RPTM Kudos and Announcements September 22, 2008
Congratulations Alumni
Ranjan Bandyopadhyay ‘07 Ph.D. (Ranjan.Bandyopadhyay@sjsu.edu) is Assistant Professor of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism Management at San Jose State University.
Bobbi Jo Witmer ’07 (bjwitmer@gmail.com) is Activities Director and Volunteer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Assisted Living Center.
Congratulations Faculty
Ranjan Bandyopadhyay’07 Ph.D., Duarte B. Morais, and Garry Chick’s article “Religion and identity in India’s heritage tourism” was published in Annals of Tourism Research, 35(3).
Shawna Doerkson was chosen to attend the Physical Activity and Public Health Postgraduate Course on Research Directions and Strategies in Park City, Utah September 16-24 sponsored by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of South Carolina's Prevention Research Center and designed to provide post-doctoral personnel with research training including grantsmanship, study design, measurement of physical activity, and special topics related to physical activity and public health.
Duarte B. Morais and Harry Zinn, in partnership with Audrey Maretzki, co-director of the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge, secured a grant funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Marjorie Grant Whiting Center. In November, these faculty will visit Namibia to conduct field work to evaluate WWF's community-based program of revitalization in Sub-Saharan regions.
Congratulations Staff
Gennifer Blesh was selected to participate in the Administrative Committee on Research Certification and Education Series (ACES) a two-year, four-semester certification program which began September 2008. The 80 hours learning experience is a combination of workshops, online education, mentoring, and competency assessment addressing topics such as: Proposal Preparation, Budget Building, Advanced Budget Building, Purchasing Equipment and Other Direct Costs, Travel, Payroll, Subcontracting, Matching Funds and Cost Sharing, Conflict of Interest, Program Income, Account Set-Up and Pre-Award Costs, Cost Transfers, Internal Service Organizations, Research Compliance and Integrity, and Record Retention.
Departmental Happenings
Matt Grobe ’05 (matt.grobe@nwlr.com), Miles Blundell ’04 (miles.blundell@nwlr.com), and Jon Pitcavage visited the departments as representatives of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort on September 15. They spoke in three RPTM classes and presented to students at the Nittany Lion Inn about employment opportunities at Nemacolin.
Former Department Head and Professor Emeritus Frank Guadagnolo attended the semester’s first PGM Student Society meeting on September 3. Bill Cioffoletti, PGA Director of Recruitment and Community Outreach, was the guest speaker.
SmartBoard technology and twenty new laptops for student use were installed in the RPTM classroom in 808 Ford. Professor Andrew Mowen says, "The SmartBoard has allowed me to effectively illustrate recreation facility design principles quickly and save these in-class notes as electronic files for student reference. Moreover, the ability to simultaneously use the SmartBoard with PowerPoint has been an added bonus."
Notable Quotes
“[The RPTM office staff]make everything so perfect, everything is well organized! You are so friendly and helpful to people. You have added much credit to this department. You have made my stay here so pleasant and fruitful!”
— Huimei Liu, visiting scholar
“I was once again totally impressed with [RPTM students’] professionalism and excitement for the program . . . I have no doubt that you will continue to produce the best and brightest!! Please send regards to your quality team and as always, do not hesitate if I may assist from this end.”
— Bill Cioffoletti, PGA Master Professional, Director of Recruiting and Community Outreach
If you have accomplished something you would like to share with the RPTM crew, please notify me. Also, if you are aware of accomplishments or quotes by our alumni, students, or staff, please let me know so I can share the news. Thank you! – John Dattilo, Professor and Department Head jxd8@psu.edu