Prior to joining SAU, MohdZain was a professor and chair of the department of educational leadership and counseling at Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
MohdZain said he was attracted to working for SAU because he could see how faculty and staff are given the license to be creative and innovative to ensure educational needs are met. He said he could see himself being a part of that dynamic as well.

“We already have highly qualified people on our campus responding and delivering what the community needs, so there is already a lot being done, and there is no reason why we cannot move another notch for the University and community,” MohdZain said.

One of the key areas MohdZain hopes to encourage students to focus on is learning how to think outside of skills that will help them prosper regionally and think about what could take them to anywhere in the world.

“In today’s world, education has to be global,” MohdZain said. “We need to teach students not to think about Magnolia only, but to prepare them to compete, work and contribute anywhere in the world.”

MohdZain has given numerous professional presentations in international, national, regional, state and local levels. A member of the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction, MohdZain will be presenting at the WCCI 13th conference in Antalya, Turkey in September 2008. He has also accepted an invitation to present on structural family therapy at Universiti Sains Malaysia’ International Counseling and Social Work Symposium in January 2009.

In addition to being willing to travel the world to deliver presentations, MohdZain has also appeared in several publications in peer-reviewed journal articles and is a reviewer of textbooks in substance abuse counseling and professional issues in counseling.
The new education dean at SAU has a bachelor of business administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan; a master of public administration and a master of arts from the University of Illinois in Springfield and a doctorate in philosophy from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
His professional activities include being a member of American Counseling Association (ACA); Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES); and International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC).
MohdZain lives in Magnolia with his wife, Tracey, and their daughter, Jasmine, 12.

The offerings were approved this summer by the Arkansas Department of Education, according to Dr. Lynne Belcher, a professor of English at SAU who will be teaching the courses. Belcher, whose doctoral work was in the area of teaching English as a Second Language, said the courses are designed to help educate graduate and undergraduate students on the methods of teaching a new language as well as how to help students get through issues such as culture shock, which is common among people from other countries.

“I am happy to be able to use some of my experience and knowledge to help area students,” Belcher said. “This program will prepare educators to handle having non-native English speakers in their classes. Teaching English to those who don’t speak it as their first languages is very different from any other kind of teaching. The first thing teachers usually will encounter is culture shock, especially for young children who didn’t have any choice sometimes in leaving their home countries.”

Belcher said her first experience with teaching international students was in 1978 with Vietnamese refugees. Addressing the cultural differences is the first step in helping people become comfortable enough to begin learning another language, she said.

“When you work with internationals, you have to be able to see your culture through other eyes, Belcher said. “One can’t learn a second language if he or she rejects a culture.”

Besides showing teachers how to approach people from other cultures, the TESOL courses will also help teachers understand how students learn a second language and how it differs from learning a first language and how to assess what their students have learned in terms of reading and writing, speaking and listening. It also will provide a practicum of all teaching strategies involved in TESOL courses.

For more information about the courses, call the office of Liberal and Performing Arts at 870-235-4200. Interested students may also call Dr. Elizabeth Davis, 870-235-4212 (ehdavis@saumag.edu) or Dr. Lynne Belcher, 870-235-4213 (lrbelcher@saumag.edu ) or visit www.saumag.edu.

The first ceremony begins at 11 a.m. for the School of Graduate Studies, with a 1 p.m. ceremony following for graduates from the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Liberal and Performing Arts and the College of Science and Technology.

The speaker for this year’s graduation will be Arkansas State Representative Bruce Maloch of Emerson. Since 1986, Maloch has been with Farmers Bank & Trust and currently serves as regional president and chief operating officer and is a member of the bank’s board of directors.

Maloch received a B.B.A. in business agriculture from Southern Arkansas University in 1980 and a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. While at SAU, Bruce served as president of the Student Government Association and later served as president of the SAU Alumni Association.

Community and governmental affairs have long been a part of Maloch’s interests. He served 10 years on the Columbia County Quorum Court, has served as president of the Magnolia-Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, Columbia County Bar Association and the Group 4 Arkansas Bankers Association for Southwest Arkansas. He is a member of the Magnolia Economic Development Corporation and serves on the Magnolia Airport Commission. Maloch is current chairman of the Arkansas FFA Foundation and has long been active in Arkansas Farm Bureau and Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association activities. He is an auctioneer and donates his services for charitable events throughout the area. In 1997, Maloch received the Outstanding Young Alumni award for Southern Arkansas University.

