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'What I Did on My Summer Vacation'
ORU professors tell all
Here are just a few samples of what some faculty members are doing while the rest of us are on the beach (or wishing that we were)...
Time for creation
Stuart Branston, art department chairman, is using his summer to continue work on several art projects in various stages of completion. As a working artist as well as a professor, Branston finds it necessary to stay involved in the act of creation. "The more I am able to work as an artist, the more I will be able to help my students develop as artists themselves," he said. One successful project, begun during the spring semester of 2003 while Branston was on sabbatical, is "Fleur," a sculpture that this June won first place in the Professional Division of the 13th Annual Sapulpa Juried Art Show.
Back to school
Biology instructor Sarah Myer has a slightly different classroom role this summer: student. She is conducting research in medical genetics with her research advisor, Dr. Lee F. Rickords, as she pursues a Ph.D. at OSU. She is also continuing a research project, "A study of transcriptional regulation," supported by an ORU intramural grant.
Vive la study!
Dr. Robert Skinner, chairman of the modern foreign languages department, is leading an ORU-related "Tour de France" of sorts for several weeks in July. He and eight ORU students will combine travel and study with stops at Versailles, the Louvre, the chauteaux of the Loire Valley, the Normandie memorial, and Mont Saint Michel. "Students will have the opportunity to interact with native French speakers, to share their faith, and to experience French culture firsthand," Dr. Skinner wrote in anticipation of the trip.
Conserve, protect, and learn
It's summer school...with a green twist. Biology department chairman Dr. Hal Reed is spending his summer teaching, but not at ORU. He is surrounded by natural beauty at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies in northern Michigan, where he is teaching a class in Conservation Biology.
