June 8, 2022

Chiara Rapacci, a 17-year-old junior at Baraga High School, has won this year’s Parade of Nations logo contest. Her design will be the official logo of the 2022 Parade of Nations, printed on T-shirts, flyers and other materials.

It’s incredibly appropriate that Rapacci won, since the Parade of Nations celebrates multiculturalism in the Keweenaw, and she is an exchange student from Italy sponsored by International Cultural Exchange Services (ICES), a nonprofit international high school student exchange program. Her logo illustrates this year’s theme: The World is One.

The Parade of Nations will take place Sept. 17.

“I’m so excited,” Rapacci said when she learned that her logo had won. She created the logo in a graphic design class taught by Viktoria Klein. A number of Klein’s students submitted logos to the contest.

Rapacci's host family includes parents Gina and Irv Smith of Baraga. “She’s very creative,” said Gina. Ironically, Rapacci initially wanted to drop out of the graphic design class, but she stayed and really enjoyed it, Gina added.

“I’ve always loved to draw, but it was always in pencil,” Rapacci said. “I’ve never done anything like this.”

Rapacci is loving her exchange year in the U.S. “It’s totally different from Italy,” she said. “The people are so nice. Everyone is willing to help.”

She also loves American food. Her favorites? Tacos and chicken alfredo. She has taught the Smiths to call noodles “pasta.” “When we go to a grocery store, she heads straight for the pasta aisle,” Gina said. “She could wander up and down that aisle forever.”

“I love my family here, and I love being surrounded by nature,” Rapacci said. She went fishing with the Smiths for the first time in her life, and she adored it. She wants to come back to the United States for college, and she wants to live here someday.

The Smiths have loved hosting Rapacci. “She’s awesome, always smiling,” Gina said. “She loves to tease my 10-year-old, and she keeps us laughing.”

Gina added, “What a joy it has been learning about Chiara’s culture and the differences between the United States and Italy. My great-grandfather came to the U.S. from Italy in 1912 at the age of 13. Knowing that made it even more interesting to learn the differences through Chiara's eyes.”

Through a collaboration with many departments across campus, Michigan Tech now has a Qualtrics survey platform site license, available to all active faculty and staff. For access, visit the Michigan Tech Qualtrics site and log in with your Michigan Tech account name and password.

Base Camp is Qualtrics’ training resource. There, you’ll find content and training materials on how to use the Qualtrics software. Additionally, all users have access to online support at the Qualtrics support site. Support for Qualtrics is provided exclusively by Qualtrics.

Questions about our Qualtrics university license? We can help. Contact IT at it-help@mtu.edu or call 7-1111.

The Songer Award for Human Health Research supports students doing health-related research in the College of Sciences and Arts (CSA). Supported by the generosity of Matthew Songer ’79 (biological sciences) and Laura Songer ’80 (biological sciences), and matching funds from CSA, the program has supported four students annually in each of its four years.

CSA is pleased to announce the winners in the 2022 competition:

Graduate Awards ($6,000):

• Adelina Oronova, advised by Marina Tanasova (Chem): “Color-changing coumarins as ratiometric fluorophores for intracellular esterase detection and discrimination of live and dead cells.”
• Emily Washeleski, advised by Paul Goetsch (BioSci): “Investigation of oncoprotein disruption of the DREAM transcriptional repression complex.”

Undergraduate Awards ($4,000):

• Andrew Menard, advised by Lanrong Bi and Marty Thompson (Chem) and Mark Tang (BioSci): “Design and synthesis of novel indole derivatives for protecting hearts against chemotheraphy-induced cardiotoxicity."
• Vincent Pellizzon, advised by Lanrong Bi (Chem) and Zhiying Shan (KIP): “Design and synthesize of novel tempo-RGDs as the potential mitochondrial protective agents for the prevention of hypertension.”

The selection committee included Megan Frost (KIP), Robert Larson (BioSci), Nicole Seigneurie (Pre-Health) and Matthew and Laura Songer.

Former Michigan Tech hockey forward Paul Coppo passed away Thursday (June 2) at Aurora Bay Care in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Coppo was 83.

