Faculty

From the Dean, May 2015

We are at the close of another school year and this one especially has been an exciting one. It is also a bittersweet end to the year as we say farewell to my two leadership partners in the Dean’s suite.

Associate Dean David Tovey, who has held the position for more than six years, returns to his first love – teaching music on the Mansfield campus. Terri Fisher will retire after 33 years of service at Ohio State Mansfield, including three years as assistant dean, and move to the Chattanooga, Tenn. area where she plans to stay active in the academic arena.

Dave Tovey greeted me to campus when I was named dean and stood by my side throughout first year, ensuring a seamless transition. He has been instrumental in overseeing the conversion from quarters to semesters (a project that spanned nearly three years), as well as having been instrumental in bringing new degree programs and classes to the campus, including Sociology and undergraduate Social Work, as well the establishment of licensure for Education majors. Talks with the College of Engineering the first year he was assistant dean resulted in our campus offering a first-year Engineering program. Dave also has been closely supervising plans for a second year Engineering program alongside efforts to increase online courses and opportunities for students to study abroad.

Terri Fisher also was there to greet me as the new dean in her capacity as Faculty President, agreeing to continue her term in order to provide a sense of leadership stability. Because of her efforts, research activities have exponentially increased. She expanded the scope of undergraduate research on our campus and incorporated an understanding of the benefits of undergraduate research into our campus culture. As well, Terri helped to develop a novel approach to retention in which a staff member is the intake person for academic concerns about students. She also was instrumental in applying the principles of Complete College America initiative for the four-year degree programs offered on our campus in order to enhance student success and increase graduation rates.

I thank both Dave and Terri for their selfless service to Ohio State Mansfield and wish them well!

Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D.

 

Haiti Project recognized with International Engagement award

Dr. Terri Bucci, Ohio State Mansfield Education professor, works in a classroom during one of her trips to Haiti. She received the Distinguished International Engagement Award from Ohio State.

Dr. Terri Bucci, Ohio State Mansfield Education professor, works in a classroom during one of her trips to Haiti. She received the Distinguished International Engagement Award from Ohio State.

Ohio State Mansfield Professor Terri Bucci paired a national award for technology and teacher education with the vision of a member at a local church who wanted to build an orphanage and school in Haiti; the result quickly grew into the Haiti Empowerment Project.

Ten years later, the project includes a study abroad experience for Ohio State students of all majors, as well as partnerships with universities in Haiti. The project recently was awarded the university’s Distinguished International Engagement Award and was nominated for the national C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award.

The project involves bringing together the intellectual and material resources of Ohio State and other U.S. faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students to collaborate with the Haitian community to aid its growth.

“We talked a lot about early childhood education and learning theory, but then we got to a point where I needed to know more about Haitian education to be able to be of any further assistance,” Bucci said. “So I just got on a plane and flew down to Haiti.”

Bucci learned much about Haitian government and education from her initial visit, but what she didn’t expect was the response when she returned.

“I got this barrage of emails and phone calls because people found out that someone from Ohio State Education went to Haiti to work with schools,” Bucci said. “It snowballed and we started working with universities in Port-au-Prince conducting teaching seminars.”

It continued to grow from there. Bucci began to find graduate students or faculty who specialized in the fields the Haitians were interested in. However, the project isn’t about telling the Haitians what to do. It’s about helping them grow.

“The Haiti Empowerment Project doesn’t go in and tell them what to do,” Bucci said. “We work with people, ask a lot questions, and then we figure out how we can use our collective resources to solve problems.”

Because the native languages are Haitian Creole and French, translators are needed so that the project members can work with rural as well as urban Haitian communities and coordinate future plans.

“We’ve been working with our translators for a very long time. They could basically teach Education courses,” Bucci said. “Your work is only as good as the translations.”

Bucci has been going to Haiti a few times a year since 2005. The project became a study abroad program a few years ago, which opened it up to student involvement. While most universities avoid planning travel to a country with a travel warning, Ohio State is unique in that it allows students to go to Haiti.

“The Office of International Affairs of Ohio State is great about that. They want their students to live and experience the real world,” Bucci said. “I think Ohio State is really unique in doing that kind of work.”

Of the award, Bucci said she is just happy the project is getting more notice.