Maloch and his wife, Martha, live on a farm south of Magnolia where they raise registered Brangus cattle. Martha is a retired educator from the Emerson-Taylor School District. They have three children, Ryan, Lauren, and Victoria; a son-in-law, Scotty Covington and daughter-in-law, Amy; and granddaughters Reese Covington and Marley Kate Maloch. The Maloch’s are members of First Baptist Church of Magnolia where Bruce is an adult Sunday school teacher.

The SAU Office of Alumni Relations will sponsor a reception for all graduates from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Blue and Gold room. For more information regarding commencement exercises at SAU, call the Office of the Registrar at 870-235-4031.

Date: June 5, 2008
Contact: Rebecca Bell
Phone: (870) 235-5011

For Immediate Release

Workshop exploring Arkansas’ connection to the global economy to be held at Southern Arkansas University

MAGNOLIA — A training workshop for teachers with students in kindergarten through 12th grade will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 8 through 10 in the Agri-Business building on the campus of Southern Arkansas University.
This workshop is titled “What’s Happening? A Global View” will cover topics in globalization for educators at every level to assist in teaching and learning. A fee of $25 which covers training materials should be sent to Economics Arkansas, P.O. Box 3477, Little Rock, Ark., 72203.
Participants will be mailed a $150 stipend upon successful completion of the workshop and eighteen hours of staff development will be provided. There is a limit of 45 people to the class. If interested, please visit www.economicsarkansas.org for information regarding registration or contact Donna Wright at (501) 682-4230.

Students participating in the ceremony are required to line up at 6 p.m. in Harton Theatre. Graduates of the Colleges of Business and Education are asked to line up on the left side of the theater, while those graduating from the Colleges of Liberal and Performing Arts and Science and Technology are to line up on the right.

In the event of inclement weather, the W.T. Watson Athletic Center will serve as an alternate site for the commencement exercises. If this is the case, two separate ceremonies will take place. The College of Business and the College of Education will have their ceremony at 7 p.m., and the ceremony for the College of Liberal and Performing Arts and the College of Science and Technology will take place at 8:30 p.m.

Bob L. Burns, chairman and CEO of Farmer’s Bank & Trust in Magnolia since 1983, will serve as the guest speaker at the ceremony.

Regardless of the weather, the Nursing Department ceremony will be at 4 p.m. in the Reynolds Center Grand Hall. Participants are asked to line up at 3:30 p.m. in Foundation Hall. In addition, the School of Graduate Studies will hold its ceremony at 5:30 p.m. in the Grand Hall as well. Students, faculty and platform guests are to line up in Foundation Hall at 5 p.m.
The Office of Alumni Relations will sponsor a reception for graduates, family and faculty from 4:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Blue and Gold Room of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center.

For more information regarding graduation at SAU, call the Office of the Registrar at 870-235-4031.

The special event is being sponsored by the SAU Foundation and proceeds will benefit the foundation and the Kathleen Mallory Lectureship Endowment.

A private reception with Babineaux will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Magnolia Room of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center. The private reception will be followed by a 7 p.m. dinner and remarks by Babineaux in the Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center.

Ticket prices are $25 for dinner and remarks and $50 for entry into the private reception, to receive a photograph with Babineaux and to attend the dinner with remarks by the athlete.

The mission of the Kathleen Mallory Lecture Series is to honor the contributions of Dr. Mallory, an English professor who has made extraordinary contributions to SAU and to issues of English Curriculum improvement in Arkansas and the United States. Mallory is credited with brining scholars working in the fields of African Diasporic and African American Studies to Southern Arkansas University to share their scholarship with students, faculty, staff and members of the community.

For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, call the SAU Foundation Office at 877-235-7409 or 870-235-4078.

The key note speaker of the night is Dr. George Wood, director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. Over the course of his 30-year career in education, Wood has worked as a social studies teacher in Michigan and a professor of education at Ohio University. He currently serves at the principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, where he has been for the past 14 years.

Throughout his career, Wood has written many articles about the role of education in democracy. He is also editor and a contributor of the book “Many Children Left Behind,” (Beacon, 2004).

During Woods’ tenure as principal, Federal Hocking High School, a rural school in Appalachian Ohio, has received several awards such as an Ohio’s Best award for the school’s internship program, and being chosen as one of the first five Coalition of Essential Schools “mentor schools” through the work of the Gates Foundation.

