April 16, 2004 News Releases
Released 4/20/04, 4/21/04 and 4/22/04
UTAH STATE NEWS RELEASES FOR 4/22/04
ASK A
SPECIALIST: I HEARD THERE IS AN ORGANISM IN GARDEN SOIL THAT
CAN BE HARMFUL TO PREGNANT WOMEN. IS THIS TRUE?
Answer by Clell Bagley, Utah State University Extension Veterinarian
A protozoan organism called toxoplasma can be present in garden
soil and can be harmful to the infants of pregnant women and
those with a weakened immune system if proper precautions are
not taken. Toxoplasmosis causes flu-like symptoms, such as swollen
lymph glands or muscle aches and pains that last a month or
longer. It can also cause mental disabilities and/or eye damage
to infants who are infected while in the womb.
More than 60 million people in the United States are likely
carriers of the toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms
because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing
illness.
Toxoplasma can exist in soil when infected cat feces are present.
Outdoor cats that eat mice are the most likely carriers. A cat
can become infected by eating infected prey or being fed raw
or undercooked meat infected with the parasite. Not all cats
shed this organism all the time. An infected cat only sheds
the organism for a few weeks. However, once it is in the soil,
it can survive several months to a year or more, in spite of
warm or cold weather. Dog feces do not cause toxoplasmosis,
but can cause other problems.
Toxoplasmosis is caused by hand to mouth contamination, and
can come from sources other than infected garden soil. Some
include eating meat that is not thoroughly cooked, contamination
of knives, utensils, cutting boards and other foods that have
had contact with raw meat and through contaminated drinking
water.
Though it is a serious threat, toxoplasmosis can easily be prevented
by taking the appropriate precautions. To be properly protected
if you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system, consider
these tips.
• Always wear plastic or rubber gloves when gardening,
and wash hands thoroughly when finished.
• Have someone else empty the cat litter if you have
a house cat. Always wash your hands after petting or handling
a cat.
• When preparing raw meat, wash cutting boards, sinks,
knives and other utensils thoroughly with soap and hot water
to avoid cross-contaminating other foods. Wash your hands well
with soap and water after handling raw meat.
• Cook all meat thoroughly and until it is no longer pink
in the center or until the juices become colorless. Do not taste
meat before it is fully cooked.
• To help prevent your cat from becoming infected with
toxoplasma, keep it indoors and feed it dry or canned cat food.
• Try to keep cats out of garden areas. Repellents are
available, but it is impossible to guarantee they will work.
It is best to assume the area is contaminated and always wear
gloves and wash hands thoroughly.
For further information on toxoplasmosis, visit the Center for
Disease Control Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/toxoplasmosis/factsht_toxoplasmosis.
Visit: http://extension.usu.edu/cooperative/aska/
to see other Ask A Specialist columns.
April 22, 2004
ASK A SPECIALIST (A weekly question/answer column)
Direct column topics to Julene Reese, Utah State University
Extension, Logan, UT 84322-0500, 435-760-9302; julener@ext.usu.edu.
UTAH STATE NEWS RELEASES FOR 4-21-04
UTAH STATE STUDENTS
RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIPS
LOGAN — Utah State University students Stephanie J.
Chambers and David R. Hatch were awarded the Goldwater Scholarship
for excellence demonstrated in scientific research. The Barry
M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation
awarded only 310 of the scholarships nationwide in 2003.
“The Goldwater Scholarship is one of the top national
scholarships out there,” said David Lancy, head of the
Utah State University Honor’s Program. “Only six
students in Utah were awarded the scholarship and this is the
first time two from Utah State have received it.”
Chambers is studying biology at Utah State. Her career goals
include earning a Medical doctor degree as well as a doctorate
in biochemistry and molecular biology. She hopes to focus her
research on protein biochemistry and heart diseases in conjunction
with teaching at a research university.
Stephanie is an exceptional research student,” said Lancy.
“She has been performing quality research for us since
her first semester here, which is very rare. She is one of the
reasons we came up with research scholarships for first-year
students.”
Hatch is a physics and mathematics major with a career goal
to obtain a doctorate in theoretical physics. His Goldwater
Essay topic was on stereographic imagining of noctilucent clouds.
“David is a hard-working, dedicated student doing great
research,” said physics professor Mike Taylor. “He
has produced the best data we have ever obtained on noctilucent
clouds. He does careful work and has always given us exactly
what we need.”