Originally from Hancock, Coppo played for the Huskies from 1956-60. He was an All-American in 1960 and was also honored on the NCAA All-Tournament Team and All-WCHA Second Team that season while serving as the team captain. In 85 career games, he tallied 134 points with 59 goals and 75 assists. He led the Huskies in scoring as a sophomore and as a senior.

Coppo was inducted into the Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.

Read more about his career at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Job Postings for Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Staff and faculty job descriptions are available on the Human Resources website. For more information regarding staff positions, call 906-487-2280 or email mtujobs@mtu.edu.

For more information regarding faculty positions, contact the academic department in which the position is posted.

Custodian (12 months/ 40 hours/ first shift) #22164, 22165, Facilities (AFSCME posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal AFSCME applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal AFSCME posting dates). Apply online.

Custodian (12 months/ 40 hours/ third shift) #22032RP, 22166, 22167, Facilities (AFSCME posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal AFSCME applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal AFSCME posting dates). Apply online.

Custodian (12 months/ 40 hours/ second shift) #22168, Facilities (AFSCME posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal AFSCME applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal AFSCME posting dates). Apply online.

Custodian (nine months/ 40 hours/ third shift) #22169, 22170, Facilities (AFSCME posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal AFSCME applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal AFSCME posting dates). Apply online.

Custodian (12 months/ part-time, no base/ shifts vary) #22171, 22172, 22173, 22174, Facilities (AFSCME posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal AFSCME applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal AFSCME posting dates). Apply online.

Administrative Aide 7 (12 months/ 40 hours/ first shift) #22175, Financial Services and Operations (UAW posting June 8 to June 14, 2022 — internal UAW applicants are given first consideration if they apply during the internal UAW posting dates). Apply online.

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Accommodations are available. If you require any auxiliary aids, services, or other accommodations to apply for employment, or for an interview, at Michigan Technological University, please notify the Human Resources office at 906-487-2280 or mtujobs@mtu.edu.

Professor Emeritus Bill Sproule (CEGE) attended the American Society of Civil Engineers' 18th International Conference on Automated People Movers and Automated Transit Systems in Seattle, Washington, held June 1-3.

Sproule gave the keynote presentation, titled "Back to the Future," on the history and future of automated people movers and automated transit systems. In addition, he gave a presentation titled "Seattle Monorail and the 1962 Seattle World's Fair."

Sproule was also the proceedings editor for the conference.

The Daily Mining Gazette ran a story about the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum and its new endowment for curation, given by Jack and Phyllis Seaman in May. John Jaszczak (Physics/Mineral Museum) was quoted in the story. 

The endowment was also the subject of a Michigan Tech News story.

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RTO Insider ran a story on pumped underground storage hydropower research being conducted by Roman Sidortsov and Tim Scarlett (SS) at Michigan Tech.

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The Daily Mining Gazette quoted Libby Meyer (VPA) and mentioned Patricia Helsel (VPA) in a story about the upcoming Pine Mountain Music Festival. Meyer and Helsel are the co-executive director and puppetry coordinator, respectively, for the event.

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WLUC TV6 and 97.5 WTAQ-FM ran stories on the death of Michigan Tech hockey great Paul Coppo. Originally from Hancock, Coppo played for the Huskies from 1956-60.

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The Oakland Press ran a story on Leading Scholar Award winner and incoming Husky Ali Hodsdon.

Nominations Open: 2022 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nominations are now open for the 2022 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. next Wednesday (June 15), following our online instructions.

This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

1. Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering
2. Social Sciences (Note: History is classed within the humanities and is not a field of competition in 2022.)

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. Ph.D. students who will completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022, are eligible. The fields of competition for 2023 will be Biological/Life Sciences and Humanities and Fine Arts (including history).

Nominations must be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. June 15. Email nominations to gradschool@mtu.edu are preferred.

Contact Charlesworth at gradschool@mtu.edu if you have any questions about the competition.

To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.

Digital Marketers

Wednesday, June 8, 9–10 a.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, G27

Digital Marketers is a group for digital platform managers (digital ads, photo/video production, social media accounts, websites, etc) across campus. We meet every other...

Senior 3 Man Scramble

Wednesday, June 8, 10 a.m. | Portage Lake Golf Course

Senior 3 Man Scramble *Some events and times may change