Tag: Nicholls

Nicholls is Preparing Teachers for Hybrid and Digital Learning

It was recently announced via this news release from the school, that Nicholls State University has signed a pledge that commits the University to prepare its educators with skills to successfully utilize digital learning technology for face-to-face, hybrid, and online classrooms.

This pledge, which is a commitment to the skillful use of technology in order to continue higher learning no matter if the class is taught in person, virtually, or a combination of both is called the EPPs for Digital Equity and Transformation Pledge. This pledge was created that resulted from a partnership between the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the U.S. Department of Education.

The International Society for Technology in Education is a nonprofit organization that strives to work alongside the global education community in order “to accelerate the use of technology to solve tough problems and inspire innovation.” The ISTE’s worldwide network “believes in the potential technology holds to transform teaching and learning.”

In the statement released by Nicholls State University, the school reported that they were “proud to be a leader in the field of educational technology.” This pride is not simply due to the University’s signing of the ISTE pledge for digital equity and transformation, but it’s also due to the fact that Nicholls’ Master of Educational Technology Leadership degree is currently only one of 3 Universities to also provide an ISTE Certification for Educators.

In 2021, Nicholls began this provision of the ISTE Certification for Educators with the help and support of two members of Nicholls faculty: Dr. Cynthia Vavasseur, professor of education, and Dr. Sara Dempster, assistant professor of education. Both Dr. Vavasseur and Dr. Dempster are two of only 1000 ISTE-certified educatorsworldwide.

Dr. Vavasseur, who is the program chair and lead professor in the program, spoke about Nicholls providing the ISTE Certified Educator Status by saying, “this will provide teachers in the Bayou Region the opportunity to gain this prestigious, internationally recognized certification. Moreover, it will provide the area with teachers who are highly qualified to implement technology into K-12 learning. Graduates will be experts at utilizing innovative technology for teaching and learning. Especially during a pandemic, graduates become key resources for their peers in best practices using technology for teaching and learning.”

Since Nicholls is an ISTE Recognize Program and now also an integral part of this innovative pledge that ensures future Nicholls teachers will be well-versed in the digital skills and tools that can potentially transform learning with the use of technology, Nicholls State University is a leader in the field of preparing innovative educators for K-12 students and beyond.

The CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education Richard Culatta spoke of Nicholls’s signing of the EPPs for Digital Equity and Transformation Pledge by saying, “knowing how to use technology to support student learning is an essential skill for any teacher to thrive in a post-COVID world. I’m thrilled that Nicholls State University is committed to embedding tech skills into their program so all Nicholls State University teacher candidates will be prepared to hit the ground running!”

After signing the pledge, Nicholls State University joined 33 other institutions that are committed to supplying and preparing teachers to successfully thrive in various types of digital learning environments. Additionally, this pledge aims to equip faculty members to continuously improve expertise in technology for learning, prepare teachers to use technology to pursue ongoing professional learning opportunities, apply various frameworks in order to accelerate transformative digital learning, and collaborate with school leaders to identify shared digital teaching competencies.

For more education-related information, click here.

Nicholls Student Remembered with New Scholarship

To honor the memory of Kennedi Foret, a former Nicholls State University student who was the victim of a fatal car crash in December 2021, the Nicholls State University Foundation is establishing a new endowed scholarship, according to a press release issued by the university.

The Kennedi Foret Marine Biology Undergraduate Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to female graduates of Lafourche Parish high schools majoring in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology. Recipients can be sophomores, juniors or seniors with a 3.0 GPA and will receive a $500 scholarship broken down into two $250 per semester awards.

Foret’s mother Amber Pitre said, “This scholarship is just one way that we can let Kennedi’s light continue to shine and her love for Nicholls continue to show. To give young ladies a similar opportunity to learn about marine biology like Kennedi had at Nicholls means the world to us.”

Foret passed away on in December of 2021 following a fatal car accident. Foret’s accident followed shortly after three Nicholls State University students were killed on the way to a birthday dinner in late November of 2021. Police reported that a driver hit a car with three Nicholls State students inside, all of whom had graduated from the same high school in the spring of 2021.

Louisiana set a new record in 2021 with 914 highway crashes and 997 deaths. According to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission’s recent Louisiana Highway Safety Plan there was a 10% increase in car crashes within the last five years and 40.6% of all fatal car crashes that occurred in 2019 were related to alcohol impairment. Governor John Bel Edwards said that these statistics were “alarming” and lamented, “The fact that there are an average of three deaths per day on Louisiana highways is unacceptable.” Impaired and distracted driving are other notable causes of highway deaths.