The Goldwater Scholars were selected for their achievements
and academic merit from a field of 1,113 mathematics, science
and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties
of colleges and universities nationwide. One hundred sixty-one
of the scholars are men, 149 are women and virtually all intend
to obtain doctorates as their degree objective. Twenty-nine
scholars are mathematics majors, 223 are science majors, 44
are majoring in engineering, 12 are computer science related
majors and two are in other related fields. Many of the scholars
have dual majors in a variety of mathematics, science, engineering
and computer disciplines. The one- and two-year scholarships
will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board
up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.
For more information, contact Lancy (435) 797-1322.
April 21, 2004
Contact: David Lancy (435) 797-1322
Writer: Devin Castleton (435) 512-8646 devincastleton@yahoo.com
UTAH STATE
STUDENT ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WINS REGIONAL AWARD
LOGAN — Utah State University’s Student Alumni
Association beat out universities in California, Utah, Nevada,
Arizona and Hawaii for the Association of Student Advancement
Programs’ Outstanding Organization of the Year Award for
2003-04.
Utah State’s Student Alumni Association (SAA) received
the award for showing superior leadership and giving its members
opportunities and experiences to excel.
The Association of Student Advancement Programs is a national
organization affiliated with the Council for Advancement and
Support of Education, and Utah State is part of the association’s
seventh district. National and district conferences are held
each year to exchange ideas among university student alumni
programs to improve their organization.
Utah State’s SAA presidency includes Jamie Blomquist Belessa,
president; Darby Cowles, vice president; Annalynn Colvin, secretary.
April 21, 2004
Writer: Miaken Christensen, 435-797-5506
Contact: Patty Halaufia, 435-797-2053
UTAH STATE OFFERS
FOURTH ANNUAL SUMMER BIOTECH ACADEMY FOR TEENS
LOGAN — The Utah State University Center for Integrated
BioSystems (formerly the Biotechnology and Genomics Research
Center) is offering Utah and Idaho teens the opportunity to
explore how scientists create lifesaving medicines, to debate
the safety of genetically modified foods and to learn about
the latest research progress in the areas of microbe, plant
and animal genomics.
Scheduled for July 12-16 on the Utah State campus, the fourth
annual summer biotechnology academy is open to high school students
entering the 11th and 12th grades in the 2004-2005 school year.
Participants work side by side with faculty mentors on a variety
of hands-on projects, stay in campus housing and eat in campus
dining halls during the five-day camp. Students may select a
specific area of interest, choosing from fields such as biology,
chemistry, biochemistry, food and nutrition sciences, biological
and environmental engineering, plant and soil science, and animal,
dairy and veterinary sciences.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to experience biotechnological
research at the university level and experience the college
environment,” said Afifa Sabir, education director for
the academy. “The academy offers an exciting glimpse of
the many research and career opportunities available in biotechnology
— right here on campus.” Students will compete for
top prizes based on their performance in the research projects
during the five-day camp.
Space is limited and students are selected to participate in
the academy on the basis of grade point average and their current
interest. Funded by the Utah State Center for Integrated BioSystems,
the Northern Utah Health Education Center, Monsanto and other
sponsors, participants pay only a $100 registration fee. Students
are responsible for their own transportation to and from the
program.
“Of course, it’s not all work and no play,”
said Sabir. “Participants enjoy a variety of outdoor recreation
activities, including volleyball, rock climbing, a barbeque
in beautiful Logan canyon and more.”
The deadline for applications is May 10. For application information
contact Christen Sundberg at 435-797-2753 or visit the Center
for Integrated BioSystems Web site at www.biosystems.usu.edu.
April 21, 2004
Contact: Afifa Sabir (435) 760-3767
Editor: Nadene Steinhoff (435) 797-1429, nadene.steinhoff@usu.edu
UTAH STATE
UNIVERSITY’S 2004 DIVERSITY AWARD RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
Utah State University’s 11th annual Diversity Award winners
were announced and will be recognized by President Kermit L.
Hall at a ceremony next fall.
Judith Holt, Elizabeth York, Liz Allred, Emma Mecham, Braden
Jenkins and the Logan City Schools South Campus staff are the
2004 recipients of the award, which recognizes individuals on
campus and in the Cache Valley community who have made significant
contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity.
Holt, who received the award for the Administrator category,
is the director of interdisciplinary training at the Center
for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) and a faculty member in
the department of special education and rehabilitation. Programs
developed by Holt reach students at the graduate and undergraduate
levels and involve faculty from 14 disciplines. Holt’s
projects include the Interdisciplinary Training Program at CPD
and the Utah Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
program, a collaborative effort of the CPD and the University
of Utah Medical School.
