Tag: Nicholls

Nicholls Sees Decade-High Enrollment Retention

Despite beginning the school year amid a flurry of natural and pandemic-related challenges, the Fall-to-Spring enrollment retention of first-time freshmen at Nicholls State University is holding steady at the highest percentage rate in over a decade, as per this news release from the school.

As it’s true for many post-secondary learning institutions nationwide, the prolonged continuance of the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects has cast a particular shadow on collegiate affairs, enrollments, and retention of students during the transition from the Fall to Spring semesters. In 2021, Nicholls students were facing an even more immediate and devastating disaster in the form of Hurricane Ida, which predictably led to an expected drop in Spring enrollment.

The University’s enrollment data for the Spring 2022 semester showed a 10 percent drop since Spring 2021, dropping from 6,165 to 5,531 students. Nicholls President Dr. Jay Clune reported that this result was expected. This expectation is due to the fact that the Nicholls’ community is still attending classes “amid an elongated pandemic” and still actively “recovering from a devastating hurricane.”

Attending school and earning an undergraduate or graduate degree amid a pandemic is quite the feat in and of itself, but Dr. Clune put the experience in perspective saying, “we have juniors here at Nicholls who have only known college through the lens of this pandemic. We understand how difficult that can be. I commend the students who have remained on campus and look forward to better days ahead.”

This past August, the Nicholls President announced that the University would begin restructuring its initial recruitment and ongoing retention strategies. On a whole, the restructuring efforts will be spearheaded by the Nicholls Office of Academic Affairs with Dr. Sue Westbrook, the provost and vice president for academic affairs, and Renee Hicks, the assistant vice president of Institutional Research Effectiveness and Planning, access, and success leading the charge.

Though only announced at the beginning of the 2022 school year, the positive impact has been immediately evident, as seen with this recent enrollment data. This year’s Fall-to-Spring retention of first-time freshmen at Nicholls was reported as being 90.5 percent, which is a total 7.9 percentage point increase from last year and the first time that the Freshman retention rate has remained above 90 percent in over ten years.

Renee Hicks commented on the positivity emitted from the milestone achievement 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 was also one to attribute the strong retention rates to the efforts put forth by the Office of Academic Affairs. He said, “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.”

Colleges and universities calculate their annual retention rates by comparing the number of enrolled students (as of the 14th day of classes) and subtracting the number of students who have withdrawn or canceled their enrollment. Then this figure will be divided by the total number of enrolled students. This retention rate is then regularly compared to other universities in the area as well as the individual school’s rate across the years. This data is reported annuallyby the university and any fluctuations in data are typically attributed to a wide array of factors, but for Nicholls State University to have seen a milestone increase in freshmen enrollment retention  amid a pandemic and natural disaster is certainly quite the feat of the academic institution.

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Nicholls Nursing Students receive Clinical Lab Coats from United Houma Nation

Nursing students at Nicholls State University will be receiving clinical lab coats thanks to a large donation from the United Houma Nation, as per the university. The United Houma Nation (UHN) donated approximately $20,000 worth of clinical lab coats to Nicholls’ Department of Nursing in order to assist students by covering an important and often costly part of their enrollment in the program.

After Hurricane Ida passed in 2021 and massive amounts of damage and destruction were surveyed in Thibodaux Parish, the UHN had received various donations of supplies that were to be distributed to the affected community. Among these supplies were numerous boxes of nearly $20,000 of clinical lab coats, and these boxes were discovered by Cami Dardar. Dardar is both a senior student of nursing at Nicholls and a member of the UHN, so when she discovered the boxes of lab coats while organizing the donations, she jumped to action.

Dardar told Nicholls press, “I knew I had to get in contact with Dr. Raquel Engolio to get these uniforms out. I really think this is from God because the uniforms could have gone anywhere and out of all the people involved, I knew what to do with them. I would have never thought that being a nursing student and a member of the UNH would ever cross paths. It’s amazing to see two important parts of my life come together.”

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program at Nicholls admits 160 students annually with approximately 80 students admitted each semester. Each student is responsible for procuring their own clinical lab coat, which can be costly as these coats are valued at about $115. Stacked against tuition, textbooks, and other supplies, it’s certainly advantageous for nursing students to be recipients of this UHN donation.

