Pictured:
Front Row (L-R): Justin Jacqmain (PSY), Jake Dunkerson (HS/OT), Jennica Young (HS), Maddy Searles (HS), Katalin Geeck (PSY), Tim Pionk (PSY)
Back Row (L-R): Evan Nudi (PSY), Dr. Charles Weaver (HS), David Mudd (PSY), Dr. Jeff Smith (HS), Kasey Moritz (PSY), Bob Underly (PSY)

Winning Student Research and Creativity Institute proposals were chosen through a competitive selection process.

More information about the SRCI program can be found on the SRCI website 

The Center, located in Gilbertson Hall near the front of SVSU’s campus, is scheduled to open this fall. The artwork will be unveiled during the center’s grand opening celebration in September.

“SVSU has a long and proud tradition of engaging with and serving the communities throughout our region,” said Dawn Hinton, SVSU associate provost. “Through the relaunched and reimagined Center for Community Engagement and Experiential Learning, we will provide opportunities for SVSU students and faculty to engage more fully with community partners, reaping benefits for all.”

About the Project 
The selected artwork will reflect the spirit of connection between SVSU and the communities it serves. The piece should embody collaboration, shared learning and the transformative power of partnerships.

Theme 
Artists are encouraged to consider: 
•    Community voice and representation
•    Collaboration and partnership
•    Belonging and shared spaces
•    Impact and transformation
•    Regional identity and pride

Artwork Specifications 
•    Medium: Any 2d media or similar is welcome. 
•    The artwork must be scalable as the final work will be reproduced on a 6' x 15' vinyl banner to be installed in the space. Saginaw Valley State University will coordinate and oversee production and installation of the banner. The banner will become the property of the university; the original artwork will remain the property of the artist.
•    Artwork must be suitable for a public, university space.
•    All SVSU brand standards for logo use must be followed. The SVSU cardinal and logo may not be altered or distorted in any way. The SVSU cardinal logo is the only cardinal that may be used to represent SVSU. Brand guidelines may be found at svsu.edu/creativehub.
•    Size and installation details will be finalized in collaboration with the selected artist

Eligibility 
•    Open to local and regional artists (including college students and emerging artists)
•    Individual artists or collaborative teams are welcome.

Submission Requirements 
•    Artist statement (one page maximum)
•    Proposal concept (including how it connects to the Center’s vision)
•    Visual mock-up or sketches
•    Portfolio of past work (3-5 samples)
•    Résumé or brief biography

Selection Criteria 
Submissions will be evaluated based on: 
•    Alignment with the Center’s mission and theme
•    Creativity and originality
•    Demonstrated artistic skill.

Artist Prize
$1,000 (inclusive of artist’s fee, time and materials; does not include reproduction on vinyl banner or installation)

Timeline 
•    Submission Deadline: Friday, July 10, 2026
•    Artist Notification: Friday, July 24, 2026
•    Installation Completion: Friday, August 21, 2026

How to Apply 
Submit materials electronically to: communityengagement@svsu.edu 
Use the Subject Line: Community Engagement Art Submission – [Artist’s Name] 

Questions 
For inquiries, please contact: Dawn Hinton, SVSU associate provost, (hinton@svsu.edu).

For the 2026-27 academic year, a Michigan undergraduate attending full-time (12 to 18 credits) will pay $14,280, an increase of 4.4%, compared to the prior year. SVSU moved to a block tuition structure beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Students taking fewer than 12 credits will pay $595 per credit hour for the upcoming year; the same rate will apply to spring and summer courses in the upcoming fiscal year.

SVSU maintains the lowest tuition rate among Michigan’s 15 public universities.

The Board also approved spending up to $6.4 million to renovate certain apartment-style housing units in the University Village complex. SVSU’s student housing continues to be ranked No. 1 among all public universities in the United States, according to the annual “best dorms” ratings by Niche.