York, an associate professor of Music and director of Music
Therapy at Utah State, will be honored in the category of Faculty.
Named an American Association of University Women research fellow,
York used her sabbatical to work with women who had been abused.
Through poetry, music and movement, York helped women express
their fears, anger, struggle and path out of abuse through a
performance project titled “Finding Voice.” York
was recently awarded a Community-University Research Initiative
grant to examine the experiences of Latin women and their children
who have been in abusive situations.
Allred, an administrative assistant of the biology department,
will receive the award in the Staff category. Allred has lived
in many countries throughout her life and has spent a significant
amount of time volunteering with less fortunate minorities.
She worked with the homeless in Washington, D.C., and helped
French-speaking African political refugees and émigrés
in that city. She is a literacy volunteer, working primarily
with minority women to improve their English reading, writing
and speaking skills. Allred is a volunteer advisor to the Utah
State International Student Council and works with community
organizations to arrange international programs with Utah State
students.
For the first time in the 11-year history of the Utah State
Diversity Awards, two Utah State students will receive the award
in the category of Student: Braden Jenkins, an undergraduate
student in pre marketing and pre finance, and Emma Mecham, who
is completing a master of arts in writing and literature and
is a graduate instructor in English.
Jenkins is actively involved with the development and implementation
of several multicultural student organizations including the
Academic Scholars program and the Attitude Character Exploration
Synergy organization, both of which are focused on multicultural
students. Jenkins helped establish Realizing Educational Potential
Week for incoming multicultural students with learning programs
and events. He is involved with the Utah Intercollegiate Assembly,
a student organization that cultivates bills to take to the
Utah State Legislature, and was an integral part of developing
the bill that proposed diversity education requirements. Jenkins
is currently a teaching assistant for the multicultural leadership
class.
Mecham, who received her bachelor of arts in international studies
and if fluent in Spanish, will serve a two-month internship
this summer in Pachuca, Mexico, teaching in the local community
college, researching the organization and learning of information
among the students. Mecham has had many international experiences,
including a two-month stay in Peru during the summer of 2003
where she researched classroom management and university relations.
She also worked on a rainforest preservation education project
in Costa Rica, as a third grade teacher in India and as a volunteer
at a hospital in Calcutta. Serving as the former health and
safety coordinator for the Cache County American Red Cross,
Mecham was responsible for HIV/AIDS curriculum and CPR classes
for Spanish sections as well as classes for blind and deaf students.
The South Campus high school staff and faculty received the
Community Member award for their dedication to addressing, teaching
and exemplifying the guiding rule by which the school operates
— respect for self and for each other. The school is actively
involved in many different multicultural events throughout the
year, including a multicultural fair held each spring. Students
at the school volunteer at elementary schools where they assist
children of many different backgrounds. The staff and faculty
also work with students with disabilities at Wilson Elementary
School. All projects at the school are self-initiated, without
school funding.
April 20, 2004
Writer: Miaken Christensen, 435-797-5506
Contact: Sue Guenter-Schlensinger, 435-797-1266
UTAH STATE NEWS RELEASES FOR 4-20-04
CACHE CHAMBER
ORCHESTRA ENDS YEAR WITH STUDENT SOLOISTS
LOGAN — The Cache Chamber Orchestra, an all-volunteer
group of community musicians, ends its concert season with an
event that highlights high school musicians, announced conductor
and director Robert Frost. The year-end concert is Sunday, April
25, and begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the
Chase Fine Arts Center at Utah State University. The concert
is free and all are invited.
High school student soloists featured include violinist Koning
Shen, who will perform the first movement of the Bruch “Violin
Concerto in C minor,” and Alexis Hoggard, a cellist who
will perform a first movement from an Elgar cello concerto.
Shen and Hoggard were selected to perform after earning honors
at the American String Teachers solo festival held locally earlier
this year.
The third student soloist is a member of the orchestra, Meleece
Cheal, a senior at Mountain Crest High School, where she was
the Sterling Scholar representative in music. She will play
a concertino by the French composer Chaminade.
All three of the works the students perform are for full orchestra
and are significant works in the solo repertoire for each instrument,
Frost said.
“We showcase students because we want the community to
have the opportunity to experience the outstanding talent we
have locally — and we have a great deal,” Frost
said. “Not many of these outstanding students have an
opportunity to solo with an orchestra so we are happy to feature
them. Performing with a symphony orchestra provides the opportunity
to grow and mature as a musician and to see what it’s
like to perform in the context of a symphonic setting. This
is a showcase and a reward.”
