Enactus

Student Group, College of Business

MSU’s Enactus student group is collectively being recognized as the April Public Affairs Student Spotlight for their campus involvement and dedication to the betterment of local businesses.  (More information can be found at www.enactus.org, or via email at Enactus@MissouriState.edu.)  The group has numerous programs, including Business Entrepreneurs Education Program (BEEP), in which local businesses receive help with the development of various aspects of marketing, such as merchandising, commercials, and websites; Entrepreneurs Reaching Citizens (ERC), an after-school program that teaches life skills to children at the Greene County Alternative Detention Center; and the Overseas Coupon Program, in which members clip coupons for food and other items and ship them to military personnel at a US Army base in Okinawa, Japan, where groceries cost 49% more than they do here.

One of their more recent campus programs was “Ice Your Debt”.  This two-day project included information booths, at which Missouri State students could learn how to freeze their credit cards, a “Cash Cab”-like trivia game that tested students’ financial literacy as they rode across campus in a golf cart, and a presentation by motivational financial speaker Rachel Cruze.  The design and impact of the program will be presented at a regional competition in Chicago on April 12th – where they are also the 2012 Regional Champions!

For their hard work, we recognize the members of Enactus as our April Public Affairs Student Spotlights!  Individual members are:

•  Clayton Shoemaker, President
• Lauren Lee, Vice President
• April Weiss, Treasurer
• Yen Nguyen, Secretary
• Jing Feng, Recruiter
• Mason Roller, Web Designer
• Yohan Lee, VP of Marketing
• Vanesha McGee, Historian
• Christopher Adams
• Derell DeRamus
• Charlene Kean
• Johnny Tran
• Joshua Dye
• Justin Morrison
• Erik Kean
• Ke Su
• Sequena Tate
• Victor Mitchell
• Xiao Qju
• Zachary Griffith

As a child, Dr. Kaf witnessed several families in underserved rural communities in Egypt face persistent challenges such as poverty, low socioeconomic status and geographical barriers that impeded them from accessing even basic health care services. These issues, along with a passion instilled by her parents to help needy people inspired her to go to medical school.  As a medical doctor in Egypt, she volunteered and dedicated hours of quality health care services to underserved families.

Dr. Kaf continues her commitment to help the needy by providing hearing health care services to underserved children in the Springfield community.  Her service-learning projects provide an alternative source of hearing health care to children at risk for hearing loss and ear infections.  Provision of services through service learning creates a win-win situation: children are being screened for hearing loss and ear infections, audiology students are learning how to examine children while serving them, and Dr. Kaf is humbly fulfilling her passion to helping others by affording quality hearing health care and reducing health care disparities.

To her, helping others has no seasons!  Irrespective of her service-learning projects, Dr. Kaf usually collaborates with community organizations to provide services to many, including underserved and minority populations, children with special needs, adults with cognitive impairments that reside in nursing homes, and older adults at senior centers in rural counties in Missouri.  Dr. Kaf also believes that helping others has no borders!  During her summer visits to Egypt, she dedicates two weeks of her visit providing ear examinations and hearing evaluations to underserved families in rural communities; and there are many of them.  She also coordinates with surgeons and physicians who share her passion to provide additional free health services.

Being an audiologist and a member of health care professionals at Missouri State University, Dr. Kaf is fortunate to be able to make a difference for at-risk populations with hearing loss in the Springfield Community.  Dr. Kaf’s sustainable health care volunteer service both locally and globally is indeed a representation of all three pillars of the university Public Affairs Mission: ethical leadership, cultural competence, and community engagement.  She engages the community and provides valuable services to those that might otherwise go without.  She provides ethical leadership to her students, encouraging them to give back to the less fortunate.  She exposes students to diverse populations, affording them the opportunity to become more culturally aware.

Tessa Harbaugh

Student, Department of Theatre & Dance

Combining her interest with children’s theatre and love of community outreach, Tessa Harbaugh took her  talents out into the community as a member of the In School Players.  The audition-based troupe, sponsored by the Theatre & Dance department, utilizes scripts based on the Public Affairs theme.   As a member of the troupe for 2 years, Tessa performed for children in elementary schools in Springfield, Nixa, Republic, and the surrounding area.

She writes of her experiences, “I believe that children are the ones we should perform to because some of them may never get to experience live theatre until they are older, and I think they should be exposed to this art form. I think they have minds that are worth molding. I think they are the best audiences because they are so honest in every way. Think about the little boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes story, the one that told the Emperor that he was actually naked…that is how children are in a theatre performance. I have had kids run up to me and hug me to tell me that I was their favorite and that made me feel so good that I made an impact in their lives in some way.”

For her role as a student leader in Theatre & Dance, and her dedication to community outreach, we are pleased to recognize Tessa Harbaugh as the November Public Affairs Student Spotlight!

Dr. Steve Hinch has long been an advocate for Civic Education. As a long-time member of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), he has been guided by the principles that …”the primary  purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”

As a result of that commitment, Dr. Hinch has been heavily involved at the state, national, and international levels in spreading that message.  He was a member of a NCSS delegation that visited with educators in South Africa to explore the challenges of teaching civics in a post-apartheid society. He later was appointed to the Missouri Bar Advisory Committee for Citizenship Education. In this capacity, Dr. Hinch has served as the International Liaison to Civitas International, the global unit of the Center for Civic Education, The Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries. Dr. Hinch traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia two years ago to represent Missouri at the 14^th World Congress on Civic Education. More recently, Hinch traveled to South Korea to participate in the Asia-Pacific Forum.

Closer to home, Dr. Hinch has served during the past three election cycles as a member of the Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee for the Missouri Bar Association. In this capacity, Dr. Hinch was a member of a team of citizens who developed Show-Me Courts.org. This web-site provides voters with accurate information about the judicial process in Missouri. With information about each of the current judges and their performance evaluations for the past years, anyone can stay up-to-date with Missouri judges. One of the priorities of this affiliation is to educate people about the Missouri Plan, a non-partisan, merit-based judicial selection plan for all of the United States.

As a result of his life-long commitment to Civic Education, Greenwood Laboratory School has named Dr. Steve Hinch as the 2012 recipient of the John H. Keiser Public Affairs Award. This honor will be bestowed upon Dr. Hinch at the upcoming 4^th Greenwood Public Affairs Symposium to be held at Plaster Student Union on November 15.  Public Affairs is proud to showcase Dr. Hinch as the October Faculty Spotlight!