“It’s nice to get the recognition for the work because it raises the understanding of the issues in Haiti,” Bucci said. “I think that’s what it means most to me is recognition for the country so that we can be better international partners with them.”

Giveto.osu.edu/mansfield

#313353 Haiti Empowerment Project

 

Leadership changes to come with new school year

Some new but familiar faces will take up residence in the Dean’s suite in July as Professors Norman Jones and Susan Delagrange take on the positions of associate dean and assistant dean respectively at The Ohio State University at Mansfield.

Norman Jones

Norman Jones

Jones is currently an associate professor and program coordinator for the English department and Delagrange also is an associate professor of English, and until recently served as Director of Instructional Design.

Their predecessors, David Tovey and Terri Fisher, are stepping down from the positions as of June 30. Tovey will return to teaching musical education while Fisher plans to retire.

Among Jones’ duties will be working with program coordinators to develop semester class schedules, exploring new degree programs that could be offered at Ohio State Mansfield, developing articulation agreements with other colleges, and helping with faculty hiring and the annual review process for faculty.

He hopes to continue improving Ohio State Mansfield’s relationship with the local community and providing students a wider range of academic opportunities.

“We want to try to meet the needs of the local community and our students better by adding some new programming,” Jones said.

Susan Delagrange

Susan Delagrange

Delagrange will continue to teach part-time while she supervises the staff of the Conard Learning Center and the Bromfield Library and Information Commons. She will also lead research efforts at the campus by publicizing student research opportunities and achievements and increasing community awareness of faculty research.

“The most important part of my job is student support,” Delagrange said. “This includes help with academic coursework and also with undergraduate research.”

Jones received his undergraduate degree in the Humanities at Yale University and his doctorate at The University of California while Delagrange received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron before earning her doctorate at The Ohio State University.

Professors make teaching math fun

Stephanie Tilley, an Early Childhood Education major at The Ohio State University at Mansfield, helps a student with telling time at a summer Math Camp.

Stephanie Tilley, an Early Childhood Education major at The Ohio State University at Mansfield, helps a student with telling time at a summer Math Camp.

Students busily measured Ladybug’s progress on giant sheets of paper as an elementary school teacher delivered the pre-planned lesson. Observers circled the room, making notes as the lesson progressed.

The class was part of a well-orchestrated combination of teacher professional development and math camp conducted at Springmill Learning Center by The Ohio State University at Mansfield in July. The professional development class was made possible through a $203,000 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents.

Twenty-two elementary and middle school teachers from the Mansfield City School District prepared and delivered lessons during the math camp. At the same time, camp teachers from several local school districts taught 170 children in the week-long camp, with relief from Ohio State Mansfield Education students.

A similar camp was conducted with 60 children and 10 teachers at the Lucas School District in August.

“There’s a lot of things happening at the same time,” said Terri Bucci, associate professor of Education and one of the coordinators of the grant. “It’s really exciting to see the results because all those groups of teachers and students are learning as well, not just the kids who are in the camp.”

The grant includes a year’s worth of professional development with course credit through Ohio State. Elementary teachers attended a week of intensive coursework and designed lesson plans adapted from the Algebra Project’s 5-step curricular process, which evolved from Professor Lee McEwan’s successful Algebra Project high school program. Teachers then used the plan to teach during the camp, with other teachers silently observing. After the class, teachers discussed the interaction and offered feedback.

“We wanted to demonstrate that the math camp process works with different kinds of districts,” Bucci said. “Mansfield and Lucas are very dissimilar – one is large and urban, one is very small, very rural. We wanted to show that this process would work in any kind of demographic.”

Kelly Scott, an Ohio State Mansfield Middle School Education student and Mansfield graduate, helped develop games for the camp.

“Growing up, I never really liked math,” she said. “I feel like if we get the kids involved and excited while they are younger, they will want to do math later on when they get to the harder stuff like calculus and algebra.”

Math Literacy Initiative

Ohio State Mansfield and the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education have approved a plan to house a Math Literacy Initiative at the Springmill Learning Center.

The center was on the closure list last spring when a plan was conceived to host professional development opportunities for elementary and middle school teachers in the facility.

Ohio State Mansfield Professors Lee McEwan and Terri Bucci, in their fourth year of teaching professional development for the Mansfield school district, will serve as co-directors.

