for which I couldn’t be more thankful,” he said. “By joining the group, I essentially was able to grow my own project and work through obstacles with help from Dr. Chanda without having to hold my hand at every step, helping me run into growing pains and learning from them. I wouldn’t be the researcher I am today without my experiences within the labs I’ve been able to work in over my time at Southeastern.”

The grant will be a huge advantage for Schwaibold, he said, during his first years of graduate school. It will give him more freedom to look into research topics that interest him instead of having to conform to the research plans that are approved by the grants his lab receives.

“Since I’m bringing my own funding with me, it also offers the opportunity to join a research group that interests me but doesn’t have much funding yet, as I won’t be relying on my advisor for money,” he said. “Overall, the fellowship simply gives me a lot more flexibility that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”