Carroll Academics

Personal Training Certification Course

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:33:32 MST

If you are interested in becoming a personal trainer,You are invited to a ONE HOUR CLASS PREVIEW for the new Carroll College Personal Training Certification Course on March 18 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. in 176 PE.

This one hour PREVIEW is being offered to give you an understanding of what will be presented in this 3 unit course (offered fall 2008 - MWF 8-8:50 am). It will also give you an overview of what will be expected of you as a student. The course will take a lot of work on your part, but at the end, if you do your job, you will receive your personal training certificate which will immediately allow you to work in this rewarding field.

The purpose of the Personal Training Certification class is to prepare you to:

Become a certified personal trainer, by preparing you to pass the test.
Provide you with a strong background to practice personal training.
Actually earn a Personal training certificate by the end of the class.
Learn the science and the business of personal training.
Prepare you to work in health clubs, YMCA's or even for yourself.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A PERSONAL TRAINER OR GOING INTO THIS BUSINESS YOU MIGHT WISH TO ATTEND THIS PREVIEW CLASS.

FREE REFRESHMENTS - GREAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Carroll to change curriculum

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:13:40 MST

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record

Students who consider Carroll College in the fall will see new choices in the student handbook, including new majors and more opportunities to study abroad.

The college, which is approaching its 100th anniversary, will also expand existing programs and redesign others to simplify students' transition into graduate school.

Jerry Berberet, dean of the college and senior vice president of academic affairs, said that in the coming years the school's effort will result in several new majors ranging from marketing to legal studies.

However, some of those majors, such as biochemistry, will likely depend on the outcome of Carroll's centennial fundraising campaign.

"I think Carroll College will look very different a year from now," said Berberet. "We will have new programs in place, and will have thought some of these things through."

Berberet said roughly 30-percent of Carroll's freshmen enroll with hopes of entering medical school. That, Berberet added, makes biology and chemistry among the school's most popular programs.

But as Carroll grows, Berberet said, it hopes to offer a wider variety of pursuits to attract students beyond those interested in pre-med.

"We're interested in students coming to Carroll to study science for reasons other than just pre-med," said Berberet. "In both science and engineering, we'd like to grow the enrollment and have more go on to graduate school."

While the college would like to create a new major in biochemistry, such a program would have to wait until the college renovates its laboratories.

Such renovations were included in Carroll's centennial plans, which now hinge on the school's fundraising campaign.

Berberet said the school has already revamped its environmental studies major and upgraded its internship program. A new major in television production will soon be launched, along with new majors in business, and new programs listed under the Department of Health Sciences.

"We're looking at adding athletic training and strengthening to our community public-health program," Berberet said. "We're looking at a strong science-based, health-sciences track that prepares students for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and pre-pharmacy."

Carroll also hopes to create several centers of excellence on issues that include gender studies, environment, health and wellness, and social justice. As an example, he said, a center for peace and justice could be one way of bringing dynamic speakers to campus.

"It might be a place where some academic offerings could be housed," Berberet said. "It could be a place that supports some research."

Berberet said Carroll has a responsibility of being an honest broker within the community, sponsoring debates on a level platform. This past fall, the school co-sponsored the Montana Healthcare Forum and hopes to offer other seminars in the future.

Aside from the standards expected of a four-year institution, the changing academic environment finds Carroll competing with community colleges like UM-Helena College of Technology, where two-year programs and certificate courses are growing in popularity.

Berberet said Carroll has already approved a template for certificate programs, allowing for a package of courses nontraditional students can take to advance their career, such as in GIS.

Other certificate courses could include community health, marketing and health care management. Courses toward each certificate would be clustered, allowing a participant to pursue the subject in a short period of time.

"We're also working on making summer school more of a flexible third semester - making it more attractive and accessible to the public," he said. "It's an issue of what's affordable, and if loans are available."

Berberet said many new programs have already gone before the curriculum committee and will be reviewed by faculty in the coming year.