Students from Ohio State Mansfield’s Middle Childhood Education program also are expected to receive field experience at the center.

Student experiences part of learning

Professor Ozeas Costa helps research student Stephanie Brokaw collect a soil sample from a vernal pool on the Mansfield campus.

Professor Ozeas Costa helps research student Stephanie Brokaw collect a soil
sample from a vernal pool on the Mansfield campus.

The Ohio State University at Mansfield believes that student experiences outside the classroom are just as important as the learning that goes on within. From research to internships, arts to athletics, and from studying abroad to leadership opportunities in campus clubs, students can choose the experiences that will provide personal development and prepare them for careers.

“Getting involved in activities outside the classroom gives them a sense of community and place,” says Donna Hight, Chief Student Life and Retention Officer. “They begin to realize college is a good fit for them. It’s where they belong.”

Stephanie Brokaw, a sophomore at Ohio State Mansfield, was selected for an Undergraduate Education Summer Research Fellowship. With mentoring from Earth Sciences Professor Ozeas Costa, the Pharmaceutical Sciences major is analyzing the wetlands and vernal pools on campus to identify the organic matter and carbonate content.

“It’s nice that we have a campus that already has wetlands and a professor who wanted to do the research,” Brokaw said. “The experience of gathering information, seeing what other researchers are doing and learning to use the computer programs that are involved for research and data collection has been invaluable.”

Two other current students will use their leadership skills to form a women’s support group on campus this fall, inspired by several speakers from a recent conference.

Senior Tiffany Tilley and sophomore Maris Bucci attended the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders at the University of Maryland in June. It was the first time students from the Mansfield campus participated in the conference, according to Donna Hight, Chief Student Life and Retention Officer.

“The women there were phenomenal. They were so high-spirited, outspoken strong women,” Bucci said. “It was awesome being a part of that and sharing it with other people who had similar interests as me.” Bucci is a self-described “involvement activist.” She is a Buckeye Ambassador, Campus Activity Board secretary, member of the Mansfield Mavericks volleyball team, president of Student Government, Camp Hetuck facilitator and is working at Buckeye Village as a leasing consultant.

Tilley is also training to be a Junior Admissions Counselor in the fall. She has been part of the Haiti Empowerment Project study-abroad for two years and was a Buckeye Ambassador.

Ohio State Mansfield connects students with paid internships in surrounding communities, too. Jessica Luna, an Accounting major, is a Human Resources Intern at OhioHealth MedCentral this summer. She provides a variety of duties for the director and vice president as well as participating in project development related to MedCentral’s integration with OhioHealth.

“I think it’s unique that our students have the opportunity to intern locally with a Fortune 100 company like OhioHealth MedCentral (ranked in the top 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune),” said Tracy Bond, Internship Program coordinator.

“Jessica’s internship is a road she’s taken to test the waters in key areas of her interests in the business field that may lead her to pursue specific paths in her academics and career.  The company culture and experiences she is having are invaluable and may open up doors for her in the future.”

Learning to span the ages

Whether you are 18 or 80, The Ohio State University at Mansfield offers higher-education options to suit your interests. Students can take a course or two, or obtain an associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degree right on campus.

Ohio State Mansfield serves as the gateway to Ohio State for most students who attend the campus. After completing 30 credit hours, which can usually be accomplished in a year, students can seamlessly transition to the Columbus campus to earn one of more than 170 undergraduate degrees.

Students may also stay at Ohio State Mansfield and complete one of nine bachelor’s degrees offered on-campus, including Business Administration, Criminology, Early Childhood Education, English, History, Middle Childhood Education, Psychology, Social Work and Sociology.

New this year is a writing concentration in addition to the literature concentration for English majors. The new writing concentration focuses on nonfiction writing, the art of persuasion (rhetorical theory), and literacy.

“Basically, it’s our version of the Communications major,” said Norman Jones, English program coordinator. “But in the broadest terms, it’s about making written communications but also digital and online multimedia communications.”

The Associate of Arts degree is an option for those who want to earn a diploma to mark two years, or 60 credits, of successful college coursework. The AA degree can be a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree, or can be a stand-alone degree. Evening and online classes are available for those who cannot attend during the day. Credits also apply to an Ohio State bachelor’s degree.

Ohio State Mansfield also offers a Master of Arts in Early and Middle Childhood education and a Master of Social Work.

