Miners Give Back

April is Philanthropy Month at Missouri S&T. It’s a time to celebrate giving, growth, pride and progress – and the philanthropic spirit that unites Miner Nation. We're turning the spotlight on the vital role philanthropy plays in our society with a number of on-campus events.

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Emily Hernandez didn’t wait until college to start recruiting fellow minorities to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. She started as an eighth-grader during a University of Memphis camp called Girls Experiencing Engineering near her Germantown, Tennessee, hometown.

Today, the junior in electrical engineering is still recruiting minorities to engineering through the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at Missouri S&T. Hernandez, who serves as secretary of the group, says she wants to see more diversity in the engineering field.

“I always feel rewarded when people who have no interest in STEM come to a program and I can help show them how great engineering is,” she says.

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I volunteer with the Mentoring Makes a Difference program here in Rolla. We go to the Rolla Middle School every Wednesday to mentor kids. The program is focused on providing mentors to at-risk youth in Rolla.

Jacob Greek, a freshman from Dora, Missouri, says he enjoys being there for his middle school partner by helping with homework and being a friend. The program is administered by Prevention Consultants of Missouri.

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Nick McGraw of Freeburg, Illinois, a senior in engineering management, has participated in more than 400 hours of community service. “These experiences have been very rewarding, and I plan on continuing this trend in the rest of my academic career as well as my professional career.” McGraw recently traveled to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for a week as part of a disaster relief effort through the Miner Challenge Alternative Spring Break.

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Daniel Edwards

Daniel Edwards, ArchE’11, is the executive director of 2orMore, which seeks to mobilize young adults “around powerful ideas to inspire collective action.” He and his wife, Ebony (Burnside) Edwards, are working with Vewiser Dixon, ME’73, to restore an old workhouse castle in Kansas City, Missouri. Dixon is the founder of the Kansas City Business Center for Entrepreneurial Development, which owns the 1879 building.

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Kristi Arroyo of League City, Texas, a freshman in computer science, says she loves being part of S&T’s Student Diversity Program. “I’m part of S&T’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers chapter, and so I like to bring cultural awareness and also being part of the programs we have where we introduce younger people to the STEM field.”

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Getting involved with the athletic training center was a chance for me to give back to the university and its student-athletes.

When Missouri S&T upgraded its Student Health Services Center four years ago, former Miner football player and Rolla physician Dr. Tony Kaczmarek, LSci’87, saw an opportunity to improve the facility for Missouri S&T’s student-athletes.

Kaczmarek and his wife, Julie, a registered nurse, gave $100,000 to Missouri S&T to upgrade the university’s athletic training facilities and establish the Kaczmarek Sports Medicine Center, located across the street from Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

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I gave because Rolla gave so much to me.

Marcus Hayer, ChE’10, put his donation and ExxonMobil’s match to work to benefit future generations of chemical engineers. Thanks to the combined effort of the ExxonMobil alumni and the company’s generous matching program, ExxonMobil raised nearly $500,000 toward Bertelsmeyer Hall. The funds were used to name one of the building’s main lecture halls.

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Abdalla Bani, AE’13, Tyler Martin, AE’13, and Fabrice Tine, ME’13, AE’13, all overcame adversity to make it to college. Despite the challenges they faced, each of them earned a degree from Missouri S&T. Now they are helping other S&T students who face adversity to achieve the same success. The three were part of a group that formed Team Orion during their aerospace engineering senior design class, where they raised more money than needed for their project. With the extra money, Bani, Martin and Tine established the Pursuit of Life Scholarship to give a financial boost to an S&T student who has struggled like they did. In the above photo, Tyler Martin (left) and Abdalla Bani (right) are with the first Pursuit of Life scholarship recipients, Dylan Prévost, a senior in nuclear engineering, and Katherine Bartels, a sophomore in environmental engineering.

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As president of Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow and an active member of Lambda Chi Alpha, volunteering has always been a thing that I’ve enjoyed doing.

Tim Victor of St. Louis, a junior in mechanical engineering, regularly volunteers at the Miner Alumni Association, PRO days and the National American Food Drive.

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John Lovitt

John Lovitt, MS CSci’70, spent the fall 2014 semester volunteering in the classroom as an entrepreneur-in-residence with the Missouri S&T computer science department. The retired vice president of Rational Software and his wife, Diane, are members of the Order of the Golden Shillelagh and previously established the John Lovitt Internet Computing Graduate Research Fund, which supports research and research assistants in the area of internet computing.