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair. com

Building a better shelter

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:16:33 MDT

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON, Independent Record

Carroll College English professor and pet owner Ron Stottlemyer quotes Mahatma Gandhi when sharing his organization’s plans to build a new $3.5 million animal shelter in Helena.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,” he said last week, quoting the legendary pacifist. “Here in Helena, I think we have to bring the animals into our idea of progress.”

Stottlemyer, a regular volunteer at the Lewis and Clark Humane Society, is one of several members from the upstart Pad for Paws Foundation working to improve the welfare of Helena’s abandoned animals.

Hatched in 2005, the foundation’s plan to build a new animal shelter has picked up steam in recent months, gaining support from members of the community, even though the concept hasn’t been officially announced to the public until now.

In the coming weeks, the Pad for Paws Foundation will officially kick off its campaign and take the first rudimentary steps in building a multimillion dollar domestic animal campus in Helena.

“I think this community wants to be progressive,” Stottlemyer said. “We’re building all sorts of new homes, new stores, new roadways, but we haven’t touched the part of our society that includes the animals.”

*
Planned for 10 acres near the intersection of Custer Avenue and Interstate 15, the facility would include an expansive dog park, walking trains, and a columbarium with a memorial wall. A community center would offer room for agility and obedience classes. The shelter itself would be state of the art, designed with animal welfare in mind.

Simply, the foundation said, the new facility would provide abandoned animals with healthy, comfortable and sanitary conditions — something they believe the Lewis and Clark Humane Society can no longer offer, despite its best intentions.

Old shelter

Nearly 45 years old, the current shelter is plagued with a variety of unsanitary issues ranging from overcrowding to mold, Pad for Paws Foundation members say.

Diseases have closed the animal shelter more than once in recent years, taking the animals out of adoption, sometimes for weeks on end.

“Prolonged confinement in narrow, indoor cages was taking its toll on dogs,” the foundation wrote in its summary plan. “Lack of healthy interaction with people and other dogs was forcing many of them to become ‘kennel crazy,’ and crowding made them vulnerable to the spread of infectious diseases.”

Cats haven’t fared any better, the foundation reports. Caged for long periods of time in crowded conditions, some grow depressed and withdrawn from human contact, making them difficult to adopt.

Gina Wiest, director of the Lewis and Clark Humane Society, doesn’t deny that the current animal shelter has had outbreaks of disease, ranging from ringworm to canine flu. She also admits that the shelter is old and that a newer shelter is in the community’s best interest.

Still, she said, the Humane Society will move ahead with plans of its own, separate from Pad for Paws, to build a new facility. She also believes the existing shelter isn’t as bad for the animals as Pad for Paws has suggested.

“We’ve outgrown some of the capacity, and we agree that we need a new facility,” Wiest said. “We’re growing and we know the city is growing and, eventually, we’ll need a new spot. But as far as it being bad for the animals, I don’t agree with that.”

Wiest said the Humane Society had initially worked with the Pad for Paws Foundation, the two groups proceeding together at the beginning.

However, Wiest said, the two organizations had different points of view, prompting the Humane Society to step back from the Pad for Paws project and set off on its own to create its own facility.

“We just had different ideas,” Wiest said. “We just didn’t think their plans meshed with what the Humane Society had envisioned. With respect to them, we decided we needed to take a step back. But I wish them all the luck.”

The Pad for Paws Foundation said the problem isn’t the Human Society’s methodology in caring for animals. Rather, the foundation said, it’s the Humane Society’s outdated shelter, one that was initially built to warehouse unwanted animals, not to hold them for adoption.

The foundation agrees with Wiest in that the local pet population — like the human population — has grown dramatically over the years. That, the foundation said, has pressed the animal shelter’s ability to house animals in a healthy way.