Across the United States, car accidents are the number one leading cause of death among 13- to 19-year-old females, and one of the leading causes of deaths for both male and female college students. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cites several reasons for these startling statistics including distracted driving, speeding, drunk driving, driving with peers, and general inexperience. No matter the reason, when a teen is involved in a serious automobile accident, the outcome can be devastating for the families of everyone involved, particularly if injuries in teen car accidents are fatal.

Foret’s family and friends wish to make a difference for others, raise awareness and preserve Kennedi’s memory by starting the endowed scholarship. Nicholls State University also honored Kennedi’s legacy by inscribing her name into a brick near the eternal flame in the quadrangle of campus.

Nicholls Foundation Executive Director Jeremy Becker said the university has started strong in raising money for the endowment scholarship in honor of the Nicholls student, however, they have not yet met their goal. Becker hopes that the scholarship will encourage women in Louisiana to pursue a career in marine biology to help with preservation and restoration efforts along the state’s coast line.

“To have Kennedi’s name associated with recruiting future students to come to Nicholls and possibly do marine biology research in the Coastal Center that will live on our campus is something special,” Becker said. “I’d love to see solutions to some of our coastal restoration problems come from a recipient of this scholarship in her name.”

Contributions are welcome and encouraged to help meet and surpass the scholarship’s goals, to enrich the lives of women in Louisiana, and to honor the legacy of Nicholls student, Kennedi Foret. To support this scholarship, visit nichollsfoundation.org/memorial-scholarships/ or contact Jeremy Becker at 985-448-4006.

For more education-related information, click here.

Small Business Development Center at Nicholls Awarded Top Honor

Recently, the Nicholls State University Small Business Development Center was awarded the “2022 Small Business Development Center Service and Innovation Center Award” by the United States Small Business Association Louisiana District Office, according to a news release from the school.

The Louisiana Small Business Development Center at Nicholls State University (LSBDC at Nicholls) is an organization that strives to offer business consulting and entrepreneurial workshops to small businesses in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. In winning the “2022 Small Business Development Center Service and Innovation Award,” the LSBDC at Nicholls has received one of the top awards in the state of Louisiana.

The award was accepted by Jimmy Nguyen, the Associate Director for LSBDC at Nicholls, and Suzanne Carlos, a Business Consultant for LSBD at Nicholls. These two accepted the award during the 2022 Louisiana Small Business Awards Ceremony, which was held at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge during National Small Business Week.

The ceremony, which is held annually, serves as an opportunity for the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) and the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA)  to publicly recognize both business owners and supporters who exemplify the entrepreneurial resilience and diversity of the state of Louisiana.

The “2022 Small Business Development Center Service and Innovation Center Award” was awarded to Nicholls’ Jimmy Nguyen and Suzanne Carlos. Nguyen commented on his receiving the honor by saying, “receiving this award is one of my greatest accomplishments. It’s been a goal of mine since taking on a leadership role in 2018.  couldn’t have been able to achieve this without the support of Nicholls State University, our Bayou Region partners, and my clients. My clients have persevered through the pandemic and Ida which gives me the strength to continue to do my best each day.”

In announcing their awarding this prestigious honor, the Small Business Association (SBA) Louisiana District had highlighted the Nicholls Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for their clearly present and exemplary hard work, innovative ideas, and dedication to the Bayou Region Community. 

Over the past three years alone, the Nicholls SBDC has made a significant impact on the economy in the Bayou Region, especially since 2019 when they began a partnership with Chevron. Since 2019, both Chevron and the Nicholls SBDC have hosted pitch competitions that award funding capital to innovative entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in the Bayou Region for their ideas that best strengthen the local economy.

In 2020, the Nicholls SBDC hosted a Virtual Pitch Competition in a partnership with Chevron and the Nicholls College of Business Administration to assist Bayou Region businesses in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally and more recently, both Chevron and the Nicholls SBDC had partnered together following Hurricane Ida in 2021 to award disaster relief grants to Bayou Region businesses affected by the detrimental storm. Furthermore, the Nicholls SBDC also worked closely with the new Bayou Region Incubator so that they may provide assistance for business owners working with organizations to target coastal erosion.

At the ceremony, LED Secretary Don Pierson announced that in 2021, LED and the LSBDC Network had served 18,408 small businesses and individuals, which resulted in the creation of 1,126 new jobs, the retention of 2,874 jobs, and the launch of 164 new businesses. This represented more than $83 million in capital formation.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards addresses attendees of the ceremony in a virtual address saying, ”sustaining business stability and growth has never been more challenging than in these last few years. On behalf of the state which you so lovingly support, it gives me great pleasure to honor the Small Business Award recipients whose skill, determination, resourcefulness and optimism embody the heart, and soul of our state.”