Mary Jo Hawk, program coordinator for Social Work, sees some returning students as more agencies require a master’s degree to meet federal and state guidelines. Others who want to help people, especially children, are switching careers. And recently graduated students are continuing their education to further their employment opportunities in a fast-growing profession.

“They all see it as a positive career move to a profession with a high employment rate,” she said.

Ohio residents 60 or older can take undergraduate and graduate classes at The Ohio State University at Mansfield tuition-free on a space available basis. No credit is given and the courses can’t be applied toward a degree, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to take that history or business class you always wanted to take.

Program 60 students attend the same classes with enrolled students taught by world-class faculty. It provides an excellent opportunity to remain engaged in intellectual activity with people of all ages. Program 60 students add valuable life experiences to classroom discussions.

English writing concentration

A new writing concentration has been added as an option to the English bachelor’s degree. The concentration focuses on written communication as well as digital and web multimedia communication.

“There are a lot of students who want to focus on writing and be better communicators but who might not love analyzing literature,” said Norman Jones, English program coordinator. “This is a way for them to really be able to focus on a broader kind of writing, especially on non-fiction writing.”

The program will take advantage of state-of-the-art technology in the Learning Collaborative Classroom at the Bromfield Library and Information Commons. Susan Delagrange, one of the professors who will teach the writing concentration, has won numerous national awards for composition in digital media.

“We emphasize the real-world implications,” Delagrange said. “Writing occurs in all professions. People feel that it is a very practical aspect of English studies.”

May study abroad offers unique opportunities

 

Students from Steven Joyce’s study abroad class last May gather for lunch in Corfu, Greece.

Students from Steven Joyce’s study abroad class last May gather for lunch in Corfu, Greece.

This month, two Ohio State Mansfield professors are leading Ohio State students on study abroad trips to broaden their college experience.

Steven Joyce, associate professor of German, is leading a month-long trip to Corfu, Greece, while Ozeas Costa, associate professor of Earth Sciences, is spending nine days in Costa Rica with 38 students from Ohio State and community colleges in Georgia and Arizona.

It’s Joyce’s second May semester study abroad. Twenty students, including two from Mansfield, will earn credit for Introduction to Western Tradition & Contemporary European Issues during classes taught by professors at Ionian University in Corfu who specialize in topics ranging from ancient to modern age Greece.

Group excursions to locations such as the site of the ancient oracle at Dodona and the Byzantine museum in Corfu will allow students to see and experience firsthand what they have learned in the classroom.

“It’s an unfolding set of stories,” Joyce said. “It’s absolutely great. Everything they are learning in the classroom is right there.”

May semester was created last year as the university transitioned from quarters to semesters. Up to three credits of May semester courses are offered free of tuition, although there is a cost for study abroad travel, lodging, meals and other expenses. The four-week courses allow students to get an extra class in before they head off for summer jobs or other endeavors.

“We wanted this class to be a regional campus initiative,” Joyce said. “Regional students don’t want to be gone for a long time, so we thought if we could offer a class they can finish in four weeks, they would be interested.”

The Costa Rica program, Environment and Culture in Costa Rica, includes lectures at Ohio State the first and fourth weeks of the semester, as well as nine days of travel through the country of Costa Rica, visiting coffee plantations, national parks, cloud forests, a nature preserve accessed by boat, and wetlands. In each location, participating students from various programs, including zoology, environmental and natural resources, journalism, environmental health and strategic communications, will interview local managers, ecotourism operators and scientists about sustainability.

“This trip will allow students to challenge the idea that conservation and economic development cannot work together,” Costa said. “Those two things don’t need to be antagonists. And Costa Rica is an example of that.”

Every other day, students will have time to reflect on those experiences and how it ties into their own academic plans and perspectives for the future. They will also have the chance to write about their experiences from the perspective of their major.

Of concern to both professors was promoting the trips university-wide while working from a regional campus. But social media and word-of-mouth from students, as well as the excellent reputation of the professors, sold the classes. Costa’s students have either taken a class with him, or are friends with one of his students. Students from last year’s trip to Greece posted photos on Facebook of their experiences. This year 50 students applied for the Greece trip, but there were only 20 slots.

“It was really tough to tell 30 they couldn’t go,” Joyce said. “They all meet the requirements academically for study abroad.”