“The idea stemmed from the community expressing some frustration over the local conditions for our homeless animals,” said Pad for Paws board member Debra Polhemus, who served as the former development director at the Missoula Children’s Theatre. “The local shelter is more than 40 years old and it has some issues. It’s time for a new shelter.”

The plan

Most animal shelters in Montana were built around the same time 40 years ago. Yet many of those older facilities have already been razed and new shelters created — except in Helena.

The cities of Missoula, Kalispell and Livingston have finished and opened new animal shelters. Bozeman is running a capital campaign to build a new facility and Great Falls is gearing up to follow suit.

Gary Pistoria, president of the Pad for Paws Foundation and past board member of the Lewis and Clark Humane Society, said the concept of a domestic animal campus represents a blending of animal facilities from around the country.

The new shelter, he said, promises to stand among the Northwest’s more innovative centers.

“With the research we’ve done in the Helena area, we’ve found the biggest need, initially, to be the public dog park,” Pistoria said. “People are looking for areas where they can have dogs trained, including personal training, agility courses and walking parks.”

All that, he said, would take place during phase one of the project, to include a columbarium and memorial wall, where animal ashes could be placed.

“We’re hoping to actually kick off the phase-one portion — the outdoor grounds — some time within the next month, with the goal to break ground in the spring,” Polhemus said. “Hopefully, we’ll move quickly into phase two. But like most capital campaigns, we’re looking at a multi-year situation.”

Phase two would raise money to construct the main campus. The center would offer a 12,000-square-foot community center for animals, to include a large community room where seminars, obedience training, and animal welfare classes could be held.

The project’s other wing would offer the latest in housing and medical facilities for abandoned animals. It would include sanitary kennels, a modern ventilation system and separate rooms for puppies and kittens. It would also include two cat rooms with access to outdoor exercise areas, and grooming facilities.

“The treatment area will feature a surgical room to accommodate spay and neutering clinics, as well as medical treatment for minor injuries,” Pistoria said. “Other rooms will be set aside for quarantined cats and dogs.”

Ann Perkins, director of the Human-Animal Bonding Program at Carroll College, has given the project her full support and written it into her plans for student internships.

Carroll students would work at the new shelter. Learning under the guidance of instructors, the students would help train dogs to work in a variety of human-assisted roles, ranging from disabilities to search and rescue.

“I’m really excited about working with my students at the new facility,” Perkins said. “It’s an innovative idea. The Pad for Paws people have thought of everything.”

“Ann has that internship written up as an integral part of her whole program,” Stottlemyer added. “We see this as a natural fit, having student interns working at the facility. It’s the right thing to do at the right time.”

The last and final stage of the project, Pistoria said, would include raising money for an endowment to maintain the facility over time. To find out more, or to contribute to the project, contact the Pad for Paws Foundation at 442-7373.

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston -is-at- helenair -dot- com.

Get involved! To find out more, or to contribute to the project, contact the Pad for Paws Foundation at 442-7373.

Tiny frog has global impact

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:03:47 MDT

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record

His desk is cluttered with paperwork, and his walls are covered with pictures of snakes and lizards.

Hokit, a biology professor, along with former Carroll student Andy Brown, recently published a report in the journal Northwestern Naturalist, documenting their study on the wood frog in Alaska.

The frog, which fits in the palm of one’s hand, has the ability to freeze solid in the winter and thaw in the spring without suffering the ill-effects of cell damage.

It also may serve as a benchmark in measuring the effects of global warming, not to mention its interest to medicine.

“No one knew what habitat the wood frogs are associated with and their population distribution in Alaska,” Hokit said. “I’m interested in this research because the wood frog could be an indicator of changes in habitat, such as climate change.”
Hokit, a long-time lover of all things crawly, focuses his research on landscape ecology — how the distribution of habitat across a particular landscape affects the viability of a population. The compact nature of most amphibian populations make them easier to study than their mammalian counterparts, which often scatter over vast landscapes.

