Chi Alpha Pastor Shawn Banzhaf said his organization invited refugees from Burma who are students at the Pine Ridge Job Corps to participate in a panel discussion on campus, sharing their first-hand accounts. CSC student Kellie Aye, from Burma, also gave a presentation about her country at the program.

Several weeks later, Chi Alpha set up three stationary bikes around campus for CSC students to ride in an effort to increase awareness and help raise 10,000 meals to be sent to a Burma refugee camp in Thailand.

According to Banzhaf, over 150 students rode over 700 miles in 24 hours. After the bike ride, another 15 students helped with, ran or walked a 10K to finalize the event.

Dr. Matt Evertson, department chair and professor of English and Humanities, said he, as workshop director, is thrilled to have an outstanding group of critically-acclaimed authors join the workshop once again this year.

Scholarships are still available to attend the workshop and all deadlines have been extended, according to Evertson. The registration form and detailed schedule of events can be found at: storycatcherworkshop.com.

The workshop will begin with a keynote address by Jonis Agee entitled "To Wake the Sleepers" at 6 p.m. on May 28. Agee is a Nebraska native who also spent time growing up in Missouri. Many of her stories and novels are set in these two states. She has authored 12 books and is the Adele Hall Professor of English at UNL. In her newest novel, "The River Wife," five generations of women experience love and heartbreak, passion and deceit against the backdrop of the 19^thCentury South.

In addition to her keynote address, Agee will also lead workshops about sense of place and story openings with impact.

Pamela Carter Joern is an experienced workshop faculty member who will lead an advanced/intermediate fiction writing workshop. She also has some regional ties, having spent time in Nebraska during her youth, and she has set some scenes in her novels in or near the Sandhills. She has written six plays that have been produced in the Twin Cities area and teaches at the Loft Library Center in Minneapolis.

Ghanian-born Jamaican poet, Kwame Dawes will direct a hands-on poetry workshop entitled "Chameleons of Suffering." In this workshop, which is not a multi-day format, Dawes will lead poets through a series of exercises and discussion. He is the award-winning author of 16 books of poetry and numerous books of fiction, non-fiction, criticism and drama. Dawes is the Glenna Luschei Editor of "Prairie Schooner" and a Chancellor's Professor of English at the University of Nebraska.

Marianne Kunkel, managing editor of the "Prairie Schooner" literary journal hosted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is leading a stand-alone session on "Publishing in Journals." Based on their experience and current positions, Kunkel and Dawes will provide workshop attendees pragmatic insight into "how to" have work published.

CSC faculty members, in addition to Evertson, who will be leading workshops include Dr. Robert McEwen and Dr. Rich Kenney. Poe Ballantine, a Chadron resident and autho, will appear via film since he will be at the Book Expo of America in New York promoting his latest non-fiction book.

Local legend and perennial favorite Linda Hasselstrom will be returning to lead intermediate to advanced level memoir and non-fiction workshops about family history and writing revisions.

On May 31, the Sandoz Center will be open to the public for the festival including an open mic starting at 1 p.m., vendor displays and booksellers all afternoon. Workshop faculty will sign their books at 4:30 p.m.

Sutphen's and Seifer's backgrounds growing up on area ranches, taking pre-vet classes together at CSC and pursuit of professional career goals motivated them to undertake a major research project in cooperation with Merck Animal Health.

The students contacted 16 beef producers in the Nebraska Panhandle and southwest South Dakota and made arrangements with Merck Rep and CSC alum John Denton from Bayard, Neb. to conduct testing for the presence of internal parasites. The presence of the internal parasites can compromise the immune system of the animal, decrease its appetite, or both.

The timing was right for Dr. Don Bliss, veterinary parasitologist and owner of Mid-America Ag Research, to be in Chadron for the sample analysis since he had prior commitments in Casper and Torrington, Wyo.

For four days prior to Bliss's arrival in Chadron, Sutphen and Seifer collected golfball size sized fecal samples recently eliminated from 235 animals. Older animals tend to build up a level of immunity to parasites so samples were collected from animals from one to five years in age.

Bliss, from Verona, Wis., brought his own specialized microscope which connects to a laptop allowing producers to see the parasites at a greatly magnified size. The testing was conducted at no cost to the producers.

A 90-minute program, question and answer session and dinner for the producers, sponsored by Merck, took place at the Dawes County fairgrounds. Sutphen, Denton and Bliss shared the results of the tests with the 25 producers in attendance and discussed strategic treatment regimens. Seifer was out of town with a family business commitment.

CSC professor Dr. Joyce Hardy said, "Having Dr. Bliss on our campus evaluating local herds, teaching methodology and interacting with Chadron State pre-vet students was a great opportunity to get 'real-world' experience. Kara Sutphen and Mara Seifer were instrumental in making this a reality. Their initiative, dedication, and hard work made this a reality. They will become outstanding veterinarians."

The students plan to submit a report about their research work to several livestock production publications.

Seifer said, "We are grateful to the producers for their support of our research project." As an extra touch, the students sent thank you notes to all the producers who made their herds available for testing.

Sutphen added, "The project was well-received. I would do it again. John Denton's patience helped since we had a lot of questions as we prepared the lab."

