Profiles
Flash Focus: Ayna Tazhiyeva
Meet Ayna Tazhiyeva, a first-year double major in communication studies and international studies, from Turkmenistan, Central Asia. Combining her studies with a role at University Libraries, Tazhiyeva finds her voice through research and community connection.
POV: Kent State Shaped Who I Am. Now It's Training Who I'll Become.
Saloni Christian, a third-year student at Kent State University's College of Podiatric Medicine, reflects on the challenges and rewards of answering a calling that was shaped by a lifetime of watching others serve.
Sydney Brown is Just Getting Started
When Sydney Brown arrived at Kent State University as a first-year student from Avon, Ohio, she didn't wait to get started. She walked into the TV2 newsroom — now Kent Stater TV — and introduced herself. That instinct to show up, dive in, and tell stories has defined every semester since.Now a senio…
Journalism Major Scores Numerous Front-Page Stories in Knight-Funded Internship
Lauren Cohen, a senior journalism major from Twinsburg, Ohio, has already made an impact during her internship, producing many front-page stories for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron.
Flash Focus: Rushitha and Ruhitha Chinchalapu
Meet Rushitha and Ruhitha Chinchalapu, twins from India, both pursuing their master's in business analytics. As they are in the same graduate program, the sisters reflect on how being twins has contributed to their experience at Kent State University.
Could Iron and Zinc Be the Missing Key to Cleaner Rivers and a Healthier Lake Erie?
A new study led by Kent State’s David Costello finds that trace metals — not just nitrogen and phosphorus — frequently limit biological productivity in freshwater streams, with implications for waterways across Northeast Ohio and beyond.
Flash Focus: Tatiana Placer
Meet Tatiana Placer, a graduate student pursuing her master’s in architecture and design at Kent State University. Placer was born in Germany on a U.S. military base and was raised mostly in Orlando, Florida. Growing up in a Puerto Rican household, her upbringing was deeply rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora.
Flash Focus: Lettie Friona
Meet Lettie Friona, a senior integrated social studies major with a concentration in history and minors in classics and mild to moderate special education from Steubenville, Ohio, whose leadership positions have helped shape her experience at Kent State.
A Rwandan Police Officer Journeys From Kigali to Kent State, Earns His Degree and Returns Home to Pay It Forward
In December 2025, Francis Rubagumya, 37, walked across the stage at Kent State's commencement with a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language — and a plan to take every lesson he had learned back to the country he loves Rwanda.
Flash Focus: Lily Stenroos
Meet Lily Stenroos, a member of the Honors College pursuing an environmental studies degree with minors in sustainability, environmental justice and political science, from Mayfield Village, Ohi0, whose academic path was forged from deep relationships between the natural world and humans.