And so it goes that Hokit knows the wood frog like some guys know baseball. The wood frog, he said, is the most widely distributed amphibian species in North America. Fond of the boreal forest, its population stretches from Maryland to the Alaskan interior.

But that was already known, according to Hokit. What came as a surprise is that the wood frog was found living in the tundra in viable populations, well above the tree line.

“We had no idea about their distribution patterns,” he said. “We had no idea if these frogs were vagrant individuals, or if they had viable reproductive populations.”

In the 209 wetlands and ponds Hokit surveyed, he found that nearly 50 percent of them had viable wood frog populations. Finding the frog so far north in such a harsh climate wasn’t a fluke after all. As it turned out, the frog meant to be there, and it was thriving as a result.

The wood frog is unique in a variety of ways, Hokit notes. Unlike most frogs, which spend the winter under water, in flowing streams, or buried in the mud, the wood frog moves to dry land and prepares to freeze.

“They control the freezing process within their bodies,” Hokit said. “The problem with you or I freezing is, the water inside our cells ends up crystallizing and destroys the cells. But just before the frog freezes, it dehydrates its cells so the ice crystals end up forming between the cells and between the tissue layers.”

Insects, a handful of amphibians and fewer reptiles have the ability to survive freezing, Hokit said. Some attempt to avoid freezing by pumping their bodies full of natural antifreeze, like glucose.

The frog’s ability to manipulate its sugar metabolism is now of scientific interest.

“This frog may have a lot to teach us about how to control diabetes,” Hokit said. “There are many researchers studying this and other amphibians, trying to determine how it can flood its body full of glucose and not suffer the ill effects of that, which we see in humans.”

Alone, Hokit said, the study doesn’t lend much. But as a baseline point of research, scientists of all pursuits can use the data as a measure of global warming and changes in habitat.

As the climate changes, Hokit said, new studies on the wood frog’s distribution will add to the larger picture. The changes already occurring in the arctic will likely affect the distribution of many plant and animal species, including the wood frog.

“If the projections of global climate change continue going the way they are now, we can make some projections where the frog distributions may shift,” Hokit said. “We already know the vegetation across the arctic and central Alaska is changing quite dramatically.”

Hokit added, “Habitat changes are happening now. It’s very evident — a pretty dramatic effect.”

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston -is-at- helenair -dot- com.

Carroll graduation on Saturday May 5, 2007

Fri, 04 May 2007 09:54:54 MDT

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - IR Staff Writer

More than 260 students will join the ranks of Carroll College alumni this weekend when they graduate from the private institution and move on to tackle the next stage in life.

Roughly 56 percent of this year’s class is from Montana, while two students hail from South Korea and one from Japan. The class includes 43 nursing majors, 35 biology majors, and more than 10 civil engineers.

“It may be the largest civil engineering class we’ve ever had,” said Carroll spokeswoman Ashley Oliverio. “We also have quite a few 50-year jubilarians. They’ll be in golden robes. They’ll show up to celebrate and get a special certificate.”

In a statement prepared for Saturday’s commencement, Carroll president Thomas Trebon urged the class of 2007 to “be” the difference.

“We all want to change the world in some way; yet many of us simply don’t know how to go about it,” reads part of Trebon’s speech. “In the face of the goodness in the world, and in the face of the world’s sadness, I say to you as I’ve said to graduates before you, every day, be a sacrament to your community.”

Shannon Puckett, a chemistry major, will continue a family tradition this Saturday, becoming another in a long list of family members to have earned a degree from Carroll.

Puckett’s parents both graduated from Carroll, as did five of her aunts and uncles. Her grandfather, Hank Burgess, graduated from the college as well, then stuck around to teach English on the hill for 35 years.

“I went to Gonzaga my freshman year,” Puckett said. “I had the mindset I needed to get out of Helena, but I transferred back to Carroll.”

Puckett jumped in the car with several girlfriends Thursday and drove to Missoula to sign a lease on an apartment. She plans on starting graduate school at the University of Montana, pursuing a higher degree in pharmacology.