For many students, it’s the first time they have left Ohio. Instructors, as well as the Office of International Affairs in Columbus, work with the students to prepare them culturally.

“Corfu is Orthodox Christian,” Joyce said. “We teach them that there is a certain way to dress and act. We talk about the perceptions Greeks have about Americans, especially women, and generally about college students. We remind them that they represent The Ohio State University and the United States when they are visiting the country.”

From the Dean

You should be aware that Ohio State Mansfield has an exceptional faculty, with nearly all having the terminal degree in their field. They also are recognized frequently for their commitment to research and service responsibilities, both in the community and abroad.

Steven Joyce, associate professor of German, is one of 10 university-wide faculty members to be awarded the 2014 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. Joyce developed a study abroad program in Corfu, Greece, Mansfield’s first study abroad with a humanities emphasis. Joyce joins Joseph R. Holomuzki (2011), John Thrasher (1999), Deborah Bainer (1996), Thomas Foster (1993), James McCleod (1991), Janet Torino (1990) and Ted Dahlstrand (1983) as past recipients of this prestigious award from the Mansfield campus.

Sergei Chmutov, professor of Mathematics, received the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Faculty Service Award for his work with Math Honors students in his summer program in Columbus entitled “Knots and Graphs.” Those students have given talks at prestigious undergraduate conferences, received Goldwater Awards and published their work in research journals.

Lee McEwan, Mathematics professor, and Terri Bucci and Michael Mikusa, Mathematics Education professors received a $203,789 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents to provide an Algebra Project-based professional development program for kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in the Mansfield City and Lucas Local School Districts.

Rachel Bowen, assistant professor, Political Science, was recently notified that she has been nominated for a Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. Students participating in the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum nominated Bowen for the award. She will find out later this month at the forum if she is an award winner.

These awards across disciplines demonstrate the commitment our faculty has to their scholarship and to our students and community. Congratulations!

Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D.

Professors receive grant to provide math professional development to local school districts

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Teachers from the Mansfield City School District interact with math camp elementary students at last summer’s professional development training. Teachers learned to integrate Algebra Project-based curriculum into their lesson plans.

Three professors from The Ohio State University at Mansfield will be teaching math to elementary teachers this summer through a $203,789 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents. The grant will provide an Algebra Project-based professional development program for kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in the Mansfield City and Lucas Local School Districts.

The Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program is funded under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The purpose of the program is to increase the academic achievement of all students by helping schools and school districts improve teacher, instructional paraprofessional and principal quality.

The funding comes at an opportune time for the Mansfield schools, who just declared a fiscal emergency.

“We’ve been doing professional development but on a shoestring budget,” said Betsy Alexander, executive director of state and federal programs for the school district. “This program will help us accomplish our main goal, which is to improve the academic achievement of our students.”

“CAMP: Collaborative Applications of Mathematics Pedagogy” is the collective effort of Lee McEwan, Mathematics professor, and Terri Bucci and Michael Mikusa, Mathematics Education professors.

“Most students think algebra is incredibly hard and utterly useless,” McEwan said. “We are working with elementary teachers to dispel that myth at an early age.”

In a recent report from the Ohio Board of Regents, 50 percent of Lucas Local School District graduates entering college and 48 percent of Mansfield City graduates required remedial math classes before they could begin college math courses.

The highly successful national Algebra Project, which McEwan has led locally for more than five years, works with high school students in the bottom quartile of their class, providing double the number of math classes throughout their four years of high school, with the goal to make them college-ready in math. McEwan’s first cohort is now entering college.

The recent extension integrates Algebra Project methods and philosophy into kindergarten through eighth grade curriculum. Bucci and McEwan expanded the high school work by providing professional development, lesson study, and working with Mansfield Mathematics Teacher Leaders in grades K-8. The MTL’s worked with Bucci last summer on a pilot of the camp and lesson study program. That work led to the successful grant for a continued and expanded version of the work.

This is the second year the summer math camp has been offered. The program has expanded to include a year’s worth of professional development with course credit through Ohio State.

Elementary teachers will attend one week of intensive coursework, followed by one week of summer lesson study connected to a math camp for district students. Teachers design lesson plans based on Algebra Project curriculum, then use the plan to teach during a summer camp, with other teachers silently observing. After the class, teachers discuss the interaction and offer feedback.