• In other action, the Board:
  Approved the promotion of 16 faculty members (including one posthumously). Promoted to the rank of associate professor are: Emily Larocque, nursing; Kevin Lorentz II, political science; Joshua Mike, mathematics; Ashley Sanders, social work; JoAnne West, teacher education; and Colin Wood, music. Promoted to the rank of professor are: Emily Beard-Bohn, English; Micah DelVecchio, economics; Melissa Garmo, criminal justice; Aneesha Gogineni, mechanical engineering; John Herman, mechanical engineering; Michael Heron, social work (posthumously); Chat Pongpatipat, marketing; Aricka Schweitzer, occupational therapy; Dennis Savard, criminal justice; Joe Weaver, psychology.
• Confirmed board members of previously authorized charter schools.
• Passed a resolution to conclude the term of a board member of Flat River Academy, a previously authorized charter school, effective Monday, June 15.
• Approved a revised SVSU Code of Student Conduct. 

The difference is practice. Students don’t spend the semester learning about client relations in the abstract — they serve actual clients, navigate real feedback, and deliver work with genuine stakes. In some cases, that work has helped drive multimillion-dollar community initiatives.

One recent project with the Hunger Solution Center illustrates exactly how powerful that kind of learning can be.

A Classroom Without Walls

When Jim Dwyer, an SVSU retiree and longtime advocate for experiential learning, stepped in to lead the fundraising effort for the Hunger Solution Center (HSC), he quickly realized the scale of the challenge ahead.

With a mission to combat food insecurity in the Great Lakes Bay Region, the Hunger Solution Center grew from a collaboration between two organizations in downtown Saginaw: the East Side Soup Kitchen and Hidden Harvest, a food rescue and redistribution organization,  both located in downtown Saginaw. After 20 years in operation, HSC had outgrown its facility, a direct result of surging demand for food assistance —a four-fold increase since 2004. 

To meet the need, the organization launched an ambitious capital campaign with an $8.7 million goal to fund the addition of modern facilities and expansion of the existing infrastructure. The vision was clear. The framework to execute it was not.
“We had a committee. I’m the chair,” Dwyer recalled. “We had no project manager, we had no website, we had no logo, we had no strategies.”

The organization needed more than funding. It needed a clear story, a recognizable identity and a strategic way to communicate its mission to donors and the broader community. For Dwyer, the solution was also an opportunity — one that aligned perfectly with SVSU’s hands-on approach to education.

Students Step Into the Role of Professionals

Dwyer reached out to J. Blake Johnson, SVSU professor of art and director of Cardinal Solutions. In this unique program, SVSU students and faculty from various disciplines work directly with businesses and organizations to develop marketing solutions. The work students do through Cardinal Solutions transcends the typical classroom assignment, with students providing real services to actual clients. Cardinal Solutions operates under university contracts administered through SVSU Sponsored Programs, and the student consultants are compensated with scholarships funded by their clients.  

For the HSC project, Johnson assembled a team from across disciplines — design, writing, photography, strategy — with each student stepping into a defined professional role.

Working across those specializations required students to do what professionals do: communicate across areas of expertise, advocate for their decisions, and hold each other accountable to shared deadlines and client expectations. 
Students took professional responsibility for all aspects of the project. They met with clients, navigated feedback, managed timelines and delivered work that would ultimately be seen by major donors and community leaders.

Turning Learning Into Impact

In 2024, 11 SVSU students from across disciplines got to work on the HSC fundraising campaign, a multipronged initiative that involved brand development, fundraising appeal messaging, video production, website development, social media presence and more. 

The first task was developing a cohesive brand identity that unified two separate nonprofits under a single campaign message and logo. Then the students went deeper, creating a variety of communication elements. They built a website, produced campaign videos, crafted donor messaging and created the social media presence the campaign needed to gain traction with major donors and the broader community.

Every deliverable required students to think beyond theory. They had to ask: Who is the audience? What motivates a donor? How do we communicate urgency and impact? How do we design something that a non-technical client can actually use?
For students like Karsyn Kasper, a 2025 graphic design graduate from Freeland, success meant becoming client-focused. 

