Congratulations to our winners! Thank you for helping to make SMU a welcoming place for neurodivergent students and “going the extra mile” to help them succeed.
Our second round of Mustang Champions has been announced for the Spring semester! Mustang Champions are nominated each month, by ADSA and athletics staff, for recognizing athletes that are working to perform at their highest level! Whether by improving their academic or athletic performance, embodying the S.P.I.R.I.T of SMU athletics, or student-athlete success initiatives.
Sarah Kelly (Women’s Rowing) exemplifies dedication and perseverance. Despite facing challenges, Sarah has remained focused throughout the spring semester, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to success in her academics. Her hard work is evident in her strong academic performance and grades.
Ja’Heim Hudson (Men’s Basketball) embodies a well-rounded student-athlete. Ja’Heim dedicates extra time to academics, attending study hall and diligently completing work with his counselor, even while traveling for games. His commitment shines not only in the classroom but also on the court.
Bryce McMorris (Football) has emerged as a true leader. Bryce actively participates in both the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the Black Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC). He collaborated to establish a student-athlete STEM group-fostering academic engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math. Furthermore, Bryce advocates for fellow athletes by discussing student-athlete employment opportunities and their potential benefits and drawbacks. His consistent leadership extends to bi-monthly senior staff meetings, where he represents SAAC effectively.
Layla Garcia-Moreno (Women’s Soccer) exemplifies a strong work ethic. Despite only speaking English for two years, Layla actively participates in all Life After Ball (LAB) resources this semester. She is diligently working on her resume in pursuit of an internship, demonstrating a proactive approach to her future and excellent use of her resources.
Congratulations once again to Sarah, Ja’Heim, Bryce, and Layla for being recognized as our February Mustang Champions! These student-athletes are just a few examples of the many Mustangs who are excelling both on and off the field. Remember, there’s always someone to cheer for at SMU!
The Academic Development of Student-Athletes (ADSA) program at SMU is committed to collaborating with faculty to ensure student-athlete success. To achieve this, ADSA solicits feedback from instructors twice per semester.
This feedback aligns with critical academic milestones, including Early Progress Reports (EPRs), Mid-Term Progress Reports (MPRs), and the final withdrawal deadline with a “W” grade.
Faculty who have current student-athletes enrolled in their courses will receive these feedback requests directly from ADSA@smu.edu.
Current progress report will close on April 22nd
Through this collaborative process, ADSA aims to provide early intervention and support for student-athletes facing academic challenges.
ADSA is an academic unit that reports through Associate Provost Dr. Sheri Kunovich. As such, you may also receive direct communication from the sport-specific ADSA counselors as they collaborate with you to determine support for this population related to your specific feedback.
Below is an example of what the progress reports will look like when sent:
Thank you to our dedicated faculty for your continued partnership in supporting student-athlete success. Through this collaborative process, ADSA aims to provide early intervention and support for student-athletes facing academic challenges.
We at Disability Accommodations and Success Strategies (DASS) see how invaluable assistive technology is in the life of a student with a disability, but we want to share how this tech can help anyone. In the first of a two-part post, we’ll look at the text-to-speech software Kurzweil, and browser extensions that make Canvas more user-friendly.
Kurzweil reads electronic text aloud, and so students who are blind, have low vision, and many who are dyslexic rely heavily on it or similar apps. Students with ADHD, ESL students, students with a preference for auditory learning, and even those just struggling to focus find it easier to follow along as the text is read to them. Kurzweil is available for download to all SMU students through DASS, Academic Development of Student-Athletes (ADSA), and Fondren Library.
Tasks for Canvaspresents many ways to organize and bring important things front and center, including class announcements. It “gamifies” assignments with a progress wheel and helps the student break a task into smaller parts, then tracks their progress.
The second extension,Better Canvas, is more for cosmetic changes to the layout making it easier to see and get to the most important parts of each Canvas page. It is like Tasks but allows more creativity in its use of colors, dark/light modes, and themes.
Stay tuned for part two next week when we’ll consider mindfulness apps and AI!
SMU’s Undergraduate Poster Session for 2024 has concluded with some incredible posters and winners! The winners Elisabeth Hood, Veronica Khoury Seeling, and Gabriel Mongaras have shared with us some information about their respective posters. Read on to learn more about them!
Can you give us a layman’s terms explanation of your project?
Elizabeth Hood, Factors Affecting Romantic Partner Preferences Majors: Psychology, Sociology
Elisabeth: “My study investigated factors that influenced people’s attitudes and behaviors towards romantic interethnic relationships. Through surveys and interviews, we concluded that people would rather have a partner who shares their beliefs and values than have a partner who belongs to specific racial/ethnic group. This aligns with an emerging theory of interracial relationships known as dyadic cultural affinity, which places less focus on differences in the partners’ physical appearances and more focus on the compatibility of the partners’ beliefs, values, and practices.”