“I finished my last final today in physical chemistry,” she said happily. “It was an intense week. I had three take-home finals and three in-class finals.”

Saturday’s ceremony will surely come with lofty thought, along with numerous awards and distinctions.

The Friendship Center in Helena will receive the Borromeo Award for service to the community. Clarence Ryan, a 1953 Carroll graduate, will also earn an honorary doctoral degree.

“We have a lot of awards we’re giving out,” said Oliverio. “We have five professors going on emeritus status. It’s an honorific title due to the amazing things they’ve done for the college.”

The list includes economics professor Eugene Franks, who joined Carroll in 1968; Joseph Munzenrider, who joined in 1965; chemistry professor Marilyn Schendel, who joined in 1982; History professor Jeremiah Sullivan, who joined in 1963; and political science professor Philip Wittman, who joined in 1982.

Carroll engineers put talents to work

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:39:32 MDT

By John Harrington - IR Business Editor - 04/06/07

Several students from Carroll College will travel to Mexico next month to help install a sewer and septic system at an orphanage in the southeast part of the country.

Through the college's two-year-old chapter of Engineers Without Borders, nine students along with a faculty advisor and local professional engineer will spend eight days in Queretaro, implementing the system they designed.

The current situation at the orphanage, home to some 250 children, involves an open wastewater trench and a leaking lagoon that contaminates a nearby river.

Working with students at University of Queretaro, the Carroll students will install nearly a half-mile of PVC pipe to carry waste, along with a septic-type system to contain and eventually purify the wastewater before it reaches a river.

Fish tanks containing tilapia will be installed to help with water purification, and the resulting graywater will be used to irrigate adjacent cropland.

"We're trying to create a sustainable situation, so we don't want to bring in new technology that would be difficult to maintain down there," said Andrew Stewart, a senior civil engineering major and the EWB chapter president. "It's called a graywater system because it has all those other attributes."

Stewart has already traveled twice to Queretaro, once last fall to develop the project and again earlier this spring to line up materials for the work.

The crops irrigated with the graywater will be fed to cattle, helping the orphanage and the area feed themselves.

"It's a very well-rounded and cyclical process," said sophomore Jacquie Schmidt. "It's neat because it's so simplistic that a biology major (like herself) and all the people of the community can understand it. The goal is to teach them, to say, 'Look at what you have, and look at what you can do with it.'"

Carroll nursing students have developed a health survey that will be administered at two separate times to measure the effectiveness of the new system.

Dr. John Scharf, chair of the college's Department of Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, said the creation of the chapter has helped energize the school's decade-old engineering program.

"For me it's an exciting evolution in the development of the civil engineering program at Carroll," he said. "It's an activity we've promoted through the years, and to see it come to fruition is very rewarding."

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or john.harrington -is-at- helenair -dot- com.

Carroll College Announces 2007 Honors Thesis Presentation Schedule

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:12:44 MDT

TUESDAY, APRIL 10

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: HEALTH, PHYSICAL, & EDUCATION

7:00 p.m. (Campus Center, Rice Room)

Chelsea Bond (Lois Fitzpatrick, Director)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY/DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

7:00 pm. (Campus Center, Avila DeSmet Room )

Rachel Bennett (Dr. Robert Swartout, Director)

Matthew Brehe (Dr. Robert Swartout, Director)

Melissa Hibbard (Gillian Glaes, Director)

Michelle Logan (Dr. Erik Pratt, Director)

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

7:00 p.m. (Campus Center, Ross Rm)

Cole Mannix (Dr. Mark Smillie, Director)

MONDAY, APRIL 16

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ACCOUNTING, & ECONOMICS

7:00 p.m. (Simperman Hall Room 101/202)

Jeffery Simcox (Belle Marie, Director)

TUESDAY, APRIL 17

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS/DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY/

HONORS SCHOLARS PROGRAM

7:00 p.m. (Campus Center, Avila DeSmet Rooms)

