Marquise is pursuing a master’s degree in athletic training and will graduate next May. Through his coursework and clinical rotations, he applies classroom knowledge to real-life patients and their injuries. One practical learning experience included assisting the IUP women’s basketball team. Marquise works as a graduate student for the Crimson Scholars Circle, an early immersion experience and yearlong support program designed to reduce the retention and persistence gap for Black and Brown students at IUP. In this position, Marquise provides mentorship to participating students and leads weekly meetings on various topics, such as financial literacy and career development. He is an Aramark student manager, a yearlong participant in intramural sports, and an active member of UBORA Men of IUP, a recognized student organization with a mission of supporting, inspiring, and challenging male students of color. He is a talented singer and has been invited to perform at several events on campus, including the Crimson Salute. Marquise shared that he values all of his roles at IUP, which afford him the opportunity to meet new people and build connections across campus. We thank you, Marquise!

Lynn is an IUP Distinguished University Professor and a professor in the Department of History. She served as director of Women’s and Gender Studies and as cochair of the President’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Lynn is the founding director of Big Ideas: Transformative Culture and the Professions. This certificate program, and its hallmark Big Ideas class, works with IUP’s preprofessional students to connect them with transformative texts in ways that are both personally meaningful and socially and professionally impactful. One recent initiative of which Lynn is most proud is working with the Office of Marketing and Communications to redesign IUP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website to highlight the breadth of individuals and organizations that call IUP home, as well as to make it easier for students, faculty, and staff to come together in a shared community. Lynn previously led two very successful yearlong series at IUP: “The Elephant in the Room: Conversation and Action for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Classroom and Beyond” and “100 Years of Women’s Suffrage: IUP, Jane Leonard, and You.” She has organized multiple conferences, has given numerous presentations, and has been an invited lecturer nationally and internationally, as well as at IUP. She has been a recipient of many honors, including the Senate Service Award, the Excellence in Service to Students Award through the National Society of Leadership and Success, and a Teagle Foundation National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Lynn has a longstanding reputation of working toward inclusive and respectful communities in all that she does. And, in the classroom, she seeks to make the world a better place—one student and one class at a time. We thank you, Lynn!

EVENTS OF NOTE THIS WEEK
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