INSTITUTIONAL
Top 10 U.S. colleges with the happiest students
Sept. 8, 2024
Secular Times
While your work ethic and study habits may determine how well you do in college as
far as grades, plenty of other factors play a role in whether you succeed at a certain
school. A school where students report high levels of satisfaction may be a good sign
for prospective applicants. TCU is sixth on the list of U.S. colleges with the happiest students for 2025, according
to The Princeton Review.
AI is reshaping health care. How will it impact Fort Worth’s medical education?
Sept. 5, 2024
Fort Worth Report
Kevin Chao, a medical student at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, is working toward becoming
the best emergency medicine physician he can be. In order to provide the best care
possible to future patients, he believes he needs to be trained in one of the latest
cutting-edge technologies: artificial intelligence. “It’s a shiny new toy,” Chao said.
Chao doesn’t have to go too far to learn about how AI is reshaping the health care
landscape. “As a society, we’re all moving toward utilization of AI,” Adam Jennings, executive director of innovation, simulation and research, said. “It’s going to
be a tool that frees us up and allows time to actually talk with our patients and
help students.”
The Most Underrated Travel Experience in Texas: College Museums
Sept. 4, 2024
Texas Monthly
Museums on college campuses are a resource for enrolled students, but they let the
rest of us continue our education too—often for free. The Monnig Meteorite Gallery lets visitors touch Dar al Gani 476, a piece of the Martian surface displaced when
another space object hit it. The fragment fell to Earth and was recovered in Libya
in 1998. When visitors touch the specimens, they’re “holding a piece of space,” says
curator Rhiannon Mayne. “I don’t think there’s any way of conveying in words how amazing that is.” The museum
displays around 130 space rocks, a fraction of the collection, which Mayne, the Oscar and Juanita Monnig Endowed Chair of Meteoritics and Planetary Science at TCU, also uses in research.
Fort Worth’s TCU earns high honors in new ranking of top U.S. colleges
Sept. 4, 2024
Culture Map Fort Worth
The new academic year may have just started, but there’s already a report card for
students to write home about. Niche, an education review and ranking website, has
rated TCU the eighth best college in Texas and the 81st top private University in America for
2025. One enthusiastic five-star review in the Niche report said, “I exposed myself
to new cultures and activities I never experienced before, participated in over 100
hours of volunteer work to give back to the community, and challenged myself to strive
in a field of study unfamiliar to me while making new life-long friends along the
way! I had an excellent and unforgettable time!”
With national brand growing, TCU draws majority of students from outside Texas
Sept. 3, 2024
Texas Tribune
It’s practically in Ben Beland’s genes to be a Razorback. His parents, both sets of grandparents, all of his great-grandparents
and sister went to the University of Arkansas. But, when college decision time came
more than a year ago, Beland chose TCU. “It’s so funny how fast purple became their favorite color,” said Beland, talking
about how his parents embraced his decision to go to TCU after they visited the campus
on spring break. Heath Einstein, vice provost for enrollment management, said, “We graduated to the Big 12 Conference
in the summer of 2012, and that just puts more eyeballs onto your university. But
I don’t think it’s limited to only that. People talk, and that’s great. That’s how
you build reputation.”
FACULTY
Heat exhaustion: The effects of prolonged extreme heat on the human body
Sept. 12, 2024
Lerablog.org
Exposure to high temperatures can have multiple health risks for the human body. These
risks can range from minor discomfort to serious and potentially fatal medical problems.
“It’s easy in the summer to get distracted by lots of outdoor activities, but the
heat can take a toll on your health and make you seriously ill, especially if you’re
not paying attention to your body’s signs or you’re at extreme ages,’” said Dr. Jo Anna Leuck, associate dean of academic affairs at the Burnett School of Medicine. “There are
easy ways to prevent this impact, so it’s important to understand the dangers of heat
and how to avoid them.”
‘For Bo’ play explores murder of Botham Jean in his apartment by a Dallas police officer
Sept. 10, 2024
CBS News
Six years ago, on Sept. 6, 2018, we learned the name Botham Jean. Jean became a murder
victim when former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger shot him in his own apartment.
The play called “For Bo,” written and directed by Associate Professor Ayvaunn Penn, is a fictional narrative stage play based on the event and the public response and
reaction to his killing. “What’s this story about? ‘For Bo’ is about that tragic moment
when his life is lost and the fallout that happens thereafter,” said Penn. “One can
only ask themselves if Amber had opened that door and saw someone of a different color.
Would he still be having the same story?”