Veronica Khoury Seeling, The Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Immediate Memory
Veronica: “Based on researchers like Arain, we know that frontal lobe related executive function may not be fully developed until around age 25 and although the relationship between executive functioning and memory abilities has often been researched in child and older-adult populations, little research has looked to examine that relationship in college age/young adult populations. Thus, this study sought to examine the relationship between executive function and long-term episodic memory. Executive function refers to any higher order processes such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, or inhibitory control while long term episodic memory refers to the recollection of personal experiences or events. It was hypothesized that when controlling for variables like ADHD status, anxiety or depression level, age, and hours of sleep that executive function would still predict long-term episodic memory performance. After a 1 hour in lab session in which about 95 participants’ baseline executive function and long-term episodic memory performance were assessed, we took the data and ran a multiple regression controlling for those variables previously mentioned. It was found that executive function did indeed significantly predict long term episodic memory performance, suggesting that executive function is very important for general memory abilities in college age students, and future research should look towards intervention methods for those with executive dysfunction who may be struggling in school (like those with ADHD).”
Gabriel Mongaras, Linear Transformers With Cosine Attention Majors: Computer Science, Math, Statistics
Gabriel: “ChatGPT and related GPT style models have a major problem. After every word GPT generates, it has to store that word so it can reference it later. This is a problem as each word added increases the memory quadratically in term of the sequence length – that is every word increases the memory by every other word, not just itself! This becomes intractable to handle for any reasonable conversation or sequence. This problem comes from the attention mechanism, the heart of GPT models. We fix this problem by converting the softmax function to a cosine function and stabilizing the new attention mechanism, giving linear complexity while retaining the accuracy of the old softmax attention.”
How long have you worked on this project
Elisabeth: “This project began in Fall 2022!”
Veronica: “The data used for this project was taken from a larger 3-day study organized by a doctoral candidate in the MAPL lab, Diane Moon. I’ve been working on that larger project since October 2023. This particular project has been something Diane Moon and I have worked on since January/February of this year.”
Gabriel: “I have been working on this project since September of last year.”
How did you prepare, design, and print your poster?
Elisabeth: “To prepare and design my poster, I used a template provided by the Office of Engaged Learning. You can easily find these templates on the Engaged Learning website! The Engaged Learning website also has PDFs of the previous year’s winning posters, so I also used those as a guide. To print my poster, I used the FedEx on Hillcrest.”
Veronica: “This poster was prepared after countless meetings with Diane Moon and was designed with previous posters done by Diane and Dr. Bowen in mind. After I initially created the poster, Diane and Dr. Bowen looked over it two separate times before it was finally printed by the Psychology department.”
Gabriel: “Since we’ve been writing a paper, most of the information and charts came from there. However, the language had to be changed to be a little less technical. Most of the information was written around the results, algorithm and charts, which made it a lot earlier to write in less technical language, but also written like a narrative: what’s the problem, how is it fixed, what’s the results. Additionally, I tried to supply as much background information on the attention mechanism as possible with the little space I could do it in.”
What was your favorite part about presenting your poster?
Elisabeth: “My favorite part about presenting the poster was answering people’s questions! The sociology of interethnic relationships is something I’m very passionate about, and so receiving questions and being able to answer them was really inspiring; it gave me hope that this is a topic other people care about as well!”
Veronica: “Hearing how students with ADHD or other learning disabilities felt that accommodations and future interventions were very important for their success in college and that this research validated those experiences. This made me realize that this research, although small, was still important.”
Gabriel: “Meeting all the cool people with amazing projects and who were super passionate about them!”
Any tips for future presenters?
Elisabeth: “Future presenters: have confidence in yourself! Imposter syndrome is very common, especially for first-time presenters, but you know more than you think you know about your research topic. Posters are a huge feat for undergrads, so just remember that you worked so hard and you deserve to feel proud of yourself! For more practical advice, definitely get a second pair of eyes on your poster before you get it printed. Furthermore, don’t wait until the last minute to print.”
Gabriel: “Don’t be nervous about the poster presentation. It’s a lot of fun to talk about the work you’ve been doing over the past months or year(s) and most people just want to see the cool stuff you’ve been working on! Though one piece of advice is to try to think of possible loopholes or limitations in your approach as people may ask about those.”
As the Spring 2024 semester comes to an end, the Office of General Education is working to re-launch the Common Reading program for SMU undergraduate students in Fall 2024 in a revised format.
This version of the Common Reading will target first-year students, allowing them the opportunity to earn their Civics & Individual Ethics (CIE) Common Curriculum (CC) Proficiency. Due to budget and logistical constraints, it will only be a targeted group within the first-year cohort rather than all first-year students.
