Profiles

Kent Kraziness is a competition of black squirrels created by senior Cecil Martin.

The contest between the competitors was tight. Ghost squirrel and pirate squirrel were deadlocked in the Kent Kraziness brackets recently until the competition came down to just five votes. Ghost squirrel eked out the win. Kent Kraziness is an Instagram competition created by University Housing Services to increase social media engagement. The competition, which kicked off on March 14-April 4, is a nod to the NCAA's March Madness. Thanks to the creative graphics chops of senior visual communications design major Celia Martin, the competition has 24 black squirrels from all walks of...

Emilia Sykes

While a student at Kent State University, U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-OH-13) dreamed of taking the stage as a dancer in New York City, not as a congresswoman in Washington, D.C. But today she’s a star in the eyes of many, with her federal legislative debut drawing attention beyond Northeast Ohio. ...

 Zach Camporese

Former Golden Eagles basketball standout, Zach Camporese, has just been voted high school Coach of the Year in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association, 6A, District 9 and Overall Coach of the Year for all classifications of District 9 by his peers. ...

Judy Devine: Equity Champion

In honor of Women’s History Month, Kent State Today will be looking at the accomplishments of Kent State women who have advanced the cause of women, broken glass ceilings and left a lasting impact on women’s history.   Judy Devine has been called the matriarch of Kent State University athletics.   She arrived at Kent State in 1969 as a graduate assistant, coming from Colorado State University, where she played five varsity sports, earned 18 letters and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education. She earned her master’s degree in heal...

At 72, Bob Rader is working on his second bachelor's degree at Kent State.

Bob Rader’s path to becoming a Golden Flash was anything but traditional.  In 2018, the retired chemical engineer needed prostate cancer surgery. He had been treated with radiation for the cancer before, but newly elevated PSA levels signaled that it was time for surgery to stem the cancer’s recurrence.   The surgery, at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, went well. Yet something was wrong.  “I wasn’t coming out of the anesthesia well,” he recalled.  Rader was disoriented and could not answer simple questions or recognize people he knew. He had trouble fee...

Whitney Romine

Whitney Romine graduated in 2021 with a Master of Public Health, with a Social and Behavioral Sciences concentration. ...

Emilia Sykes and Betty Sutton

In honor of Women’s History Month, Kent State Today will be looking at the accomplishments of Kent State women who have advanced the cause of women, broken glass ceilings and left a lasting impact on women’s history.  In 2006, Betty Sutton became the first Kent State alumna to serve in the U.S. Congress, when she was elected to represent Ohio’s 13th District in the House of Representatives.   Sutton, a native of Barberton, Ohio, graduated from Kent State in 1985, and later graduated from law school at the University of Akron. Active as an attorney for more than 30 year...

Franck Steve Guepjop Fotso

When Kent State student Franck Steve Guepjop Fotso was in high school in Cameroon, Africa, he and his family looked at colleges in the U.S. that had great engineering programs but found them to be quite expensive.  That all changed when Guepjop Fotso ran across information about Kent State’s College of Aeronautics and Engineering (CAE). The university had an impressive engineering curriculum, which catered to his career aspirations and had a robust program for international students, all at an affordable price that would fit into his family's budget.  Guepjop Fotso, now in his ...

Carol Cartwright was the first woman president of Kent State University.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Kent State Today will be looking at the accomplishments of Kent State women who have advanced the cause of women, broken glass ceilings and left a lasting impact on women’s history.  In 1991, Carol A. Cartwright, Ph.D., made history when she was named president of Kent State University, becoming not only Kent State’s first female president, but also the first woman to serve as president of any Ohio public college or university.   Cartwright served at Kent State for 15 years, until her retirement in 2006.    In 2009...

Shakespeare Drawing

“Out, out brief candle! / Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” – Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5, Lines 23-25. Some people delight in reading Shakespeare. But some people may find it difficult, confusing or incomprehensible. Xavier Heipp, senior theatre studies major with a double minor in pre-law and philosophy, has been working to create an open resource book to make Shakespeare’s writing more readable and relatable. Heipp, from Avon, Ohio, has recently been featured on The Research Review podcast and in two articles posted b...