For more education-related information, click here

Nicholls Farm has New Bridge Allowing Access for More Research

Thanks to a partnership with ConocoPhillips and the Lafourche Parish Government, Nicholls State University recently celebrated the rebuilding of the Nicholls Farm Bridge, a project that will have massive implications for the research conducted on Nicholls Farm. According to this statement from the school, the newly rebuilt bridge will be used to grant Nicholls Biology faculty members access to the land on the opposite side of Bayou Folse for research, ecological, and educational purposes.

The rebuilding of Nichols Farm bridge was a $300,000 project that was deemed “critical” by the University for its impact. Funding for the project was gathered over the past two years with the Lafourche Parish Government donating $200,000 towards the project and ConocoPhillips donating an additional $100,000 to see the project come to fruition.

It was in 1969 that Nicholls first purchased from Harvey Peltier the land that would eventually become Nicholls Farm, an integral part of the school’s plans to become the center for total restoration research in Louisiana. In just the past decade alone, Nicholls Biology has produced over 30,000 black mangroves at Nicholls Farm. These mangroves were eventually planted along coastal areas for the purpose of maintaining our coastal wetlands. A complete master plan for Nicholls Farm outlines plans for a classroom space, additional land, and areas to test coastal restoration projects, so the completion of this bridge is only one component of a much larger vision for the University.

Because of the bridge’s placement, Nicholls Biology faculty will now have access to the other end of Bayou Folse, allowing them to plant and grow several species of trees and coastal plants. These plants and trees will then be transferred to the Louisiana coastline to help defend coastal erosion.

Nicholls Biology department head Dr. Quenton Fontenot commented on his vision for the bridge at Nicholls Farm by saying, “our dream for the Farm is a place that brings people together for coastal restoration initiatives, and so to have the support of partners such as ConocoPhillips and the Lafourche Parish Government means we are going to be able to do that. Without that help the project is likely not finished today.”

As of the time of the university celebrating the completion of the bridge, the Biology Department already had several Louisiana irises ready to plant in the ponds on the other side of the bridge through a collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. One of the objectives for planting the irises is for seed harvest production. This is due to the versatility and essentialness of the plant, as it is native to the Bayou Region and sustainable in coastal habitats. These features make plants such as these native Louisiana irises absolutely vital to maintaining coastal wetlands and barrier islands.

John Harrington, the Coastal Wetlands director for ConocoPhillips, said of the essential need to protect the Louisiana coastlands, “the vast wetlands in southeast Louisiana are ideal for coastal restoration research. We are proud to support key partners like Nicholls State University to drive habitat-enhancement research and promote coastal resiliency and sustainability.”

A vital partner in this project coming to fruition is ConocoPhillips, which is one of the world’s leasing exploration and production companies when concerning production and reserves. They also have a globally diversified asset portfolio, and through their subsidiary The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company, they are the largest private wetlands owner in Louisiana. ConocoPhillips has long been a supporter of Nicholls State University and helps to steward their support of the coastal wetlands through their Houma office.

For more education-related information, click here.

BCBS of Louisiana Foundation Awards Nicholls a Disaster Response Grant

Nicholls State University will soon be able to offer need-based scholarships to help students return to campus after having previously left in the wake of Hurricane Ida. According to this news release from the school, a $100,000 disaster response grant will be utilized to create these scholarships, which will be helpful to students wanting to return to their degree plans.

It was announced by the university in May 2022 that a $100,000 disaster response grant was awarded by The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation. It was also announced that the funds would be utilized so that students who had halted their learning due to Hurricane Ida’s detrimental impact on the area would be able to qualify for a needs-based scholarship that would offset the cost of re-enrolling & returning to classes.

Nicholls State University President Dr. Jay Clune commented on BCBSLA’s award by saying, “even though others outside of South Louisiana have long stopped talking about the effects of Hurricane Ida, we are still feeling the impacts every single day. We are grateful for this partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield. I don’t like to think of where we would be without the support of our wonderful industry and community partners.”

In the wake of Hurricane Ida, the destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that made its landfall near Port Fourchon on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it was reported that an estimated 25% of Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish homes were destroyed or declared uninhabitable. Additionally, approximately two-thirds of the Nicholls community reported that their homes were destroyed or uninhabitable. Once the storm passed, the BCBSLA Foundation had committed $5 million in funds to areas affected by Ida, and other communities across the Gulf Coast also stepped up.