Kasper applied her understanding of the client’s goals, objectives and audience to her web design skills. She built a modern and visually appealing website that was also intentionally built, so the Hunger Solution Center team could manage it independently moving forward.
SVSU graphic design student Lily Larsen, of Saginaw, it meant uniting multiple organizational identities into one cohesive visual story as she designed the project’s logo and brand
Rather than doing low-stakes practice work in the classroom, these students were undertaking high-stakes, real-world work that mattered.

Experience You Can’t Replicate in a Classroom

Cardinal Solutions projects like this offer something traditional coursework often can’t: unpredictability. Clients change direction. Constraints emerge. Timelines shift. The soft skills that develop through that friction — professional communication, collaborative problem-solving, accountability to people outside the classroom — are exactly what employers consistently say they find missing in new graduates. 

Students in Cardinal Solutions projects learn those skills in real time, and they see the direct results of their efforts because there’s no grade to soften the feedback. For the students involved in the HSC project, the campaign wasn’t an exercise — it was real work for a real organization needing real help, on a real deadline.. And the stakes were high: Their work would be central to the campaign’s outreach — used in donor presentations, shared across the community and instrumental in building momentum toward the goal.

“Cardinal Solutions taught me to adapt, communicate and think critically under real pressure,” said Caylee Schneider, a 2026 professional and technical writing graduate from Saginaw. 

For Larsen, the logo designer, the team structure was eye-opening.  “Working with interdisciplinary teammates helped me understand collaboration in the professional world,” she said.

As with any professional project, client satisfaction is paramount. And Dwyer, the volunteer who stepped up to lead this significant fundraising initiative, was a happy client. 

“I don’t know how I would have survived without them,” he said. 
Building Careers While Building Community

By the time the project neared completion, many of the students involved had graduated and entered the workforce.

These students graduated with something most job candidates can’t claim: They had shaped a real capital campaign, collaborated across disciplines and contributed to a project that raised nearly $9 million to benefit the Great Lakes Bay Region.  That portfolio entry doesn’t come from coursework. It reflects a broader mission at SVSU — preparing students not just to complete a degree, but to enter their fields ready to contribute from day one.

A Model for Meaningful Learning

The partnership between Cardinal Solutions and the Hunger Solution Center is more than a success story; it’s a model.

It shows what’s possible when education moves beyond theory and into practice, when students are trusted with responsibility, when university talent is connected with community needs. 

“It showcases how SVSU students can lead and manage high-stakes, regionwide efforts with real-world consequences,” said Johnson. 

The Hunger Solution Center fundraising campaign has raised more than $8.5 million — a total recognized with the 2026 Saginaw Future Economic Excellence Award, presented to the Hunger Solution Center Capital Campaign Committee. The student deliverables were part of what made that possible. 

Their work lives up to the motto of SVSU Cardinal Solutions: “From idea to finished project, your success is our goal.” 

At SVSU, that’s not a tagline. Helping the Hunger Solution Center create a successful fundraising campaign is how 11 students spent a semester — and what they helped create is feeding families.

 SVSU students involved in the project were:

• Adrian Sanchez, a graphic design major from Holland, served as a videographer.
• Lily Larsen, a graphic design major from Saginaw, served as a logo and brand designer.
• Sarah Fairchild, a professional and technical writing major from Frankenmuth, served as a social media writer.
• Lita P. Weekley, a professional and technical writing major from Mason, served as a web writer.
• Karsyn Kasper, a graphic design major from Freeland, served as a web designer.
• Kylie R. Clark, a graphic design major from O'Fallon, served as a social media designer.
• Caylee Schneider, a professional and technical writing major from Saginaw, served as a social media and print technical writer.
• Mandy S. Brown, a fine arts major from Standish, served as a photographer (one-day shoot).
• Alex K. Lorenz, a fine arts major from Midland, served as a photographer (two-day shoot).
• Nicholas J. Baumgarten, a graphic design major from Saginaw, served as a project manager.
• Amber Schuler-Torimoto, a music education major from Reese, served as a photographer (one-day shoot).