Dr. Georgia Younglove, CSC professor, said, "It is truly inspiring to see these two young ladies go above and beyond in their education and community service. The credit for providing the opportunity for a renowned parasitologist to provide information for local producers and hands-on' experiences for our own students really goes to Kara and Mara and their collaboration with Merck."

Last year, Denton, a 1991 CSC ag-business alum, sampled Sutphen's father's herd and in a subsequent conversation with her discovered that she was interested in conducting a parasite evaluation clinic. Denton said, "It was a great opportunity to expose students to the Wisconsin sugar floatation method which Dr. Bliss uses."

"We've been working toward this project for quite some time. Faculty, staff, and students all have worked together to create this newest teaching collection of plants," said Lucinda Mays, campus horticulturist. She has two part-time student assistants who help her with the behind-the-scenes work of planting her designs.

The CSC maintenance staff with their heavy equipment support makes projects like Burkhiser possible. They deliver loads of compost and mulch and keep the irrigation systems around campus working efficiently. Mays said, "I've been working in botanical gardens since 1981 and I've never seen a crew that keeps their equipment in such good shape. They are very good stewards of state property."

In March, Mays and a student spent two afternoons planting wildflowers along the trail from the softball field parking lot east on 12th Street toward the Rangeland Complex. Thousands of seeds were planted along both sides of the one-quarter mile trail. The student, Adam Bahl from Gering, Neb. had learned in a class with Dr. Chuck Butterfield that wildflowers and native forbs tend to take root in soft, disturbed soil.

"That is exactly what a gopher mound is. I ran into Lucinda while working at the Sandoz Center as grounds keeping help. She and I had done a lot of seed harvesting for the trail over the winter months. When we got out there to plant, the mounds sparked an idea of what I had learned and observed while hunting and doing field doing projects for land resources management," Bahl said.

Nobiling said her students had the choice to either submit daily written journal entries or to blog daily as a requirement for credit.

In 2011, the group on the London Trip participated in some blogging, but Nobiling feels that taking several iPads this year and being able to access more reliable Wi-Fi signals should improve the blogging experience this time around. Some students' video entries may possibly be recorded and posted along with their written entries and still photos at: http://www.csc.edu/justicestudies/.

The Justice Studies group includes a range of students from a first-time flyer to veteran travelers. Some students have opted for side trips to Paris, Dublin and Edinburgh during the venture.

"Blogging is great for multiple reasons. It fulfills a course requirement, parents and friends can track the students through their daily blog posts and London Trip alumni can follow the activities of the 2013 group," Nobiling said.

Senior Director of CSC Dining Operations, Tracy Shuck, said, "I was surprised. We didn't even know we'd been nominated. We have a good partnership with Brakebush and students really like the Squawkers chicken products, so we will continue to carry them."

Jody Becker, territory manager for Brakebush Brothers, Inc. covering most of the central portion of the country, said each sales rep submits an operator that has been supporting their company with marketing, product, promotions, new ideas, etc. "These are partners we feel really believe in our brand and quality. CSC Dining has been more than that," she said.

Each January, Brakebush Brothers, Inc. convenes a National Sales meeting at which each regional sales rep nominates top customers to be considered for the Customer of the Year. Then the steering committee chooses a number of operators from around the country as Top Operators. The steering committee is composed of Brakebush family members, Director of Sales, Director of Marketing and the Customer Service Manager. Brakebush is based in Westfield, Wisc.

The trip was organized by Loretta Belknap, who lives in the Cottonwood Creek area in southern Dawes County and teaches a basic nursing assistant course at Chadron State in cooperation with Western Nebraska Community College two days a week. She has been on a similar trip to Jamaica.

A Scottsbluff dentist, Dr. Todd Pieper, a dental hygienist and two assistants from his office will leave Saturday. Chadron physician Kristi Johnson, whose son, Calen, is graduating from Chadron High School on Saturday, and two students who have relatives also graduating from high school this weekend will make the flight Sunday.

Besides Belknap, three other nurses, including her daughter, are on the trip.

Also making the trip is the Rev. Jeri Soens, former pastor of the United Methodist Church in Hemingford and interim pastor of the Methodist Church in Chadron for a few months earlier this year. The group will return on May 19.

Johnson said the trip will be an eye-opener for the college students. She said none of them has previously been on a mission trip and many of them had never flown in an airplane.

She added that the students gathered to pray prior before leaving Chadron. They took along about 250 Bibles that will be offered to patients at the clinic. The Bibles were donated by members of Gideons International and Open Door Church south of Chadron.

Falmouth is an important port city along Jamaica's northern coast. The clinic and adjacent hospital where the western Nebraska group will work was founded by a Nebraska doctor and his wife, Johnson said.

Some of the people who come to the clinic live in the surrounding hills and mountains and will get up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and walk to the clinic, Johnson said. She added that many of them will have to wait in line for hours before they can be seen.

Johnson added that she "recruited" a medical student from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha to assist her with the most severe cases that the group will see. The CSC students will also be involved in helping the patients. Each of the students had to pay his or her own expenses of about $1,500 to take the trip.

The Chadron Community Hospital has donated most of the medicines that will be used.