Ken Cissna has won the prestigious USF Distinguished Service Award. This award is one of the university’s highest honors given in recognition of many years of outstanding service to USF. The award is conferred by USF on faculty who have distinguished themselves through services they have provided without personal gain on behalf of the University, and that have contributed significantly to the welfare of their profession, USF, or the community. Congratulations Ken.

Kristen Blinne organized the 2nd Annual Pedagogy Potluck on Friday, April 12, 2013, which featured a wide array of innovative teaching activities presented by graduate students. At this event, Nick Riggs, pictured below, explains an improv game called the "Gibberish Translator" as Nathan Hodges, Alisha Menzies and Joey Bartell perform this activity for the audience.

Also pictured is Jen Whalen,setting up the space to illustrate her activity, "Staging Dates to Teach About Dating."   

First-year Master's student Ariane Anderson and first-year PhD student Nancie Hudson gave poster presentations as part of the 5th annual USF Graduate Student Research Symposium on March 22nd. Ariane's presentation was entitled "Surviving What?  Breast Cancer Survivor Identity and Disease Discourse." Nancie spoke on "Applicant Communicative (In)Competence in the Job Interview: Interviewer's Criteria Emerge in Study of Communication Dynamics." Congratulations to Ariane and Nancie for their outstanding presentations!

Jacob Jenkins has received USF's Golden Bull Award for 2013. This award  is described as "One of USF's highest honors given annually to undergraduate and graduate students who encompass the spirit of the institution and have demonstrated its values. Recipients must exemplify exceptional leadership and service to the university and the community." Jacob's name will be added to the "Leaders of Distinction" wall within USF's Marshall Center. Congratulations Jacob!

Humor Doesn't Pause with Improv@USF & PDC

During the summer months Improv@USF will be playing university orientation events for incoming Freshman, working on their own recruitment. The executive officers will be working hard to restructure meetings and plan more shows on and off campus to accommodate for their growing numbers and visibility on campus. Also, the core members of Improv@USF will be playing all over the Tampa Bay area every week in the summer, including Tampa Pitcher Show, Jobsite Theater and The Roosevelt 2.0 with Post Dinner Conversation, a local improv company that originated in 2012 under the direction of Kari Goetz as she was working on her MA in Communication. PDC's schedule, video, and more is available online at www.postdinnerconvo.com.
In the fall, Improv@USF will be taking the campus by storm with more events, more shows, and more guerrilla theater! They will be playing monthly shows with the USF Stand Up club at Beef O'Brady's on campus and opening for Post Dinner Conversation's Bulls Nite Out event in the MSC ballroom. Anyone who wants to play is welcome join in the mayhem! Contact the group via their Facebook page at facebook/improvatusf or follow along at www.improvatusf.com.

You can also click here to read more about Improv@USF and Post Dinner Conversation in an article published by the USF Oracle.

Senior Send Off: As part of their final course project, the students in Dr. James's communication senior capstone course organized a Senior Send Off for graduating communication majors. This event took place on Monday, April 22nd. It was an opportunity for graduating majors to celebrate their accomplishments at the university. It was a fun and informal event that allowed students to share their future plans, hear a few words from faculty members, enjoy refreshments, and gather one last time before graduating. This initiative was the result of hard work by Jenny Buxhoeveden, Hannah Crucet, Marcus Graham, Chelsea Reynolds, Christine Vargas, and Kelly Will.