“I am incredibly proud of McKenzie and Carter's accomplishment! This is a testament to their countless hours of research and writing as well as their analytical and critical thinking abilities,” said Kevin G. Lorentz II, associate professor of political science at SVSU and moot court advisor. 

The Nelson Mandela Competition is a three-part process. In January, Shagena and Poniatowski submitted two memorials, or legal briefs, for a hypothetical human rights case. The top 10 teams from each of the five United Nations regions were invited to participate in the preliminary rounds, which were held virtually May 18-23. While Shagena and Poniatowski were not among the 24 teams advancing to the final, in-person rounds, they gained valuable experience.

“I wanted to explore international law and find out whether it was an area I could see myself pursuing,” said Shagena, who joined SVSU’s moot court team in fall 2025. “When I heard about the Nelson Mandela Competition, I knew it would be an amazing opportunity to push beyond domestic law and develop a broader set of skills.”
For Shagena and Poniatowski, the competitions provided a crash course in international law.

“Carter and I knew very little about international law going in, and it felt like we had stepped into an entirely different legal world, as international courts operate nothing like U.S. courts,” Shagena said. “We had just under two months to write two 3,000-word memorials, and a significant portion of that time was spent simply learning how international law functions before we could even begin creating our arguments.”
She credits Lorentz with helping the team navigate the learning curve, even though competition rules limited how much assistance he could provide.

The team of Shagena and Poniatowski is the second SVSU team to earn a spot in the Nelson Mandela Competition preliminary rounds. In 2025, Payton Stemmerich and Jason Hoang advanced to the final rounds held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Following the 2025-2026 competition year, SVSU’s moot court team was ranked No. 17 in the United States by the American Moot Court Association, the highest standing of all Michigan undergraduate teams.

The nursing awards were established through a gift from Terry and Carleen K. Moore. The program honors nurses across a range of specialties including acute care, education and community nursing. Carleen Moore worked as a nurse for more than two decades. Her husband, Terry, created the award to recognize the commitment and compassion of nurses.

This year’s recipients were honored in three categories: acute care nursing, community nursing and education. The recipients in each category follow:

Acute Care Nursing

• Brian Howell, R.N., B.S.N., clinical nurse in the neuro-trauma intensive care unit at MyMichigan Health in Midland. Nominators cited Howell’s clinical excellence, clinical advocacy and personal integrity.  
• Deborah Maida, R.N., a nurse at the Covenant Cancer Care Center in Saginaw. In nominating Maida, a former patient wrote, “Deb’s compassion, patience and genuine humanity changed my experience of treatment.”
• Kerri Mellon, R.N., B.S.N., M.S.N., director of the critical care director of nursing at McLaren Bay Region. Mellon was recognized for her commitment to leading with professionalism and grace and for collaborating with colleagues to drive accountability on performance.
• Chadd Richard, B.S.N., manager of patient care services at McLaren Bay Region. A stroke certified registered nurse, Richard was recognized for consistently demonstrating advanced clinical judgment and serving as a trusted resource for both staff and providers.
• Kevin Stokes, R.N., a nurse on the mental health unit at MyMichigan Health in Midland. Stokes was praised for his compassionate care of patients and his willingness to share his knowledge and experience with colleagues.
• Community Nursing
• Kemberly Parham, R.N., M.S.N., assistant nursing director at the Saginaw County Health Department. Parham was honored for her exceptional service, innovation, and commitment to increasing immunization rates and reducing vaccine-preventable disease in Saginaw County.
• Beverly Pyles, R.N., B.S.N., community health services director at the Midland County Department of Public Health. In a career spanning 45 years, Pyles has accumulated a wealth of knowledge that she shares as she mentors colleagues, nursing students, clients and friends.
• Laura Walker, R.N., B.S.N., nurse in trauma education and injury prevention at Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw. Walker was recognized for her work in education, outreach and training that contribute to the health and safety of the community.