The Office of General Education has created a campus-wide survey to get feedback from students, staff, and faculty members on the following:
Book selection and its alignment with the CIE rubric
Time commitment and requirements for students intending to receive the CIE credit
The Council on General Education met on March 8, 2024. The meeting minutes for February 23, 2024, were approved at this meeting. Below is the agenda, and the meeting minutes have now been posted on the General Education website.
Approval of Agenda for March 8, 2024, Council on General Education meeting.
Approval of Minutes for the February 23, 2024, Council on General Education meeting.
CC Tag Proposals (Peter)
Course Proposals
HRTS 4399 (Human Rights Research) REVISED-Civics and Individual Ethics; Human Diversity; Global Perspectives
AMAE 3387 (Principles of Creative Entrepreneurship) – REVISED-Oral Communication
Activity Proposals
Honor Council – Civics and Individual Ethics
SMU Outdoor Adventures – Community Engagement; Oral Communication
CC Rubric Update (Dayna)
Approved pending revisions.
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Technological Advances and Society
Tabled
Exploring Science
Global Perspectives
Student Progress Toward Degree and Throughout (Sheri)
The Dallas Morning News recently featured Arath Dominguez, a first-generation student at SMU. In the article, Arath describes his experience as a first-generation student and explains why he chose to attend SMU. Coming from a family of seven he knew he wanted to go to a school where he could thrive while staying close to his family. He is pursuing a B.A. in computer science and a B.S. in data science. Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE) has opened many doors to engage in opportunities to engage with people from diverse backgrounds which led him to switch his degree from electrical engineering. “Thanks to the contacts I made through SHPE, I interned at AT&T as a data scientist. This experience solidified my passion for pursuing a career in data science or technology consulting and reinforced my desire to work for a company that values diversity.”
He notes his strong alliance with Student Financial Services and how crucial it is to keep applying for scholarships even after high school. “I did not stop looking for scholarships during my undergraduate career. Students are not limited to not only getting scholarships during high school.” A combination of federal grants, merit scholarships, and institutional support has aided Arath in attending SMU paying for almost 95% of his tuition!
Lastly, he emphasizes how important it is for first-generation students just to ask for help. “Just asking questions is crucial, especially for first-gen students like me. I struggled with this because I didn’t want to reveal that I didn’t know what was going on, even when I didn’t. In hindsight, I would’ve benefited from asking more questions.” Asking questions has allowed Arath to be successful and seek more resources to help him through his academic career.
“Failure is a natural part of the learning process, and you need to be open to it to identify areas for growth, So don’t be afraid to ask questions even if you feel like the person next to you has it all figured out. Because the truth is, they probably don’t. – Arath Dominguez
The Office of Engaged Learning is excited to welcome two new staff members to the team, Alisha Bailey and Olivia Prioleau.
Alisha serves as Assistant Director for Pathways to Business and Industry Program. Before transitioning to OEL, she served as Program Manager in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, where she led the engineering outreach camps for K-16. Alisha received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Spelman College and her Master of Science in Environmental Sciences from Alabama A&M University. Prior to obtaining her master’s degree, Alisha worked as a sixth and seventh grade mathematics teacher in Houston, TX, before transitioning back into the science field. Through her master’s program, her knowledge and focuses were fisheries, aquaponics, and water management research and by studying abroad in Nanjing, China, she broadened her skills in GIS. Alisha worked for the government in the environmental health field as an Environmental Compliance Specialist for several years in Atlanta, GA. Outside of work, Alisha is continuously dedicated to service by volunteering at Ronald McDonald House Dallas, as an advisory board member with Women Leading Technology, serves on the Board of Directors for The GEMS Camp, a proud alumna of Leadership ISD Dallas County Civic Voices Fellowship, and a member of Junior League of Dallas.
Olivia Prioleau serves as the new Project Specialist, coordinating the Big iDeas and Mustang Mentors program. As a Charleston, South Carolina native, Olivia received her B.A. in Journalism and Communications from the University of South Carolina and will be graduating with her M.Ed. in Higher Educational Leadership from Texas Christian University in May of 2024. During her two years at TCU, Olivia served first-year leadership programs, student organizations, and large-scale programs in her role as the Graduate Assistant in the Student Activities Office. She is excited for her new journey at SMU and to serve more students on the Hilltop.
SMU in Four Early Alert Pillar is facilitating three focus groups this week to discuss student experiences related to early alert tools.
Students will be asked to share their experiences related to Early Progress Reports, Midterm Progress Reports, and the Mid-Semester Check-in survey, to name a few. All undergraduate students are invited to participate.
Please help us recruit students to participate by forwarding to interested students. Lunch is provided for in-person attendees, but online participants are possible