“The focus is to provide teachers with an opportunity to see the practices learned through their course in action with children,” Bucci said.

The professors will provide monthly follow-up professional development at the schools, culminating in a conference to showcase teacher growth and student work, with the goal to create inter-district professional learning communities.

“The camp was very successful last year,” Alexander said. “Our teachers who went through it really got to analyze a math lesson in its entirety and with that, they gained confidence. So to continue it with the money that Ohio State Mansfield has been able to retrieve through this Board of Regents funding is just phenomenal.”

Bucci is eager to work with Lucas schools this year. “There were 12 math teachers interested in the program in the preview session from such a small district. That just floored me,” Bucci said.

The key to preparing students for college, the professors say, starts with enabling teachers to create programs “where students can be mathematicians rather than receptacles of mathematics.” Local school districts make a huge investment in terms of time and training in Algebra Program teachers, McEwan said.

“It will take a generation of teachers to make this work,” McEwan said. “But the most phobic teachers are now the most passionate.”

Susan Delagrange: Digital Pioneer and Professor

SONY DSC

Her path to premier scholarship is not what one might call a traditional one. After earning her MFA in English, from Akron in 1971, Susan Delagrange went on to pursue a career as an architectural painter. A chance phone call almost 20 years later, would take her from painter to pioneer in an emerging field.

“Interestingly enough, I came to Ohio State Mansfield by accident,” laughs Dr. Susan Delagrange, “A friend called to say that the campus needed somebody to teach a first year writing course.” Dr. Delagrange joined the staff at Ohio State Mansfield in  1994 as Writing Center Director and Administrator of the First Year Writing program in 1996. Shortly after she began, she made a choice that would change everything. She took a course.

“It had been almost 30 years since I had done University teaching and I thought I would go back and take a course or two to refresh me on new ways of looking at and teaching of writing and rhetoric.” She notes, “And I’m afraid I was hooked. I applied to a graduate program and received my Ph.D. in 2005.”

Dr. Delagrange achieved a Ph. D. in English with specialization in rhetoric and composition. She moved from an instructor to become a member of Ohio State’s tenure track faculty and began to explore the area of digital rhetoric, which is writing created and distributed in digital mediums.

Shortly after joining Ohio State’s faculty, Dr. Delagrange set out on a unique project. The project was focused on rhetoric and the digital “I wrote it off and on for four years.” she notes, “As I was writing it, I knew that it was different from other things that I had read on the topic of visual of visual inquiry and argument. When I became a faculty member, I decided that I was not going to put off this digital project – this idea that we can use visual argument in a way that is as rigorous and valid as we argue with words.”

The study was new, and, in fact, the newly minted professor feared it might be too new.  Delagrange explains, “One of the problems images have always had is people think, ‘Well, it is an emotional argument, and therefore’ And yet it is. It can be and that is what I set out to prove.”

That apprehension was not to last long. Portions of work were presented as conference papers and were met with widespread enthusiasm. When her research was compiled into a digital book entitled Technologies of Wonder: Rhetorical Practice in a Digital World,  it was not just good by the field’s standards, it considered by many to be ground-breaking. “This is a rich, smart text and a delightful read;” reviewed Dànielle DeVoss, professor of rhetoric at Michigan State University, “It will offer much for us to wrestle with, consider, and attempt to enact in the coming years, as the field’s understandings of and approaches to visual rhetoric become ever more nuanced.”

Experts in the field have also taken notice. The book received Computers and Composition’s 2012 Distinguished Book Award, and The Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award from The Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. In March, the book earned the 2013 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award, which is considered the top award for scholarship.

In addition to her research, Dr. Delagrange also teaches students to produce visual arguments and how to analyze them. Her students on the Mansfield campus enjoy courses that are, in part, studio courses. In addition to writing essays and research papers, students find themselves producing public service announcements, and digital documentaries, and other digital projects.

When asked about the best part of her work. Dr. Delagrange is quick to respond. “ It may be cliché to say ‘the people,’ but I love the students at Mansfield. It’s one of the reasons that I stayed when I earned my Ph.D. I decided that the student population had been such fun to work with for the previous 15 years that I wanted to stay. Ohio State Mansfield is a great place to teach young men and women.”