Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 7, 2015 Page: 4 of 16
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41 NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7,2015 | HILLTOPVIEWSONLINE.COM
National Science Foundation grants
university funds for science classes
Vanilla Orchid out: Jo's once again
changes their sandwich line-up
MICHAEL MORSE/HILLTOP VIEWS
The grant is the largest amount the university has received.
By JOANNA ARIOLA
@joanna_ariola
The National Science
Foundation awarded St.
Edwards University a grant
of $1.6 million through the
Improving Undergraduate
STEM Education Program.
The grant will help sup-
port improvements in the
learning and experience of
all first-time science, technol-
ogy, engineering and math-
ematics (STEM) majors for
at least five years. The grant
was also one of 10 expected
grants from the program na-
tionwide and the largest ever
received by the St. Edwards
from the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
The grant, provided by the
Improving Undergraduate
STEM Education Program
(IUSE), fell under the In-
stitutional and Community
Transformation: Design and
Development track.
The team who put together
the proposal consisted of
professors Richard Kopec,
Jason Callahan, Teresa Bil-
inski, Tricia Shepherd and
Fidelma A. O’Leary. Kopec is
the Principal Investigator for
this project.
The project evolved from
the STEM grant program
that began in 2010. Though
it was only meant to maintain
for one summer, this project
has grown enough to support
all first year STEM students
since then. Due to the success
of this program, the grant
from the NSF became pos-
sible.
The grant will support in-
troductory science and math
classes and work to increase
student interaction and the
learning environment in the
classroom. More hands-on
experiences and an upgraded
curriculum are expected to be
added to classes. With these
improvements, diversity for
student learning will increase
and new opportunities will
be available to students.
“The main focus of it is
actually to put more Active
Learning into the teaching of
the introductory courses of
the sciences,” Shepherd said.
“The overall idea of the
grant is to reform both the
curriculum in the sciences
and, then also, to provide
the types of support services
for students that really help
them succeed in the sciences,”
Bilinski said.
Professors hope to increase
the interaction between
students in the STEM pro-
gram and build a strong
community between them.
The current Living Learning
Community and pedagogy
programs offered are focused
on doing this. Flowever, with
this grant, the ultimate goal
would be to increase these
programs to more students
and provide more support.
“We know you all tend to
work better as a group rather
than going off into individual
directions.” Kopec said.
A sophomore STEM-
based LLC is also a possibil-
ity. At this point, the LLC
for the STEM students is
only available to 24 students.
Flowever, professors real-
ize that students in the LLC
tend to have better grades
due to the support available
to them. Because of this, a
portion of the grant will help
increase student support ser-
vices to all STEM majors.
“There’s a statistic that 60-
70 percent of freshmen go-
ing to college, who intend to
study a STEM major, change
their major or dropout,” Ko-
pec said.
This statistic applies to all
incoming STEM students in
the United States.
In the SEU community,
however, 50 percent of
STEM students are fully
committed and graduating.
With programs such as the
LLCs, Kopec hopes to keep
this number growing.
By JENNIFER SPALL &
VICTORIA CAVAZOS
©jenniferspalll
@viacavazos
Jo’s Coffee Flouse has re-
cently added various food
items to their menu due to
the drop of their previous
supplier, Vanilla Orchid.
Jo’s General Manager
Amy Thompson said the
cafe changed suppliers after
Vanilla Orchid gave notice
that they would be unable to
supply them with sandwich-
es due to the high volume of
business they had recently
experienced.
“We liked Vanilla Orchid,”
Thompson said, “[but] they
were unable to handle the
production for us.”
Thompson said that Va-
nilla Orchid had begun
receiving more customers
than they could handle and
as a result, they had to stop
supplying Jo’s in the interest
of quality control.
“It was a rush to find [a
company] that could handle
this much volume,” Thomp-
son said.
In addition to changing
their sandwiches, Jo’s rou-
tinely switches up their food
and beverage selection, peri-
odically adding new drinks
and pastries to the menu,
typically on a seasonal basis,
Thompson said.
[The sandwiches] are
just one of the many new
things we want to bring in,”
Thompson said.
Thompson mentioned
that aside from the dry
goods, the coffee shop is
slated to come out with a
new drink this Friday, called
“Fall Spice,” which would
be made with a custom,
homemade syrup featuring a
blend of spices.
For the most part, these
new goods are available at all
Jo’s locations, but there are
some items that are unique
to the Jo’s on campus, such
as the breakfast tacos, which
are supplied by Fresa’s tacos.
Although Thompson ac-
knowledges that the options
at Jo’s are more expensive
than the average college stu-
dent would hope, she said
the quality of the ingredi-
ents increase the price.
“It’s not convenient store
quality,” Thompson said,
“[good quality items] cost a
little bit more to get.”
“It’s all natural, hand made
and it’s fresh every morning,”
Jo’s employee Ali Stephens
said. “Jo’s is the best place
on campus to hang out, to
study and has the friendliest
service.”
Some, however, are still
unsure about the change.
“I go maybe once or twice
a week when Rags isn’t open.
They’re pretty good, it’s just
I have no other alternative
on campus,” freshmen Ash-
ley Abbott said.
She also says
she likes the old
brand better, but
still recommends
trying the sand-
wiches.
Senior Christo-
pher Jackson dis-
agrees, saying he
likes these prod-
ucts better than
what they had
last year because
of the increased
quality.
“I always get one of their
sandwiches. There’s a nice
variety and there are veg-
etarian option. They’re ex-
pensive, but I keep buying
them,” Jackson said. “They’re
more creative, but they’re
not warm. That’s the only
disadvantage.”
MICHAEL MORSE/HILLTOP VIEWS
Jo’s offers an array of snacks, as well as crafty drinks.
"JO'S IS THE BEST PLACE
ON CAMPUS TO HANG
OUT, TO STUDY AND
HAS THE FRIENDLIEST
SERVICE"
JO'S EMPLOYEE ALI STEPHENS
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Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 7, 2015, newspaper, October 7, 2015; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1007040/m1/4/?q=music: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting St. Edward’s University.