Southeast Missouri State University

Southeast Missouri State University celebrated the achievements of its faculty, staff, and student mentors at the 2025 Excellence in Advising, Student Success, and Teaching Celebration on April 22. The event honored individuals and teams who demonstrate exceptional commitment to student support, innovative instruction, and academic mentorship. Among the awardees were Bashair Ahmad and Dr. Lori Mueller, recognized for outstanding academic advising, with Mueller also receiving the OVC Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Student Success award. Provost Awards recognized excellence in categories ranging from teaching innovation and experiential learning to mentorship and research support. Notable honorees included Dr. Sarah Dietrich for teaching innovation and Dr. Suhair Amer for student mentorship. Additional accolades were presented to faculty excelling in online teaching, student recruitment, and assessment, as well as to Hannah Witty, who was honored as an exemplary graduate teaching assistant. The SupportNET Student Success Awards highlighted contributions to student retention, with recognitions going to Alicia Lincoln, Debbie Carter, and the Athletic Academic Services team.

Southeast Missouri State University has announced the recipients of its 2024-2025 Student Life and Leadership Awards, honoring students, faculty, staff, and organizations for their leadership, academic excellence, and dedication to building a vibrant campus community. Among the honorees are recipients of the President's Spirit of Southeast Awards, First-Year Student Awards, and Civic and Global Engagement Awards, as well as several organization and advisor recognitions. Standout groups such as the International Student Association and SEMO Marching Band Organizing Staff were also celebrated for their contributions. The awards also highlight achievements in experiential learning and academics through the Provost and Experiential Learning Awards, recognizing outstanding individuals from each academic college and graduate studies. This year's honorees represent a wide range of majors and backgrounds, showcasing Southeast's commitment to leadership, service, and hands-on education.

Stephen Casey, a senior music education major at Southeast Missouri State University, has been named a 2025 Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP) winner in the Orchestral Open Age category for his original composition, The Dear King. Selected through blind judging and performed by the Columbia Civic Orchestra, Casey's work stood out among submissions from across the state. Sponsored by the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the University of Missouri School of Music, the MOCOP recognizes excellence in new choral and orchestral works. Casey's achievement highlights both his creative dedication and the strength of SEMO's music program, which offers students robust opportunities in composition, education, and performance.

Thirty-one Southeast Missouri State University students recently became certified storm spotters through a National Weather Service-led training, applying their new skills just days later during a significant weather event in Missouri. Many of the students, including aviation majors and geoscience minors, found the hands-on experience both professionally relevant and personally impactful. Guided by Professor Pamela Mills, the training emphasized not only the science of severe weather but also the civic responsibility of storm spotting. Students reported increased confidence in identifying hazardous conditions and recognized the value of their contributions to public safety and weather awareness.

Southeast Missouri State University alumna Kamryn Flowers has been named a 2025 Missouri Teacher Leader of Tomorrow by the Missouri Milken Educators, recognizing her outstanding promise as a future educator. A graduate in early childhood education, Flowers completed her student teaching at Stix Early Childhood Center in St. Louis before being hired at Mason Elementary. She was praised for her strong classroom management, content knowledge, and nurturing approach to teaching. As part of this honor, she will receive mentorship and professional development from past Milken Educator Award winners. Her recognition highlights SEMO's continued excellence in educator preparation and its commitment to developing classroom-ready, impactful teachers.

In the fields near Jordan, Montana, prospecting the Hell Creek Formation, a group of Southeast Missouri State University students recently uncovered fossils that tell a story 65 million years old. From June 20-26, 2021, the geoscience students embarked on a trip to search for dinosaur fossils, and they did not return empty handed.

Southeast Missouri State University sophomore Killian Delaney has been named the 2020 Golden Opportunity Scholar by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA).

Southeast Missouri State University student Gabrione Kent has combined his passion for charitable work and entrepreneurship to help fight food insecurity on campus and in the local community. Kent, a senior entrepreneurship major from Warrensburg, Illinois, created the One Meal A Week program as a way for students to donate their unused meal plan dollars to the Redhawk Food Pantry.

Alexys Bergschneider, a senior from Springfield, Missouri, and Justin Tuschhoff, a senior from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, were crowned the 2020 Man and Woman of the Year during Southeast Missouri State University's 2020 Spirit Week celebrations.