Education    

• Kelly Bourdow, R.N., M.S.N.,  trauma program manager at MyMichigan Medical Center Saginaw. Bourdow was described as a standout nurse in her approach to education and outreach and her commitment to quality, evidence-based, empathetic care.
• Jill Jarvis, R.N., B.S.N., manager of clinical development and education at Covenant HealthCare. Jarvis was commended for elevating nursing practice and positively shaping the lives of the community, youth and nurses at Covenant.

Guest speaker for the event was Kay Wagner, D.H.A., M.S.N., system vice president and chief quality officer at MyMichigan Health.

Through his project, “The Effect of Globalization on Innovation, Health, and Happiness,” Cohle will study how increased spending by multinational firms impacts technological innovation, health and happiness in the countries in which they operate. Cohle explained that by understanding how large economic shifts impact health, interventions can be implemented to prevent widespread health declines.

About winning a Braun Fellowship, Cohle said, “I am thrilled. This is a great way that I'll be able to give back to the community at SVSU and the, hopefully, the intellectual community at large.”

Cohle joined SVSU in 2021. He holds a Bachelor of Science in economics-mathematics and philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from the University of Florida.

Tapp Jaksa’s project is “Discovering Wonder: A Science Education Framework for Early Learning,” which is designed to transform science education for very young children – birth to age 3. Tapp’s intention is to create both a comprehensive textbook and educator framework for early science instruction that are aligned to standards Next Generation Science Standards, which begin at kindergarten, and are appropriate for the different developmental stages of children in the age range.

“I chose to focus on birth to kindergarten because young children are natural scientists,” Tapp Jaksa said, “yet science and engineering are still too often overlooked in early childhood settings. The early years are a critical time for curiosity, inquiry, identity formation and rapid brain development, so I believe children deserve rich, equitable science learning opportunities from the very beginning.

In addition to her teaching role at SVSU, Tapp Jaksa is also the co-director of SVSU’s Center for Experience, Research & Design and Usability Research Team. In addition, Tapp Jaksa serves as educator in residence at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and as director of professional development for the University of Michigan Center for Digital Curricula. Tapp Jaksa is in the final year of her term as chair of the board of directors of AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) and also serves on board of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Tapp Jaksa joined SVSU in 2002. She holds a Doctor of Education degree from Wayne State University.

The Braun Fellowship program was created in 2005 through a $1.5 million endowment from the Saginaw-based Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation. Administered by the Saginaw Community Foundation, the program's purpose is to recognize the exceptional accomplishments and potential of select SVSU faculty and staff. It is named in honor of the late Ted and Ruth Braun.

Ken Luzynski, assistant professor of biology, and Becca Schlaff, professor of public health, have been announced as the recipients of the Field/Spicer Fellowship in Science and Engineering. This award includes funding of their projects for three years.

Through his project, Mosquito Monitoring in the Mitten, Luzynski’s goal is to establish a testing pipeline at SVSU in coordination with local mosquito control commissions and county health departments. This will allow for real-time monitoring of neuroinvasive diseases like West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Nanopore sequencing is much faster than traditional sequencing. Additionally, nanopore sequencers, like the device Luzynski plans to use, are much smaller and more portable than traditional sequencers, meaning they can be used at SVSU or in the field.

Luzynski said the data he collects will be used to develop a predictive model that forecasts potential outbreaks of neuroinvasive diseases, providing a crucial tool for public health decision-making. Components of this project will be integrated into SVSU's undergraduate curriculum, providing students with hands-on research experience and ensuring a continuous, collaborative data collection effort that will benefit the entire community. He anticipates having a reliable pipeline in place by the end of Summer 2027. The ultimate goal is to establish a longer term monitoring program in conjunction with the mosquito controls and regional health departments.

