College Highlights & News
NEWS
Radiographic Science Students Win Awards at National Meeting
February 2009
At the recent Association of Collegiate Educators in Radiologic Technology (ACERT) Conference in Las Vegas, four radiographic science students received honors.
A student essay competition was held in conjunction with the professional meeting. ISU student, Kate Garz, placed 2nd for her paper, "Multiple Myeloma: Finding a Cure for the Incurable." Kerri Hansen and Erin Beale tied for third with their essays, "MRI Fiber Tracking of Cranial Nerves" and "Klippel-Feil Syndrome: Fused and Bemused," respectively.
In addition, Andrew Mundt was awarded a $1,000 ACERT AfterCollege Student Development Scholarship.
Battalion of ISU Dental Hygiene Volunteers Trek to Boise to Help with International Winter Special Olympics
February 2009
A battalion of Idaho State University dental hygiene students – the entire junior and senior classes – are trekking from Pocatello to Boise on Thursday, February 12 to help deliver oral health services to scores of the 3,000 participants in 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. In all, 52 undergraduate dental hygiene students and nine faculty members from Pocatello will join a dental hygiene faculty member and a graduate student in Boise to deliver oral exams from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday and from 10 to 2 p.m. Friday.
"I'm very excited about the opportunity," said M'Lisa Denning, a senior in ISU's dental hygiene Bachelor of Science program. "It will be great for all of the students to go over together. We'll learn a lot and it will be a privilege to help out the athletes that are coming to Idaho from all over the world." The ISU dental hygiene contingent will join numerous other volunteers from ISU-Boise and around the state who also are delivering other services such as hearing screenings and health assessments. These activities are being provided through the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program created in 1996 to focus attention on health issues facing Special Olympics athletes.
"The ISU dental hygiene department and our students were invited to participate with dental health professionals from throughout the state to provide oral health screenings," said Jacque Freudenthal, assistant professor in the ISU dental hygiene department. "This kind of opportunity only comes around once in a life time."
ISU dental hygiene students and dental professionals will provide oral health screenings to Special Olympics participants from more than 80 countries. "These screenings will be geared to finding obvious pathologies such as dental decay and periodontal or gum and bone disease," Freudenthal said. "We will provide screenings, education, mouth guards for those who need them, and prevention efforts including applying fluoride to their teeth and providing them with oral health items to take with them." There will be some treatment available to athletes with serious dental health problems.
The students are carpooling together and volunteering their services. They received some financial support from the Idaho Dental Hygienists' Association to cover some travel costs, but the students are largely taking care of themselves, staying in hotels or with acquaintances in the Boise Valley.
Providing dental hygiene services to the Special Olympic athletes will be an educational challenge. The most difficult hurdle for the caregivers will likely be language --- most of the participants' native language is not English. There will be some translators and coaches present to help with communication. "We've talked about cultural diversity and working with people with intellectual disabilities in classes, but unless we see people that have these characteristics in clinic, we've just talked about it," Denning said. "Helping out at the Special Olympics will provide an invaluable experience for us."
The ISU undergraduate students and faculty also are participating in a research study by Freudenthal and her colleague Linda Boyd, Ph.D., graduate program director and associate professor of dental hygiene at ISU-Boise. This research will compare the before and after attitudes toward and perceptions that ISU volunteers have of Special Olympic athletes with intellectual disabilities. "We want to see if our participation in the Special Olympics helps our students become more comfortable working with diverse populations, and if it adds to their knowledge base," Freudenthal said.
The ISU dental hygiene students and faculty and other Idaho State University faculty, staff and students in Boise and Pocatello are part of the massive volunteer effort ensuring the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho are a success. ISU-Boise assistant professor and audiologist, Mel Miller, Ph.D., who was in charge of the Healthy Hearing program for the Games, has been involved with Special Olympics for four years. "It is a privilege to work with the athletes," he says, "They teach you so much about courage, joy for life and not letting others define your limitations. They just lift you up."