Earlier this year, The Courier reported that Nicholls State’s spring enrollment had dropped 10% from the previous year, attributing the decline to Hurricane Ida as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In August of 2021, Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune announced that the school would essentially restructure its retention and recruitment strategies. As a result, the university’s decision to have recruitment and retention efforts managed by the Office of Academic Affairs, specifically being led by Sue Westbrook, provost and president for Academic Affairs, and Renee Hicks, assistant vice president of Institutional Effectiveness, Access, and success.

It was then reported that the university’s fall-to-spring retention rate of first-time freshmen had increased by 7.9 percentage points from the previous year to be listed at 90.5%. This was the first time that this retention rate had surpassed 90% in over a decade, thus signaling that Nicholls’ restructuring was beginning to pay off. Renee Hicks interpreted the data by saying, “when we post retention rates like this, it means our entire campus community has come together to provide extraordinary support for our students during the recovery from a major hurricane on top of a pandemic.”

Dr. Clune commented on the promising data, saying, “in addition to our strong retention rates, we also see applications are up year-to-year. I attribute that to our data-led approach to recruitment and retention by Ms. Hicks and her team. With a new marketing campaign and increased recruitment and retention efforts, we anticipate a return to an upward trend in enrollment.”

Pair this earlier indicator of rising enrollment rates with these new needs-based scholarships established from The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation’s $100,000 disaster response grant, and it’s even clearer to see that not just the campus community of Nicholls is coming together to come out of Hurricane Ida stronger than before, but the surrounding community of Houma, Thibodaux, and the State of Louisiana is banding together as well.

For more education-related information, click here

Dinner of the Century is Back at Chef John Folse Culinary Institute

For the first time in over two years, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University is inviting members of the community to be a part of their annual “Dinner of the Century” fundraiser, according to this news release from the school.

Director of the Culinary Institute, Chef John Kozar, commented on the return of the traditional fundraiser by saying, “this is the first Dinner of the Century since the pandemic began over two years ago. We are excited to be able to bring this unique culinary experience back to our community.” The theme for this year’s dinner is named “A Joyful Magnificence Celebrating Catherine de Medici.”

This year’s menu is inspired by the Queen of France from 1547-1559, Catherine de Medici, who has influenced much of the way we eat and even think about food today. Having been born in Italy, Catherine de Medici introduced many ingredients, recipes, and culinary culture that she had grown up with to the French, making the rest history. Chef John Kozar commented on the cuisine set to be served by saying, “this historic menu is a mix of modern and antique dishes that include some of Catherine de Medici’s favorite treats, as well as some iconic items from Pascal’s Manale, all of which is created by our student chefs and the Chef John Folse team.”

The last planned “Dinner of the Century” fundraiser event was to be held in April 2020, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; luckily, this 2022 event aims to pick up the torch and carry the tradition onward. In addition to the culinary celebration of various dishes, the evening will be used as an opportunity to induct the DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant into the Lafcadio Hearn Hall of honor, an honorary event that was originally slated for the since-canceled 2020 fundraising dinner.

The Lafcadio Hearn Award is one that is bestowed upon culinary professionals who have had a positive, long-term influence on the cuisine and greater culture of Louisiana and throughout the nation. The honor is named after Lafcadio Hearn, an influential figure who penned a series of books and articles introducing New Orleans to the world while helping to document Creole cuisine for future generations. Having passed away in 1904, Hearn’s legacy lives on in how the public interprets Creole cuisine today as well as in the inducting members into the Lafcadio Hearn Hall of Honor. The Defelice Family will join other influential chefs and restaurants in the Hall of honor. This includes Ella Brennan, Frank Brigtsen, Leah Chase, Drago Cvitanovich, Ruth Fertel, and T.J. Moran, among many others.

It’s appropriate that the DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant fame be inducted into the Hall of Honor, because not only has Pascal’s Manale Restaurant been an influential part of New Orleans cuisine, but since the very beginning, the restaurant has been a family affair. First opened by Frank Manale in 1913, the restaurant was taken over by Manale’s nephew Pascal Radosta in 1937, who took full ownership of the establishment and later added his name to create the infamous culinary institute that we now know today.

The restaurant eventually gained international attention after Pascal’s youngest brother, Jake, created one of the most iconic New Orleans dishes in the 1950s: barbecue shrimp. Later,  Pascal’s youngest daughter, Virginia DeFelice, and her family purchased the restaurant in 1988. The family continued to operate the restaurant until November 2019.

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University’s “A Joyful Magnificence Celebrating Catherine De Medici” also honoring The DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant will be held on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at Nicholl’s Cotillion Ballroom in the Bollinger Student Union. A cocktail reception will be held at six o’clock with dinner service starting at seven o’clock. Information to reserve seats and sponsorships can be found here, with all proceeds going toward the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

For more education-related information, click here.