Aaron Delman (Charles Driscoll, Director)

Rachel Donahoe (Dr. Elizabeth Chute, Director)

Page Kelly (Murphy Fox, Director)

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, ENGINEERING, & COMPUTER SCIENCE

7:00 p.m. (Campus Center, Ross Room)

Joseph Havens (Dr. Kelly Cline, Director)

Bethany Brownlee (Dr. Holly Zullo, Director)

Holly Perryman (Dr. Holly Zullo, Director)

Anthony Rasca (Dr. Kelly Cline, Director)

THURSDAY, APRIL 19

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES (BIOLOGY & CHEMISTRY)

7:00 p.m.- POSTER SESSION (Weigand Scola of the Fortin Science Center)

David Andersen (Dr. Marilyn Schendel, Director)

Buck Bania (Dr. John Addis, Director)

Anna Bramucci (Dr. Sam Alvey, Director)

Eileen Brennan (Dr. Jacqueline Brehe, Director)

Greg Clausen (Dr. Gerald Shields, Director)

Shannon Crabtree - Bi & Classical Studies (Dr. Grant Hokit, Director)

David Fredenberg (Dr. Jennifer Geiger, Director)

Nathan Gay (Dr. Jacqueline Brehe, Director)

Francisca Maertens (Dr. Jennifer Geiger, Director)

Jessica Miller (Dr. Sam Alvey, Director

Melissa Moyer (Dr. Sam Alvey, Director)

Judith Pickens (Gerald F. Shields, Director)

Mario Pizzini (Dr. Grant Hokit, Director)

Morgan Skalsky (Dr. Kyle Strode, Director)

Lindee Strizich (Dr. Gerald Shields, Director)

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

7:00 pm. (Campus Center, Ross Room)

Mariel Ott (Dr. Joy Holloway, Director)

FRIDAY, MAY 4 (in conjunction with the Third Annual Nursing Education Conference)

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING

2:45-5:00 p.m. (Campus Center, Avila DeSmet Room)

Robin Connor (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Caroline Proue (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Carissa Schutter (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Jessica Sloan (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Chanel Spillar (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Kathryn Stergionis (Dr. Joni Walton, Director)

Talking the Talk: Saints speech, debate team a dynasty

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:37:33 MST

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - IR Features Writer

Earning back-to-back wins in any competition is a noteworthy accomplishment. Winning 17 straight is downright rare.

The Carroll College Talking Saints, a speech and debate team coached by Brent Northup, won its 17th consecutive regional championship last week at Pacific University.

Jon Ebelt IR Staff Photographer - The Carroll College Talking Saints ship just keeps on cruising as the local group recently captured its 17th straight regional title and is now gearing up for nationals. Team members pictured include Sean Roberts, right, and Anne Gottschalk.

The team topped 24 schools from seven states, outgunning Utah State by a slender margin.

“We have a tremendous coaching staff,” said team president and Carroll senior Sean Roberts. “We’re very specific in how we approach an event because in the end, we feel that integrity is more important than the trophy.”

Roberts, who earned his oratory battle scars at the Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, has a knack for debating economic issues and topics relating to international relations.

A senior majoring in both finance and political science, he said good preparation and focus have helped Carroll compete against larger schools.

“Debate makes you look down the road at future consequences and not what the immediate impacts are,” said the future banker. “It helps teach you how to weigh costs and benefits.”

Just how long has Carroll’s current run lasted? The team hasn’t lost a West Coast championship tournament since 1990, back when George Bush senior was president, the Cincinnati Reds were World Champions and the home computer was a rare commodity.

Speaking on stage in front of large crowds never bothered Anne Gottschalk, the team’s vice president of speech events.

A Carroll senior majoring in fine arts communications, Gottschalk enjoys debating energy and women’s issues, and hopes to apply her oratory skills in the theater.