The Lovitts live in the San Francisco Bay area, where they are active with Habitat for Humanity. They have taught leadership and entrepreneurship at summer programs for international high school students in Eastern Europe and China.

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Dr. George Karr

Dr. George W. Karr, Life’92, a long-time Rolla dentist, recently established the George W. Karr Fund for Pre-Dental Students at Missouri S&T through a charitable gift annuity. Beyond his local dentist practice, Dr. Karr has given his time and expertise to help thousands of people at home and around the world who could not afford dental care, and as he says, “fixing smiles.”

Upon retirement, Karr became the dentist for the Mercy Ship, a Christian hospital ship with headquarters in Newcastle, Australia. For more than two years, his wife, Joyce, accompanied him as his dental assistant in Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal, Papua New Guinea and part of New Zealand. 

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Emily Brickler (center), managing director of Leach Theatre, recently worked with Merle Alderson (left) of Merle’s Music to create a raffle drawing for a ukulele signed by renowned ukulele artist Jake Shimibukuro, who performed at the theater. 

"I love the fact that these students are learning, at a very early age, to love and appreciate music," Brickler says. "Many of the students showed up for the concert and were able to meet with Jake before the performance. It was a wonderful, enriching experience for them and they were very excited about getting to meet Jake in person."

The raffle raised $554 for Truman Elementary School’s ukulele club. Music teacher Jane Tummons used the money to purchase several new instruments for student use. 

"The ukulele is a great jumping off point for many students to develop an interest in music," she says. "It is a fun instrument to play and fairly easy to learn. Because of it’s size, it can easily be handled by small hands.  I believe these students will remember this experience for the rest of their lives."

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Missouri S&T student ambassadors

Missouri S&T’s student ambassadors are more than outstanding representatives for the university. They also take care of one another. Last fall, the group pitched in to help fellow ambassador Steven Julmus, a senior in mechanical engineering, return to his home in Haiti. 

The students held a Krispy Kreme fundraiser with a goal of raising up to $1,500 to cover the cost of a round-trip airplane ticket. 

"In just one week, the student ambassadors were able to sell 330 boxes of doughnuts," says Stephanie Bouse, coordinator of Missouri S&T’s Visit Center. “I was shocked at the outpouring of support from his fellow ambassadors, fellow students on campus, faculty and staff across campus, and everyone else who bought doughnuts or gave a donation.”

In November, Bouse presented Julmus with a check for $2,200 – enough money for a round-trip airplane ticket and a month’s worth of food and beverage in Haiti. 

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When James Zeiger came across the Be the Match bone marrow registry table at the Havener Center during the summer of 2012, he didn’t think twice about registering to become a bone marrow donor. A frequent blood donor, it just seemed natural to sign up alongside the other camp counselors.

“It’s really easy. They just take a cheek swab for tissue type and put you into their system,” says the junior in architectural engineering from Hannibal, Mo. “I just figured that I’d never get called.”

But last fall, to his surprise, he did get a call.

“I answered and they said, ‘Hey, do you still want to be a donor?’ And I said, ‘I just signed up a year and a half ago — of course I do!’”

The registry representative told Zeiger he was a possible match for a 63-year-old woman.

“I guess that’s part of the reason I did it,” he says. “My mom is around that age. What if this had been my mom? How could I not?”

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Dr. David Westenberg, professor of biological sciences and chemical and biochemical engineering, was one of many Missouri S&T faculty and staff members who joined 270 students by taking “A Day ON, Not a Day Off” on Monday, Jan. 19. It was a 22 percent increase over last year’s participation.

Projects included packing backpacks for the Hope Alliance, raking leaves at Boys and Girls Town, helping the elderly and working with GRACE, the Salvation Army, Russell House, Tri-County Humane Society, Gingerbread House and the Rolla Lions Club. 

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Matt Coco

Matt Coco, a 1966 civil engineering graduate, former alumni association president, and retired vice president of Alberici Constructors, served as pro bono project and construction manager for Hasselmann Alumni House. He logged thousands of miles between St. Louis and Rolla and guided every stage of the project. And he was always at the table to troubleshoot, solve problems and keep everyone calm.

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Donna Jennings, a senior in aerospace engineering, has taken on a big role in the Partnership Resale Shop’s baling efforts. “Baling is a very ‘green’ thing,” says Martha Prine Edwards, director of communications and volunteer coordinator at the Community Partnership. “We are recycling salvage clothing, which keeps it out of land fills - and it brings in revenue to help keep the Partnership’s programs going strong.”