In reflecting on the significance of a Nicholls student who may or may not have had their entire lives upended by Hurricane Ida receive this symbolic and vital part of their Nursing education, Dardar said, “to see another student who needs the uniform due to losing them in the storm or can’t afford them is just a feeling I can’t describe.” She continued, “I remember my first semester and how much of a burden it was to afford these uniforms. Now, students don’t have to worry. It is an honor to bless upcoming students with these coats.”

Head of Nicholls’ Department of Nursing and assistant professor of nursing Dr. Englio commented on the donation by saying, “this wonderful donation will assist Nicholls Nursing students by saving them both time and money. We are very grateful to have this type of support from the community and from one of our students. The timing of the donation is perfect. It is also very meaningful to future registered nurses and will help them have a positive clinical experience.

These donated clinical lab coats were primarily donated on November 5, 2021 at a dedicated donation event organized by Principal Chief August “Coco” Creppel, in which a team of UHN members delivered and handed out approximately 450 lab coats to new clinical students.

New students admitted to the Department of Nursing previously were able to attend a Nursing-exclusive job fair last semester. The job fair was organized by the university’s Career Services, and it provided current and former graduates of Nicholls’ nursing programs to meet, interview with, and connect with potential employers. Employers attending the Nursing Career Job Fair were healthcare providers from hospitals and other healthcare groups across Louisiana.

Over the past decade, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an on-average projection of about 194,500 job openings for registered nurses with the typical entry-level education required being a Bachelor’s degree. That being said, the donation of lab coats from the United Houma Nation is massively appreciated by Nicholls’ nursing students.

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Nicholls Geomatics Program Receives NCEES 2021 Surveying Education Award

Recently, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying recognized the Geomatics program at Nicholls State University with one of its prestigious 2021 Surveying Education Awards, according to this press release from the university.

The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, or NCEES, is a nonprofit organization set on developing, administering, and scoring the surveying licensure tests in the United States of America, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Since 2016, the NCEES Surveying Education Award has stood as an honor recognizing university programs that work to advance surveyor licensure in order to safeguard the public’s health, safety, and general welfare. This is the third time that Nicholls has received the honor, which will give the program $15,000 in awarded funds.

Dr. Esra Tekdal Yilmaz, the department head of Applied Sciences at Nicholls, had said the following on receiving the prestigious honor, “Nicholls Geomatics is uniquely designed to provide a well-rounded education on collection, analysis, interpretation and management of spatial data using conventional methods and emerging technologies. The unique nature of the program is clearly evident in every aspect of the curriculum design, instructional research support, advisory board, industry support, the quality of our students, and our faculty expertise.”

The only honor higher than the $15,000 Surveying Education Award that was awarded by the NCEES was the $25,000 NCEES Surveying Education Award grand prize. This prize was awarded to the University of MaineSurveying Engineering Technology program.

In total, Nicholls was one of three total universities selected by the NCEES Surveying Education Award jury to win the $15,000 prize. The other two were the Surveying Engineering program at the Ferris State University’s School of Engineering and Computing Technology and the Geomatics/Surveying Engineering program at New Mexico State University’s Department of Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering.

The funds will be utilized by Nicholls’ Geomatics program to host a 3-day workshop in which high school STEM teachers can be introduced to the basic concepts and impacts of geomatics, which, according to Oxford, is the “branch of science that deals with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data relating to the earth’s surface.” Dr. Yilmaz noted that “these sessions will also create a continuous working relationship between our faculty and local high schools.”

The NCEES jury had met to evaluate and determine the 2021 award winners on June 24, 2021, and in total one university was selected to win the grand prize of $25,000, and three universities were selected to win the $15,000 prize and the $10,000 prizes, respectively. Schools awarded with the  $10,000 prize were Florida Atlantic University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the Oregon Institute of Technology.

The NCEES Surveying Education Award, as per the nonprofit organization’s webpage, “recognizes surveying/geomatics programs that have a broad and robust curriculum and best reflect NCEES’ mission to advance licensure for surveyors in order to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The award is intended to encourage programs to engage their students with other professionals, introduce them to both historical and new technology, and promote licensure.”