New pipelines are expected to ease glut of Permian natural gas
Sept. 10, 2024
Marketplace
In the energy sector, pipelines play a similar role to railways that move large volumes
of cargo across the country. There’s a new pipeline scheduled to begin service this
month that will help move natural gas out of West Texas, home to a glut of natural
gas. “As a country, we hit a record high volume of oil production of 13.4 million
barrels a day,” said Tom Seng, assistant professor of professional practice. Nearly half of that recent peak is
from the Permian Basin. “So for every one of those oil wells, you do have some level
of natural gas that’s being produced,” Seng said. “The physical balancing act of
adding more gas and moving it from one side of the state to the other is also going
to balance prices out between the west side of Texas and the east side of Texas.”
Bible stories could be part of Texas school curriculum. Tarrant County pastors, scholars
weigh in
Sept. 9, 2024
Fort Worth Report
Tarrant County pastors, parents and professors are preparing for a debate over a proposed
reading curriculum that uses Bible stories and its potential inclusion in a list of
publicly available materials for Texas public schools. Schools can teach about world
religions, said David Brockman, adjunct professor, but it must “present a balanced, accurate and neutral account
of religions,” he said. Brockman spent a month looking over the proposed materials
and wrote a review of the curriculum for Texas Freedom Network Education Fund. “The
reason this is a concern, a particular concern for public schools, is that public
schools serve all students,” Brockman said. According to Jo Beth Jimerson, a professor and William L. and Betty F. Adams Chair of Education, there are some
lessons in the curriculum that are “laid out really well,” such as materials that
teach the story of the Good Samaritan.
TCU program helps students work more effectively in small groups to solve community
issues
Sept. 4, 2024
NBCDFW.com
Middle and high schoolers are hard at work and play deep inside the College of Education
during a program called iEngage, and the goal is to get Fort Worth’s future leaders
thinking about how to make their neighborhood and city better. “As young people, they
have a voice. They can make a difference in their schools, in the various communities
that they belong to,” said Michelle Bauml, Clotilda Winter Professor of Education. “I also hope that they’re walking away with a sense of community with each other
and knowing that they can collaborate and have big ideas and go back and just be better
citizens themselves.”
The Best Time of Day To Take Your Blood Pressure Meds To Lower Your Heart Attack Risk,
According to Cardiologists
Sept. 1, 2024
Yahoo!Life
If you’re living with high blood pressure, taking your medication at a specific time
of day may be second nature to you. And that’s a good thing! A study published in
2022 didn’t find a difference in major cardiovascular events in patients who took
blood pressure medication in the morning versus those who took it at night. “One size
does not fit all,” says Dr. Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, chair of internal medicine, but warns how to proceed if pills are forgotten. “It
is best never to double up to catch up on medicine. Depending on each case and the
type of medicine, it would be best to contact your physician to find out how to handle
any specific situation.”
The Importance of Integrating AI Ethics Into the College Curriculum
Sept. 1, 2024
PRSA.ORG
Educators must integrate AI ethics into their curriculum to prepare future professionals
for the challenges of this increasingly tech-driven industry. Sarah Maben, assistant professor of strategic communication, encourages educators to incorporate
the responsible use of AI in courses. “If we tell students: ‘You can’t do this in
the classroom,’ we are hindering our students who will be expected to know some of
these tools and at least be conversant in the workplace.”
ALUMNI
Flying Farther Than Any Woman In Space, Anna Menon & Sarah Gillis Make History
Sept. 13, 2024
She The People
Space engineers Anna Menon ’08 and her teammate on SpaceX accomplished a historic feat on Sept. 10 as they flew
further into space than any female astronaut ever. They flew as part of the four-member
Polaris Dawn mission, reaching an altitude of approximately 1,400 kilometers (870
miles) above the Earth’s surface. Menon acts as the onboard medical officer, according
to SpaceX.
SpaceX astronaut Anna Menon reads ‘Kisses in Space’ to her kids in orbit: Watch
Sept. 12, 2024
USA Today
The pioneering astronauts of the Polaris Dawn mission launched with a packed agenda
during their five short days in space, but medical officer Anna Menon ’08 still found time to read to her children from orbit. One day after launching to the
cosmos and reaching historic heights, Menon took a break from a slate of scientific
experiments and demonstrations for SpaceX to connect with her son and daughter. Menon
read from a book she co-authored as her two children watched from Earth. “This book,
Kisses from Space, is a story that I wrote for you, James and Grace, to remind you that I love you
and am always thinking of you even when we’re apart,” Menon said from the SpaceX Dragon
capsule.