“This is really good for me,” she said. “It’s like a different kind of theater. I get to star in my own 10-minute production every Saturday. It’s been helpful to me in that respect.”

Gottschalk was on the forensics team as a high school student in Longmont, Colo. She said a good debater must be quick on her feet, creative in thought and current in world events.

“It’s really important to read the newspaper or turn on CNN — or your news program of choice — and keep up with what’s going on around the world,” Gottschalk said. “If you can’t come up with the facts, you need to come up with a creative argument.”

Carroll senior Marcus Granger was named the region’s top speaker of the year, and Gottschalk finishing third.

Carroll freshman Biff Griffith of Great Falls finished second in the “rookie of the year” competition.

Northup said several past Carroll debaters have gone on to coach teams at other schools, including Rocky Mountain College, the University of Oregon and Oregon State.

Carroll alums also serve as assistant coaches at Boise State and Lewis and Clark College, and head up the debate team at Capital High School.

“I keep reminding those coaches they need to have more respect for their former team (us), but they just wink and tell us to watch our backs,” Northup said. “I have no doubt that when this streak ends, it will be one of our alums who does it. There will be some satisfaction in that, although we promise not to make it easy.”

While you’re not likely to see glossy posters touting the debate team’s success, or sweatshirts boasting “17-pete” sold at the mall, the team is proud of its accomplishments nonetheless.

“We’re continuing to look for ways to raise our profile,” said Roberts. “We’d like to have more home games. We’d like to be relevant here in Montana in addition to being relevant in Portland, Seattle or Colorado.”

The Talking Saints now begin to prepare for the national championships, which take place in Colorado and Minnesota in late March and early April.

Talking Saints highlights of 2007

Senior Marcus Granger of the Talking Saints was named the region’s top speaker of the year, and senior Anne Gottschalk finished third.

Carroll freshman Biff Griffith of Great Falls finished second in the rookie-of-the-year competion for the region.

The Carroll results from the regional championship at Pacific University on Jan. 26-28 included:

Regional sweepstakes: Carroll, first. Tournament sweepstakes: Carroll, first. Open parliamentary debate: Marcus Granger and Sean Roberts, quarterfinals; Kevin Olp and David Anderson, octafinals; Kevin Taylor and Liam Meehan, octafinals; junior parliamentary debate: Samhammer and Biff Griffith, quarterfinals; Andrew White and David Harrison, quarterfinals. novice debate: Amy McNulty and Porsche Erekson, semifinals. Communication Analysis: Samhammer, third; Dramatic interpretation: Liam Meehan, sixth; duo interpretation: Anne Gottschalk and Taylor, first; junior extemporaneous: Kirby Brooke, second; Samhammer, fifth; Dick Peel, sixth; open extemporaneous: Granger, third; Taylor, fifth; Roberts, sixth; novice impromptu: David Harrison, fifth; open impromptu, Brian Dickson, second; Granger, third; David Anderson, fourth; Liam Meehan, fifth; novice persuasion: Amy McNulty, second; senior persuasion: Granger, fifth; poetry: Gottschalk, fifth; Jocelyn Bjornstad sixth; programmed oral interpretation: Gottschalk, third; Bjornstad, fifth; Taylor, sixth; junior prose, Biff Griffith, first; Brooke, fifth; Samhammer, sixth; senior prose: Gottschalk, second; Bjornstad, fifth.

At the Head of the Class

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:00:17 MDT

By ALANA LISTOE - IR Staff Writer

Nearly a decade ago, as a teenage boy, Jason Neiffer attended the Gifted Institute at Carroll College. Now a grown man with a degree in education, he returns to the week-long institute every summer to teach.

Neiffer, 32, is a Great Falls native who attended Carroll College. He went to the private school because of his passion for debate and the school’s reputation of having a great debate team.

He first turned his attention to law, but soon realized that a career in the legal system wasn’t for him.

“I’d probably be miserable as an attorney,” Neiffer said.

