Dr. Monic Ductan of the English Department is the recipient of the 2024-2025 College of Arts & Sciences Award for Research and Scholarly Activity for her book “Daughters of Muscadine” published in 2023 by the University Press of Kentucky. It is a short story collection about working-class Black families in rural Georgia that has won the Wetherford Award from Berea College, the Tennessee Book Award, and was included on the annual list of “Books All Georgians Should Read” in 2024.
Category: Academics
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Kathy Rust receives College of Arts & Sciences Award for Innovative Teaching
Chemistry Department Instructor Kathy Rust is the recipient of the 2024-2025 College of Arts & Sciences Award for Innovative Teaching. Mrs. Rust is recognized for using music and rhythm to increase student engagement inside and outside of her General Chemistry class. She shows students that chemistry is particulate and can be understood by looking at the nature and interactions of the particles analogous to the way that music can be understood by looking at the nature of the notes (pitch, duration, timbre) and how they interact.
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Katie Belt receives Kurt Eisen Excellence in Liberal Arts Award
Katie Belt, a senior majoring in Geosciences and Chemistry, is the recipient of the 2025 Kurt Eisen Excellence in Liberal Arts Award. This is the highest student award given by the College of Arts and Sciences. In her Senior Thesis, Katie investigated the detrital zircon U-Pb provenance of Carboniferous siliciclastic rocks from the Southern Appalachian Basin in the Cumberland Plateau. While working on this project Katie learned and applied U-Pb zircon dating techniques and statistical analysis. Her research efforts culminated in an abstract submission to the Geological Society of America Connects 2024 conference in Anaheim, California, where she won the Sigma Gamma Epsilon Best Poster Award for excellence in design and scientific communication.
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Honors Program Students Represent Tech at Regional Conference
Honors Program students represented Tennessee Tech at a conference held by the Southern Regional Honors Council, comprised of over 90 affiliated institutions from 11 states! Their presentations included Markovian Sensor Control Frameworks for Enhancing Security of Internal Loads on Autonomous Aircrafts-Trevon Collins (ME), Jailed Minds: Hidden Crisis of Arresting the Mentally Ill- Cheyenne McAbee (POLS/SOC) and A Content Analysis of Cybercrime and the Intent to Defraud- Esther Paul (POLS).
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Healthy Living, Green Eating
Vegetable sprouts are the young growths of plants from germinated seeds. Sprouts are an excellent source of vitamins, enzymes that aid in digestion, and contain and abundance of antioxidants. Fullei Fresh is a locally owned and operated producer of sprouts. They produce their sprouts from quality sourced seeds and use hydroponic technology to grow them. No soil required! Vegetable sprouts can be incorporated into a variety of dishes, or they can be eaten simply as sprouts!
Now that you know a little about vegetable sprouts, we would love to hear your feedback about having sprouts available on the Tennessee Tech campus! Please fill out the survey below and give us your thoughts!
https://forms.office.com/r/2i62e3nyvb
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WEST Workshop 4/10: Formatting with MS Word
Do you struggle to make your work look professional in MS Word? WEST, the Writing Excellence Studio at Tech, is here to help! On Thursday, 4/10, we will be leading a dead hour workshop on Formatting with MS Word. We can talk about basic strategies and shortcuts to maximize your efficiency. The workshop will be in Henderson Hall 304B, from 11:00-11:50. No registration is required, and all are welcome. If you can’t make the workshop, come for a one-on-one session with one of our consultants. For availability and scheduling, check out our website. We look forward to working with you!
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WEST Workshop 4/1: Designing Presentations
Looking for help understanding presentations? WEST, the Writing Excellence Studio at Tech, is here to help! On Tuesday, 4/1, we will lead a dead hour workshop on Designing Presentations. We will talk about how to structure, format, and effectively present to an audience. The workshop will be in Henderson Hall 304B, from 11:00-11:50. No registration required, and all are welcome. If you can’t make the workshop, come for a one-on-one session. For availability and scheduling, check out our website. We look forward to working with you!
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Faculty: Propose an Honors Colloquium for Fall 2025!
Have a dream course you’d like to teach— one not yet offered at Tech? Consider proposing an Honors Colloquium, a 3-cr. hr. discussion-based special topics course for Honors students. Past examples include The Sound of Science, Irish Literature, Human Anatomy & Visual Art, Civil Discourse and Biomimicry. Teaching teams welcome. For more detail, visit https://www.tntech.edu/honors/faculty.php. Email Honors Interim Director, Lindsey Roberts, LRRoberts@tntech.edu by April 1 to indicate interest.
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Informational forum on new Gen Ed recommendation March 25
The Gen Ed Implementation Committee will host an informational forum regarding its recommendation for Tech’s new Gen Ed program on March 25 at 11 a.m. in the Jere Whitson Building Auditorium.
The recommendation, along with other committee documents, can be found at https://www.tntech.edu/strategic/gen-ed-implementation.php. A link for virtual access to the forum will be available at this page.
The Gen Ed Final Recommendation will be presented to the University Curriculum Committee on March 27. If approved, it will go into effect Fall 2026.
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AI’s Powerful Partner: Critical Thinking
Join us on March 24th from 1:15-2:15 in Foundation Hall room 222 to hear from Guest Speaker Craig Van Slyke. Discover how AI isn’t just a tool but a powerful partner in sharpening your critical thinking skills—learn practical ways to leverage AI to analyze, evaluate, and problem solve more effectively. With limited seating, save your seat by filling out the form linked below. We hope to see you there!
https://tntech.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_51FmxTQvgonMD1I