“I am grateful to receive the fellowship award,” Luzynski said. “This fellowship continues his legacy of fostering regional partnerships that benefit the health and well-being of the Saginaw Bay region.”

Luzynski joined SVSU in 2022. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, in Vienna, Austria.

Schlaff’s project is Prenatal Care Promotion and Congenital Syphilis Public Health Messaging. Using data she has collected from pregnant and postpartum women, Schlaff will make recommendations on culturally and linguistically appropriate communications regarding syphilis and congenital syphilis. She will also submit manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication in scholarly journals.

Schlaff said this work is an important element in efforts to improve maternal and child health outcomes throughout the region.

“I am honored to be selected as a Field-Spicer Fellow,” Schlaff said. “This fellowship provides a valuable opportunity to advance my research agenda focused on promoting the importance of prenatal care while developing accessible, evidence-based public health communication materials. Support like this is critical for faculty to engage and mentor students in meaningful research and to translate scholarship into action that improves public health outcomes regionally.

Schlaff served on the faculty of SVSU from 2022 to 2023, returning in 2024. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from SVSU and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
The Field/Spicer Fellowship in Science and Engineering at SVSU was established through the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. E. Malcolm Field to promote interdisciplinary work that bridges health sciences, biology, engineering and technology, with a preference for projects focusing on neuroscience.

Under coach Michael Dotson, who was a national title-winning collegiate cheer athlete, the 22 cheerleaders worked diligently all year to perfect their skills. Hannah McIntyre, co-captain of the 2026 squad, said, “Last year, our team made program history, earning a second-place finish in the D2 Intermediate Small Coed Division, stepping up from our third-place finish in the same category in 2024. That momentum really set the tone for this season and gave us the determination, drive and confidence going into this year.”

The team needed those traits to succeed at the competition, which McIntyre said was more intense than ever, with more teams competing in the Intermediate Small Coed Division since she began competing.
When asked about what stood out about the 2025-2026 cheer season, McIntyre reflected:

“The growth, not just in skill but in trust and chemistry. After our second-place finish last year, we came in so hungry for that win. We all showed up to every practice, put in the work, and pushed through every obstacle that stood in our way. This team is more than just a group of athletes. It’s a family. It is really cool to see how much a team learns to rely on each other, physically and emotionally, during the entire season. A favorite part of the entire season is seeing how all of our hard work brings us together in those final moments.”

Students competing on the 2025-2026 SVSU cheer team included:

• Gabriella Azar, a pre-occupational therapy major from Chesterfield
• Miranda Barteld, a criminal justice major from Gladstone
• Bailey Burger, a teacher education major from Mt. Pleasant
• Jozlyn Childs, a social work major from St. Charles
• Delaney Dopp, a pre-nursing major from Adrian
• Gianna Forster, a teacher education major from Harrison
• Landon Gage, an exercise science major from Linwood
• Aralyn Hantla, a general business major from Bay City
• Cora Katulski, a biology major from Yale
• Alyssa McFall, a nursing major from Flat Rock
• Hannah McIntyre, a pre-nursing major from St. Clair Shores
• Raena Norbotten, a business management major from Muskegon
• Alecia Pacheco, a criminal justice major from Brownstown Township
• Brookelyn Roten, a social work major from Midland
• Deshawnda Sparks, a social work major from Macomb
• Maranda Steinmetz, a teacher education major from Rockwood
• Kaitlyn Thompson, a social work major from Brockway
• Ava Tragle, a pre-nursing major from Rochester Hills
• Sydney Walli, an environmental studies and sustainability major from Bay City
• Maggie Walkowiak, social studies education major from Davisburg
• Claire Warznie, an exercise science major from Warren
• Grace Weeks, an exercise science major from Flushing

Cheer is a club sport at SVSU. The team practices throughout the year, performs at home football and basketball games, and attends the NCA Summer Camp. Team members excel in the classroom as well as in competition, carrying an average 3.26 grade point average.