Instead he chose teaching and earned a degree in political science and history. He returns this fall to teach history classes and world cultures at Capital High School.

He remembers attending the Gifted Institute as a good opportunity to be around other students that were accelerated in the same ways he was.

The program is designed to challenge gifted fifth- through ninth-grade student’s academic potential while providing opportunities for social development. This year, about 210 students from around the state attended the institute.

Neiffer teaches different things each year, but it usually includes legal simulation and mock trials. He has taught the history of rock and roll music and history of advertising.

He describes attendees as a, “very unique group of students.”

George Lane IR Staff Photographer - Jason Neiffer was once a student at the Carroll College Gifted Institute and is now one of the instructors. Teacher at the Carroll College Gifted Institute was once a student in program

“They are very responsive to an open classroom environment,” Neiffer said.

Because the students are generally self-motivators, the rules in the classroom are kept very loose.

“They take their own responsibility for content interaction,” he said.

Neiffer said good candidates for the program are those who are willing to accept challenges and step outside of their usual boundaries.

He said it isn’t necessarily “the smart kids” and attending as a student forced him to step outside of what was comfortable and accept new challenges.

This is one of the things he says he loves most about teaching too.

“It challenges the paradigms of students,” Neiffer said.

He has been teaching long enough to see his first students become adults. He is proud to see them all grown up and doing great things in the community, he said.

Neiffer enjoys technology and currently runs a small business that provides debate materials to high school students. When he isn’t in the classroom, the business takes a lot of his time. However, he does enjoy camping and hiking when the opportunity arises.

Neiffer and wife Alison, have two cats. They recently added a new canine family member, Berkley.

For more information about the Gifted Institute call 447-4348.

One of the Wests Best Colleges of 2007

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:23:10 MDT

Carroll College President Dr. Thomas J. Trebon announced today that U.S. News and World Report has ranked Carroll as the second best comprehensive college - bachelor’s in the West, according to its rankings of the best colleges of 2007. In the rankings, Carroll College tied with Master’s College and Seminary (Calif.) for second place. U.S. News and World Report released its 2007 rankings officially to the public today. Carroll’s ranking moves the college up from last year’s third-place standing in U.S. News’ America's Best Colleges. 2007 marks Carroll’s 13th year in the U.S. News top 10 for its category. The magazine also ranked Carroll College as the fifth best value among comprehensive colleges in the West. The criteria for best value compared academic quality and net cost of the top institutions in each category.

Highlights of the college rankings are scheduled for publication in the August 28 edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine, available for newsstand purchase as of Monday, August 21 - the same day that the America’s Best Colleges guidebook also is available. The rankings are available now online at www.usnews.com.

U.S. News & World Report ranks colleges and universities nationwide based on indicators of academic success. Comprehensive colleges-the category in which Carroll College is ranked-focus on undergraduate education and offer liberal arts degree programs as well as professional programs, such as nursing, business and education. U.S. News ranked 320 comprehensive colleges this year separated into four regions: North, South, Midwest and West. The top considerations U.S. News employed in creating its rankings include peer assessment from top academics at other institutions plus the following data: freshmen retention rates and six-year graduation rates; faculty resources (including percentage of classes with 20 or fewer students); student selectivity; financial resources (the college’s per-student spending); and the proportion of alumni who financially support the college. In its key criteria listing, U.S. News noted that Carroll was second among Western comprehensive colleges for highest graduation rate.

“Carroll’s continuing rise in the U.S. News rankings shows yet again the college’s reputation for excellence across disciplines, from the liberal arts to our pre-professional programs,” said Dr. Thomas Trebon, president of Carroll College. “We are proud U.S. News has recognized Carroll’s efforts to provide the best education and one of the best overall educational values with its new ranking, the highest in Carroll’s history. As the college heads toward its centennial celebration in 2009, we are striving more vigorously than ever before to maintain our tradition of excellence and go even farther in providing outstanding academics and service to our students."