In addition to accompanying the student soloists, the orchestra
is featured in a number of major works.
The concert opens with a piece that is new to Cache Valley audiences,
“Oriental Festival March” by Carl Nielsen. “The
orchestra wants to give the audience some new experiences, and
that’s why I picked this piece to open the concert,”
Frost said.
The major work of the concert it the final movement of Dvorak’s
“Symphony No. 9,” the “New World”.
“This is a wonderful piece and the first time the orchestra
has performed the work,” Frost said. “The composer
spent some time in this country, and that is how the piece was
developed. It is very regognizable to those familiar with symphonic
literature.”
The closing selection is “The Dance Bacchanale”
from Saint-Saens’ “Sampson and Deliah.”
“For anyone familiar with the Sampson and Deliah story,
this music will be familiar,” Frost said. “It is
the traditional tune of the exotic dancer. It starts off in
a nice, moderate and leisurely way and gets faster and faster.
It’s a great conclusion to the concert and to our season.”
Frost encourages interested community musicians to look for
announcements next fall and to join the orchestra.
The Cache Chamber Orchestra is sponsored by the department of
music at Utah State University.
April 20, 2004
Contact: Robert Fosrt (435) 563-5090
Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354
SIDEBAR TO CACHE
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA STORY — A LOOK AT THE STUDENT SOLOISTS
LOGAN — Three student soloists and a guest conductor
are featured in performance with the Cache Chamber Orchestra
Sunday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the
Chase Fine Arts Center at Utah State University.
Fourteen-year-old violinist Koning Shen is the daughter of T.-C.
and Fen-Ann Shen has played the violin for nine years and currently
studies with Mark Emile. She has participated in the Utah State
University Music Clinic and the Mountains and Strings Camp.
This summer she plans to attend Summer Music West provided by
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has competed and
received superior ratings in local and state ASTA activities,
and at the state and region level in solo and ensemble situations.
Her hobbies, besides music, include math, shopping, friends,
drinking diet soda and goofing with her little brother, she
said.
Meleece Cheal is the daughter of Brian and Nancy Cheal and lives
in Mendon. She is a senior at Mountain Crest High School and
has played the flute for 10 years. Cheal was the regional Music
Sterling Scholar. She was also principal flute for the All-State
Orchestra in 2003 and toured Europe with the Sound of America
Honor Band in 2002. At Mountain Crest she was flute section
leader and featured soloist for the Mustang marching band. She
has been accepted to the School of Music at Brigham Young University
and plans to major in woodwind performance.
Alexis Hoggard has played cello for eight and a half years and
has studied with Cheryl Burton, Kennita Thatcher and Francesca
Rose, and now studies with Karin Hendricks. She has participated
in the Black Glove Cello Festival, Mountains and Strings Music
Camp, Western States Honor Orchestra Festival, Britt Institute
and All-State Orchestra. She has twice been a featured soloist
in Logan High’s Concerto Night, as well as soloing with
the Cache Chamber Orchestra. Her performances have earned superior
ratings at ASTA, region solo and ensemble and state solo and
ensemble festivals. Hoggard said she loves jazz music and playing
the cello. After high school graduation she would like to major
in music.
The guest conductor for the evening is Hoggard’s high
school orchestra director, Karin Hendricks. She will conduct
the work in which Hoggard solos.
Hendricks began her musical training in the Logan City School
District — in the same program she now directs. She studied
at the University of Arizona and Oberlin Conservatory of Music
as a scholarship student of Peter Rejto and Catharina Meints.
She has performed for artists that include John Williams, Hugh
Wolff, Roland Varnos, Michel Debost, Anner Bylsma and the Beaux
Arts Trio.
Hendricks holds a bachelor of music degree in cello performance
from Oberlin Conservatory, as well as a bachelor’s degree
in German studies from Oberlin College and a master’s
degree in music education from Brigham Young University.
Hendricks has served as a string judge and clinician in Utah,
Idaho and Wyoming. Her pedagogical skills have been recognized
in the “American String Teacher” and the “American
Suzuki Journal.” She is the orchestra vice-president for
the Utah Music Teacher’s Association. She was a 2003 recipient
of the United States Presidential Scholar Teacher Recognition
Award, presented by First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of Education
Rod Paige.
Now in her fourth year in the Logan City Schools, Hendricks
said she is grateful to work with supportive administrators,
colleagues and parents.
April 20, 2004
Contact: Robert Frost
Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354
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