Seven Southeast Missouri State University students from Southeast's Donald L. Harrison College of Business and Computing traveled to the third annual Foundation for Economic Education Conference (FEECon) in Atlanta, Georgia, June 13-15.

Southeast games are excited about a plan to develop an eSports venue in Southeast's Missouri State University's Towers Complex that is expected to attract both recreational and competitive Southeast players when it opens for the start of the fall 2019 semester.

Words are powerful, and some words can cut deep. In the fourth annual Skin Deep Project, Southeast Missouri State University students are learning how to take control of the words that define them by proclaiming words of empowerment and redefine who they really are.

Southeast Missouri State University's Hoover Center, a facility offering supportive programming during the daytime hours to well and frail senior adults age 60 and older, is a unique space serving the elderly and their families in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson areas. The Center also serves as an educational training facility for Southeast undergraduate students majoring in family studies and communication disorders.

Southeast Missouri State University senior Heather Leslie of Bartlett, Tennessee, is taking the fall semester off to continue traveling across the nation, working on the Discovery Channel's "Street Outlaws: Memphis" and "Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings."

Zackary Koeller, a senior from Jackson, Missouri, and Danielle Bergfeld, a senior from Effingham, Illinois, were crowned the 2018 Man and Woman of the Year at halftime of the Southeast Missouri State University Homecoming football game on Saturday, Oct. 13, on Houck Field.

Southeast Missouri State University student Myriah Bernard was recently selected to serve as a student delegate at the 42nd World Federation of United Nations Association's (WFUNA) Plenary Assembly and 3rd Global Youth Forum in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Southeast Missouri State University's Conservatory of Theatre and Dance will offer two sneak peeks of its upcoming performance of "An American Hero" in New York City with two non-ticket dress rehearsals of the show at Southeast's River Campus.

Southeast Missouri State University senior Heather Keesee says being a Libra - a natural people pleaser - makes hospitality management a great career fit for her. She is interning this summer at the Beau Rivage MGM Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she is shadowing management in hopes of launching a career in the industry.

Kara Hartnett, editor of the Arrow , the student newspaper of Southeast Missouri State University, was named Journalist of the Year at the Missouri College Media Association (MCMA) Conference April 7-8 at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

The Southeast Missouri State University cyber defense team took second place at the 2018 Erich J. Spenger Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) March 23-24 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois.

This weekend, several nontraditional students - many over 50 years old - will be crossing the stage demonstrating the "will to do" has no age parameters. Ron Broyles of New Madrid, Missouri, Marie Gill of Portageville, Missouri, and Lorrie Compton of LaGrange, Georgia, are earning bachelor's degrees Southeast Missouri State University's spring commencement ceremony May 12 and preparing to pursue their next challenges.

For the sixth straight year, the Southeast Missouri State University Cyber Defense Team won the Missouri Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) March 3.

Southeast Missouri State University students selected to participate in a four-day seminar during spring break week March 13-18 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.

It was love at first step for Sabrina Presley of Lowndes, Missouri, when she walked onto Southeast Missouri State University's campus at the age of eight to present a History Fair project.

Southeast Missouri State University alumna Eliza Grove of Dix, Illinois, works as a consultant with Lighting Science Group in Satellite Beach, Florida. Her clients include the Los Angeles Dodgers and the U.S. Olympic team as it traveled to Sochi for the Winter Olympics.

Southeast Missouri State University alumna Twila Mason of Bloomfield, Missouri, will be starting her own part-time crafting business, Twila's Crafty Cat Studio.

Southeast Missouri State University alumnus Garvin G. Ambrose of Toronto, Canada, has accepted a position as the Chief of Staff in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Chicago.

Southeast Missouri State University alumnus Timothy Weddle of Jefferson City, Missouri, has recently been hired as the St. Louis Symphony's "first call substitute."

When alumna Carol Backman of Cape Girardeau learned about the U.S. embassies overseas in high school and went home talking to her mother about it, she assumed it would not go anywhere. However, once she graduated from Southeast Missouri State University, her mother, who had made a mental note of the conversation, gave her a job application for a position with the U.S. Department of State.

Southeast Missouri State University alumna Kelley Oswald of Ballwin, Mo., has two passions: dance and nutrition. Last season, Kelley expressed her passion as a dancer for the St. Louis Ambush Indoor Soccer team's dance team while advancing her education by studying nutrition at Saint Louis University.