Because the NCEES Surveying Education Award evaluates a university’s performance on national surveying metrics, graduates from the Nicholls Geomatics Program had passed the national exam for the Fundamentals of Surveying at a 95 percent performance rate. This is outstanding once juxtapositioned against the national average of a 54 percent performance rate. This resounding success undoubtedly proves the excellence evident in the Nicholls State University Geomatics Program.

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Nicholls Professor to Present at NCTE Conference

This month a professor from Nicholls State University will be presenting during the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention, as reported by a Nicholls press release.

The Nicholls Professor, Dr. Anthony Kunkel, will be speaking on the power of poetry during the national educator’s conference by way of a roundtable discussion when the annual convention meets in Baltimore in late November. The discussion is titled, “The Power of Poetry to Enhance Inquiry in the ELA Classroom.”

When speaking to the Nicholls press, the Nicholls Professor stated that “students today process their world at a fast pace. Sometimes phrasing can get lost in text-speak and memes,” Dr. Kunkel said. “Kids appreciate poetry and lyrics even more today. But they are often ignored as a means to help students write to express themselves. With all the tech available today, we want to give future teachers a way to engage students on a very creative and relevant level.”

Dr. Kunkel is no stranger to the NCTE, as he presented on utilizing the medium of “visual poetry” in the classroom at the previous year’s gathering. His discussion touched on outlining the benefits of visual poetry, which challenges students to use phrasing, visual effects, and technology in addition to the traditional poetic forms. This informative talk invited other interested parties as the English Language Arts Teacher Educators organization invited him to join their talk.

Dr. Anthony Kunkel is a professor at Nicholls State University in the Nicholls College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, a college that produces approximately 80 percent of the teachers for the Bayou Region, which is made up of cities like Thibodeaux, Houma, and Morgan City. Many alumni from the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences are award-winners in the educational field, holding such titles as teachers, principals, administrators, and legislators.

In addition to producing impressive graduates and faculty, the college also oversees some of Nicholls State’s most impactful campus programs, including but not limited to their pre-K program, the Louisiana Center for Dyslexia and Related Learning Disorders, Little Colonels Academy, and the Bridge to Independence Program. The later is a transformative program for students with autism and other intellectual disabilities to engage in the full college experience while also gaining valuable leadership and social skills needed for independent living and future employment.

When Nicholls Professor, Dr. Kunkel presents at the roundtable discussion, it will be at the first virtual NCTE Annual Convention. Each year the convention hosts thousands of educators to come together to collaborate and discuss a wide variety of learning strategies, curriculum planning, and research that informs their teaching, and despite being held virtually, the convention’s remote location allows for the organizers to offer approximately 400 sessions for attendees to engage in, and all attendees will have access to the sessions for up to 60 days following the convention.

For the past century, the National Council of Teachers of English has been seen as a great friend to educators, as the organization offers and provides teachers with in-class materials to support their professional success as well as publishing journals and other publications to advance the voices of educators nationwide at both the local and federal levels.

Their mission statement, which was adopted in 1990, perfectly encapsulates their supportive goal-orientated, objective which is stated as: “promot[ing] the development of literacy, the use of language to construct personal and public worlds and to achieve full participation in society, through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language.”

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Nicholls Financial Analysis Team Heads to Regional Finals

The Chartered Financial Analysis competitive team at Nicholls State University competed in the Southwest U.S. Research Challenge at Rice University on February 22.

The competitive team for Nicholls included:

  • Breanne Cazenave, a senior accounting and finance double major from Luling
  • Megan White, a senior accounting and finance double major from Pierre Part
  • Preston Thibodeaux, a senior accounting and finance double major from Baton Rouge
  • Carlos Calderone, a senior finance major from Morgan City
  • Terry Dupre, an MBA graduate student from Houma

The other teams in the finals were Baylor University, Rice University, St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, the University of Dallas and West Texas A&M University. Among the teams that made it into the finals, Nicholls is the only school from Louisiana, as well as the only team that wasn’t located in Texas.

This year’s Chartered Financial Analyst competitive team was advised and sponsored by Dr. John Lajuanie and Dr. Shari Lawrence, who are both professors of finance.