Other speakers for the night include Dr. David Rankin, president of SAU, Dr. Ruby Burgess, dean of the college of education at SAU and Joe Bossier, plant manager of Albemarle Corporation.

Albemarle Corporation has helped sponsor this event through a lectureship endowment made possible by its work producing specialty chemicals, transportation, industrial, agricultural and pharmaceutical products, and construction and packaging materials.

The teacher fair will be held in the Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center on the SAU campus. Representatives from public schools and graduate schools in Ark., La., and Texas will be available to provide career information. Current students of all classifications and alumni are encouraged to bring multiple copies of their resume.

For more information, contact Wilma Williams at 235-4097.

That is the shared outlook of the Southern Arkansas University co-ed cheerleading squad and the new all girl squad added this fall. The additional squad doubles the cheering power of the group to 30 strong.

Mykolas Sakevicius, a junior from Little Rock, said the new squad gives the cheerleaders the potential to move past their current ranking of fourth nationally in Division II.

“This is going to make us a more popular school and give us a new edge where we can have more titles and championships and bring more students to SAU,” Sakevicius said.

The additional squad also provides opportunities for students who participated in the Strutters, a pom dance group, which dissolved due to a lack of student interest.

Brittany Carr, a member of the Strutters last year, said she was happy about the new opportunity to cheer. Carr, a sophomore from Lewisville, Ark., was a cheerleader when she attended Lafayette County High School.

“This was an easy transition for me,” Carr said. “I love cheerleading, that’s my heart. I’m very very happy about this.”

Ceil Bridges, the cheerleading sponsor who took over the squad in 2002 with six girls, said the growth in the team has been phenomenal and commands the attention of people across the state.

“I’ve already received a call from Monticello from a girl who wants to join,” Bridges said, explaining that the girl noticed the cheerleading squads during SAU’s first football game September 1 against the University of Arkansas at Monticello. “Visually we make a big impact when we go places and have such a great cheerleading squad.”

Bridges said she was impressed with the success of the cheerleaders last year during competition and hopes that both squads will be ready to excel in their individual categories this year.

“Very rarely does a team go to the competition for the first time and make it to the finals so we were extremely excited,” Bridges said. “To make it to the finals is just unheard of really.”

As for what football fans can expect to see from the cheerleaders this fall, the co-ed squad and all girl squad will cater to fans at both ends of the sidelines. And the all girls squad won’t be the only ones doing a little dancing, she said.

“We’ve found that our guys like to dance too,” Bridges said

Southern Arkansas University strives to create an environment designed around all student needs. The faculty and staff of the University will do everything possible to make certain graduates become well rounded individuals prepared for their roles in society.

Introduction

Located in Magnolia, Arkansas, a town as pretty as its name, Southern Arkansas University has an enrollment of around 3,000 students. The size of the University means that students get the kind of one-on-one attention they deserve with the low 19-to-1 student to teacher ratio. After class they can find their niche in more than 80 student organizations.

Academics
Southern Arkansas University offers degrees in four areas:
Colleges of Business
Education
Liberal and Performing Arts
Sciences and Technology

And offers a Graduate Program offering degrees in the following areas:

Executive Master of Public Administration
Master of Arts
Teaching
Master of Education
Educational Administration and Supervision
Elementary or Secondary Education
Library Media and Information Specialist
School Counseling
Masters of Science
Computer and Information Science
Counseling
Kinesiology

Financial Aid

The friendly staff in the Office of Financial Aid help 84 percent of the SAU students receive some type of financial assistance each year.
Forms of financial aid include Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplement Educational Opportunity Grants, work study and loans.

Student Life
Atheltic teams include men’s and women basketball, cross country, golf, and track and field.
Men’s offerings include baseball and football and women are offered softball, tennis and volleyball.
Choose from over 80 student organizations on campus including six national sororities and five national fraternities.

Residential Life

Nine housing options available on campus including University Village which include a pool, full-furnished living room, bathroom, kitchen, and a club house.
Students may also select to be a part of a Residential Interest Group which pairs students in living arrangements based on their interests, which may or may not have to do with their major.

Accreditations

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
National Association of Schools of Music
Council on Social Work Education
National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education
National League of Nursing
Commission of Accreditation of Allied Health Education Program
Joint Review Committee on Athletic Trainer Education Programs
Higher Learning Commission of the North Center Association of Colleges and Schools