Summer 2002

Roll out the welcome mat

The Presidential Honors Program is expanding its horizons. Included in the 20 new students admitted to the program this year are two international students. Adelaide Odoteye from Harare, Zimbabwe enrolled at Tarleton in the Spring of 2002 and will be joining PHP in the fall as an accounting major. Eva Muller from The Netherlands will be joining us in the fall as an incoming freshman. She is coming to Tarleton to study Industrial Design. Other students admitted to PHP this fall include Brandie Allen of Alvarado majoring in Education, Stephanie Bumpas of Brownwood to study Accounting, Tracey Chambers of Stephenville majoring in English, Joseph Gilbert of Tomball majoring in Engineering, Mica Hassler of Stephenville as a Communications major, Kallen Hayes of Eagle, Idaho majoring in Horticulture, Jesse Helm of Stephenville studying Political Science, Aeliya Jafri of Stephenville majoring in Pre-dentistry, Candice Jones of Eastland as a Pre-Vet major, Allison McLane of Midland in Liberal Studies, Jessica Porter of Abilene is a Pre-Med major, Leslie Raddatz of Llano, studying Interdisciplinary Studies, Cassi Rowland of Palacios majoring in Music, Elizabeth Satchell of Mineral Wells, Interdisciplinary Studies, Evan Stenmark of Clifton majoring in Pre-Engineering, Eileen Stock of Killeen is a Math major, and Ileana Zea of Austin studying Pre-Med. PHP welcomes these new students and encourages them to help us advance the program to a higher level of excellence.

This semester I had the opportunity to begin my senior research project. I have found this to be an exciting and rewarding experience. I am currently working with Dr. Jill Burk, Dr. Sarah Tyler, Dr. Dennis Jones and Ms. Kim Schmidt. We have been studying digital literacy and its relation to children. Basically this deals with how children read on a computer.

One project we did this semester had the students in Ms. Schmidt’s fourth grade classroom compare two websites with the paper text. In general the students liked the website that had wider margins with more white space and a larger font. It was also interesting to note that the students enjoyed the emotional aspect of being able to curl up with a paper copy of the text.

Towards the end of the semester the first major published research involving children and websites was published. Usability of Websites for Children: 70 Design Guidelines by Shuli Gilutz and Jakob Nielsen supported our findings. They also found that children were able to better use websites with wider margins and a large font. Overall this research has been interesting. There is still more research to be done. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with the faculty at Tarleton and the students at Hook Elementary.

*Wayne Keith (1991) received his M.S. in space physics from Rice in 1999. He completed his Ph.D. there in May of 2001. Currently he is a postdoctoral associate at Southwest Research Institute and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Visit his website at http://waynek.cjb.net.

*Heather Wright (1993) is graduated from Palmer Chiropractic College, the oldest chiropractic school in the world. She is opening her own chiropractic clinic in Weatherford. Also, she writes a regular column on chiropractic medicine and "alternative care" in the Weatherford Democrat. (05/22/02)

*Amber Dawson (1997) is studying medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in September 2001.

*Nathan Lesley (1997) is studying medicine at Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine in September 2001.

*Jason Mogonye (2002) is studying medicine at Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine in September 2002.

*Esther (Allen) White (1997) is completing her dietetic internship to become a registered dietician and will graduate with a master's degree in nutrition in May of 2002 from Texas Woman's University.

New Course Added to Honors Core Offerings

A new addition has been included in the Honors Core for the 2002-2003 school year. Physics 1224 is now offered and any students interested in taking that course should register for the regular section and then make arrangements with Dr. Marble for Honors requirements.

The following are PHP grads for whom we have no contact information. If you know the e-mail or mailing addresses for any of them, please forward that information to Dr. Clifford at cliffor@tarleton.edu or by calling the Honors Program at (254)-968-1926.