“Our students are consistently able to compete against major universities. To be this successful, really speaks highly of our students and their abilities,” Dr. Lawrence said. “As a small teaching university, we have dedicated faculty who give our students a lot of 1-on-1 attention. This is not just myself and Dr. Lajaunie. It’s all of the teachers they have had at Nicholls to bring them to this point.”

The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Research Challenge is an yearly international competition that provides students at various universities with hands on mentoring and training in financial analysis. Students are expected to work in teams to research and analyze a company, even going so far as to meet with company management.

Each team is then responsible for writing a research report on their company with buy, sell, or hold recommendations. Then, the teams are asked to present and defend their analysis to a panel of professionals.

In the first round, teams are judged based on their written work. In the finals, teams are further tested on their analysis and ability to effectively communicate their research.

Teams are given twenty minutes to discuss their results, then ten minutes to present, followed by a ten minute question session. The team who comes in first place will advance to the nationals in New York City and April 20-21 for the opportunity to compete globally.

This year makes the fifth time since 2011 that Nicholls State University Financial Analysis has made the regional finals, including making it into nationals in 2015.

“This is yet another great group of students. This is a very, very intense, comprehensive exercise and our students have done an amazing job,” Dr. LaJaunie said. “We’re one of the smallest public schools that compete. We’re one of those schools that’s not supposed to make it. But I tell my team that they can beat any school we’re matched up against because we have a history of doing just that.”

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Nicholls Educator Participates in new World Class Professor Program

Nicholls State University biology professor Dr. Raj Boopathy was chosen to visit Indonesia as a part of the Indonesian government’s relatively new World Class Professor program. Nicholls news gives us more information, check out the article here. The World Class Professor program, also known as WCP, is a program that is funded by the Indonesian government. This research project aims to help institutions cooperate together by strengthening and promoting research on a global level. The Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education wanted to promote a global satellite research center.

Only ten World Class Professorships are awarded each year. The Indonesian government bases its program recipient decisions in publication and research output in addition to a strong, consistent publication record. Dr. Boopathy’s works have been cited over 7000 times internationally.

Dr. Boopathy will travel to Indonesia to visit the Institute of Technology, Bandung for two weeks. He will discuss his research in environmental biotechnology on the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment, biodegradation and bioremediation of hazardous chemicals, biofuel production and biological treatment of wastewater.

He will also talk to students on how to write and publish scientific papers.

Not only will Dr. Boopathy travel to Indonesia to discuss his research, a professor from the Institute of Technology, Bandung will travel to Louisiana in October to shadow Dr. Boopathy. The professor from the Institute of Technology, Bandung will study Dr. Boopathy’s process in collecting data and publishing research in the most notable scientific journals in the world.

This is not the first award or honor Dr. Boopathy has received. He is also a Fulbright Specialist. The Fulbright Specialist Program sends faculty and professionals from the United States to academic institutions worldwide to consult on curriculum, faculty development, and institutional planning. Dr. Boopathy has been the recipient of three Fulbright awards since 2007. The last place to request his services was Malaysia- who was aiming to curb the country’s pollution. Malaysia has been struggling from air pollution for close to twenty years. Dr. Boopathy visited the country right before Nicholls’ Spring 2019 semester began.

Last year Dr. Boopathy was the keynote speaker at the 13th Asian Biohydrogen and Biorefinery Symposium in Zhengzhou, China. It was here that he gave a speech on his research in the area of bioethanol production from sugarcane waste for energy use. The research is based on the idea of extracting sugar from agricultural waste that would typically be burned during a given season. The symposium had approximately 400 attendees from 28 countries share their research into bioenergy.

Dr. Raj Boopathy is a 2008 recipient of the Nicholls State University Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence. He is also considered an Alcee Fortier Distinguished Professor at Nicholls- an honorary title given to showcase academic excellence. He has published 167 papers in various peer-reviewed journals, 17 book chapters, and has edited a book.

“It is a big honor to be selected as a World Class Professor,” he said. “This says that Nicholls accommodates professors with high research output, and Nicholls always encourages the scholarly work of its professors.”

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