January flew by and we have some exciting news to share!

• Ball State put the spotlight on two of our faculty members in their Achieving Academic Excellence video series: CICS’ Becky Hammons and TCOM’s Chris Flook.
• CCIM offers a new class introducing students to drone operations and applications. The inaugural class, led by TCOM faculty Tim Underhill and Journalism faculty Ryan Sparrow, and TCOM alumnus Zach Huffman, took place earlier this month.
• Amy Clevenger joined the CCIM Dean’s Office as our Schedule Specialist. In this newly created role, Amy manages the course scheduling process for all four units of our college (Center for Information & Communication Sciences, Communication Studies, Journalism, and Telecommunications).
• CICS Professor Frank Groom‘s research was published with the peer-reviewed international newsletter IEEE Future Directions. This is the first of three in a series on artificial intelligence and its impact that have been accepted for publication by the IEEE.
• The Journalism Education Association named Journalism faculty Kim Green their 2020 Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award recipient. The award recognizes teacher who, through the teaching and/or advising of journalism, inspired others to pursue journalism teaching as a career and who has made a positive difference in the teaching community. Read more here.
• Recent photojournalism graduate (and former Indiana College Photographer of the year) Grace Hollars will be photographing the upcoming Olympics in Japan, representing USA Today and Gannett. Just have a look at Grace’s priceless reaction and try not to smile!
• CICS recent graduates Lionel Somé and Robert Becker were selected to compete as two of the ten finalists in the Palo Alto Networks National Cyber Security Challenge. At the end of the four-month long process, Lionel Somé placed third, winning a $2,500 cash prize, and firewalls for the CICS lab. Read his story here.
• Journalism faculty Natalee Seely‘s research on on trauma reporters and their self-reported PTSD-related symptoms was featured in the Alumni Magazine published this month.
• The Ball State Speech team traveled to DeKalb, Illinois to compete at the Mid-America Forensics League (MAFL) #5 and #6 tournament the weekend of Jan 24-26. BSU’s team won four individual awards at MAFL #5 and five first place finishes at MAFL #6. BSU competed against 17 other teams, coming in 2^nd on Saturday and winning team sweepstakes on Sunday.
• Crain Communication named TCOM faculty Tim Underhill one of ten Stellar Journalism Educators for 2020. “He was cited for always having an open door to students; being responsive to their questions and concerns; and grading that starts with a baseline of what professional work should look like that helped students realize their potential, and be as picky with their own work as an employer would be in the real world.” Read more page 17 of Crane Pro News.

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