The University of St. Thomas

News & Events

Student & Alumni News

 

2013 Department Award Winners

  • Sarah Strain (James G. Ahler Award)
  • Olamide Fadahunsi and Leah Miller (John C. Gessner Scholarship Award)
  • Emilee Sirek (Sociologists Women in Society Award)

 

Congratulations to the AKD Initiates-2013!

Allison Scott Greupner, Isaac J. Rosholt, Kristen Elizabeth Simon, Emilee Sirek, Victoria Speake, and Sarah M. Strain

 

2012 Department Award Winners

  • Kylee Joosten (James G. Ahler Award)
  • Kasey Buchmiller and Sarah Strain (John C. Gessner Scholarship Award)
  • Kylee Joosten (Sociologists Women in Society Award)

 

Congratulations to the AKD Initiates-2012!

Kathryn Babb, Jacob Bayer, Megan Buelow, Kasey Buchmiller, Laura Herll, Erika Jarnes, Kylee Joosten, and Mathew Vicknair

 

2011 Department Award Winners

  • Jared Hendler (James G. Ahler Award)
  • Lisa M. Grundtner and Mathew Vicknair (John C. Gessner Scholarship Award)
  •  Korto Sumoso (Sociologists Women in Society Award)

Award Ceremony Photos

 

Congratulations to the AKD Initiates-2011!

Kelly Ann Beamish, Lisa Grundtner, Tyler E. Iverson, Monica Jarvis, Nicholas W. Lankford, and Emma E. Messer

 

Luann Dummer Center Undergraduate Research Fellowship Congratulations to Kylee Joosten for receiving the 2011-2012 Luann Dummer Center for Women Undergraduate Student Research Fellowship for her project "Analyzing Experiences of Sexually Coercive Behaviors and Instances of Self-Silencing in a Diverse Sample of Female Undergraduates."  Dr. Lisa Waldner is her faculty advisor.

Kudos to Lucas Power, Eric Gadbois, and Luis Rangel

for receiving J. Edgar Hoover Memorial scholaships for 2009. These scholarships were funded by the Former Agents of the F.B.I. Foundation, Mr. Jean Gray (UST Alum) and the Graybrier Foundation, and Waypoint, INC. Award Ceremony Photos

2010 Young Scholar

Jared Hendler presented his research at the Fall Inquiry session. His project, "Examining Drug Use Among American Juveniles," was a logistic regression using data from the National Youth Survey. Jared's research was funded by the Young Scholar's Program of the Undergraduate Research Collaborative Scholarship Board. His project sponsor was Dr. Lisa Waldner. See Photo

2009 Young Scholar award winners

Randy Hade (Dr. Lisa Waldner, faculty advisor). Randy's project is an examination of the impact of a community garden in a St. Paul neighborhood as well as community connectedness and civic engagement.

Katherine Cook (Dr. Lisa Waldner, faculty advisor) Katie's proejct will assist Family and Children's Service in assessing whether their out of school time program, Youth on the Move, is effective and to design better assessment tools.  Breanna Alston was selected to participate in the 2010 ASA Honors program in Atlanta Georgia.

Kudos to Breanna Alston, Adam Baker, and Jared Hendler who presented posters at the 2011 Midwest Sociological Society meetings in St. Louis, MO. 

Congratulation to Adam Baker for winning the MSS 2011 Students Poster Competition!

 

Mali Seed Potato Project
 

In January 2010 two sociology and criminal justice students -- Breanna Alston and Jackie Pavek -- went to Mali with sociology and criminal justice professor Dr. Susan Smith-Cunnien. Their work in Mali was part of a US Department of Agriculture-funded three-year interdisciplinary project matching faculty and scientists at universities in the US and in Mali on a variety of specific endeavors.   The University of St. Thomas team included French, business, sociology and engineering faculty and students and we were paired with six plant pathologists, plant propagation experts, and engineering and agricultural economics faculty in Mali who are working together in an enterprise called the Mali Agribusiness Center.  This is a center designed to be an agricultural business incubator, assisting farmers and villages to develop enterprises that will contribute to the well-being of Malians through sustainable agricultural improvements and increased incomes.

Last year sociology students went to the village of Borko to see whether the village was a socially suitable site for the development of a new seed potato enterprise.  This year our goal was  to speak with different groups in the village to ask them how they thought the project was going so far, especially in terms of the training. We also wanted to find out if there were any disruptive effects of the project that could be mitigated and to see what ideas and preferences the villagers had about storing the seed potatoes. We learned that there was a great need for additional training in all areas of the seed potato production process and that the farmers wanted to work on a way to store the seed potatoes in the village itself.  This was the challenge the UST engineering students took on -- a difficult task since there is no electricity or running water in the village and the potatoes need to be stored in a cool and humid environment.            Mali Photos

 

Alexandria Law Enforcement Skills Program


Congratulations to the following Sociology & Criminal Justice Majors who successfully completed the Alexandria Law Enforcement Skills Program-Summer 2012. These students are now eligible to take the POST test, the next step to becoming a police officer in Minnesota:

  1. Mark S. Albrecht
  2. Joseph R. DeRosier
  3. Brandon S. Fettig
  4. Brian S. Graupner
  5. Tyler E. Iverson
  6. Anthony F. Lynch
  7. Phillip S. Spanjers
  8. Zachary T. Wiesner

 

Student Research

  • Former student Randy Hade authored a textbox "Light Rail and the Politics of Everyday Life" in Dr. Waldner's co-authored book, Power, Politics, and Society: An Introduction to Political Sociology published by Allyn and Bacon (2012).
  • Former student Jillian Berg co-authored with Dr. Waldner an article on anti-gay hate crime in the July, 2008 edition of Violence and Victims.
Student Researcher
Three sociology students and Professor Susan Smith-Cunnien traveled to Mali in West Africa for J-term 2009 to complete a project for the Mali Agribusiness Center in conjunction with a government agricultural research center and an agricultural college in Mali.

 

 

 

 


My degree from St. Thomas has led to some great opportunities.  Since graduating from UST I worked as a Deputy Sheriff, spent a summer working for NYPD’s Counterterrorism Division and Deputy Commissioner of Operations, and earned my Master’s Degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.
Professionally, I have worked as a Security Training Supervisor and Security Account Manager at Seagate Technology. My current position is as the Physical Security Manager at Goodrich Sensor Systems in Burnsville, MN.
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Women CJ Alums
 The University of Saint Catherine has a section of their Leaders of the New Millenium program that is specifically for women in the field of criminal justice.  It’s called Women in Public and Private Safety Careers but is designed for those in other criminal justice fields as well.  The Lead Instructor is Stephany Good, a well-known figure in the Minnesota law enforcement community.  The next class begins on November 6 so check it out soon.  There is an information session scheduled for Oct. 15.  More information can be found in the program brochure  at www.stkate.edu/leadership.