Through a three-year grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Kent State University’s Center for Public Policy and Health will partner with the seven public schools in Medina County and the Medina County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Board to improve student mental wellness. The project called, Medina County Aware (MCA), will be led by Dr. Deric Kenne, Associate Professor and Dr. Kim Laurene, Research Associate at Kent State University. The main goals of the project are to provide mental health awareness trainings to at least 30% of the teachers, administrators ...

The events of May 4, 1970, placed Kent State University in an international spotlight after a student protest against the Vietnam War and the presence of the Ohio National Guard ended in tragedy with four students losing their lives and nine others being wounded. From a perspective of nearly 50 years, Kent State remembers the tragedy and leads a contemporary discussion and understanding of how the community, nation and world can benefit from understanding the profound impact of the event. Those efforts to preserve the history and site of May 4 have been honored again. The Ohio History Conne...

The events of May 4, 1970, placed Kent State University in an international spotlight after a student protest against the Vietnam War and the presence of the Ohio National Guard ended in tragedy with four students losing their lives and nine others being wounded. From a perspective of nearly 50 years, Kent State remembers the tragedy and leads a contemporary discussion and understanding of how the community, nation and world can benefit from understanding the profound impact of the event. Those efforts to preserve the history and site of May 4 have been honored again. The Ohio History Conne...

Heart of gold. Life was just beginning for Lainey Ward when doctors worked on her heart to keep it beating. A 4-month-old baby, Ms. Ward was in the fight of her life before she knew what living really meant. Her whole world was mom and dad and the mobile dancing over her crib. Open-heart surgery and operations to fix three birth defects kept Ms. Ward pushing forward, overcoming diagnosis after diagnosis. First, the girl who would not live, did. Then, the girl who could not walk, walked. Later, the girl who found it difficult to learn would teach. Today, Ms. Ward finds hers...

As a passionate student of the arts, Bethany Westphal felt the need to share her love with others, specifically younger children, and help them avoid some of the negative experiences she had with music teachers growing up. She recently opened Rising Star Center for the Arts in downtown Akron, where she hopes to “create a positive, fun, and encouraging learning environment for the arts so that everyone can be free to pursue their creative dreams.” Bethany (senior, Integrative Studies) shared what inspired her to start Rising Star: “What ignited a spark in me to start a new business w...

Beginning in mid-January, Kent State University will launch a new, semiweekly message to share the most impactful news and stories about our campus community.   Kent State Today will highlight original and curated content about Kent State to faculty and staff in a dynamic way that includes an online newsroom where fresh stories will be posted every weekday.   “This is an exciting opportunity to tell the Kent State story in a whole new way,” says Eric Mansfield, executive director of university media relations. “Many of our best news stories currently appear across the university’...

The Environmental Science and Design Research Initiative (ESDRI) was excited to be able to offer competitively awarded seed grant funding to research teams in Spring Semester 2018. ESDRI was established in 2017 to support faculty efforts to achieve continued scholarly success in areas of research concerning both natural and built systems. The projects funded demonstrate the broad nature of scholarly activity addressing the environment at Kent State University, including projects related to climate change, urban health and forest restoration. The teams were chosen based on their creative and...