Department News

A Northern Michigan University master's student in athletic training and a graduate of the program recently connected in the Dominican Republic, where both are applying their skills on behalf of different Major League Baseball franchises. Dillon Makela is completing a summer internship with the Chicago Cubs Academy before his final academic year, and 2005 alumnus Alex Mena is working full time with the Pittsburgh Pirates Academy next door. 

Northern Michigan University English Professor Kel Sassi has been elected vice president of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE). She is only the second person from the Upper Peninsula to serve in the presidential cycle in the organization's 103-year history. Her term began July 1 and will continue for the next four years as she progresses from vice president to president-elect, president and then past-president for MCTE. 

The largest remaining migratory population of brindled wildebeest in southern Africa serves as a cornerstone prey species for large predators. Yet it has been understudied because of its remote location in the Greater Liuwa Ecosystem in western Zambia and Angola. Northern Michigan University alumna Steph Szarmach, along with Biology faculty members Alec Lindsay and Katherine Teeter, worked with collaborators in Zambia to explore the wildebeest's genetic diversity and demographic history. They are among the coauthors of a recently published paper on the study's findings.

Northern Michigan University will offer a Master of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Students who complete a bachelor's degree can ladder into the master's degree program for advanced training to become skilled professionals in the field while remaining in the Upper Peninsula, where there is a strong demand for related services. Applications for the first cohort in summer 2026 will be accepted starting this fall through Jan. 15.

Northern Michigan University students in an intro to entrepreneurship course create businesses from scratch on a tight timeline and gain experience in the associated accounting, finance, management and marketing aspects. The businesses are shut down when the class ends and all net proceeds are donated to area charitable organizations. Verdant Vessels, an environmentally friendly, passive clay pot irrigation system, was one of the new venture highlights last semester. Its $195 in proceeds benefitted the NMU Food Pantry.

The Northern Michigan University Department of Music is launching a new series titled Summer Concerts at Reynolds, which will take place on Tuesdays in June and July in Reynolds Recital Hall. This year's series will highlight the department's faculty, all of whom are highly trained professional musicians, in addition to teaching full time. One or more faculty members will be featured during each performance.

The Northern Michigan University Center for Rural Health will host an Upper Peninsula Future Health Leaders Camp this summer for regional students who will be freshmen and sophomores this coming fall. The camp is dedicated to health education and health career exploration. It is scheduled July 20-25, with options to either stay on campus for the duration or commute from home to camp each day. There will be a limit of 75 participants.

Northern Michigan University history professor Kathryn Johnson has conducted four oral history interviews with global pioneers in open, distance and digital education. They include Professor Asha Kanwar, former president of the Commonwealth of Learning,; Professor Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican scholar and early advocate for educational technology; Dr. Tony Bates, whom she describes as one of “the godfathers of distance education in Canada”; and Professor Rosibel Vicquez Abarca, a prominent leader in the field in Costa Rica. All will soon be published in scholarly journals, including one for which Johnson serves as the oral history section editor.

A student crew from the Northern Michigan University construction management program recently built a new pavilion over the NMU Center for Native American Studies (CNAS) fire site. The CNAS describes the pavilion as “a legacy project” that they are excited to share with the campus and community.