SOU Academic Stories

SOU Ashland faculty at DECA conference

SOU School of Business faculty engage students at DECA Conference

Faculty members from the Southern Oregon University School of Business recently participated in the Oregon DECA State Career Development Conference, supporting and mentoring high school students preparing for careers in business and entrepreneurship. MBA Program Coordinator Douglas Daley; senior instructor Jeremy Carlton, Ph.D.; and assistant professor Jacob Ongaki, Ph.D., represented SOU at the conference that […]

SOU Ashland's Earl Hills and his soft hammer

Earl Hills, a map forward and the hammer

A middle school teacher, a working class past and the quiet labor of keeping a community together when everything breaks. It was 2020, the year the Rogue Valley felt like it was ending. Earl Hills was in his early forties, sitting alone with a laptop, staring at a grid of middle school faces on Google […]

Civics course by SOU Ashland's Prakash Chenjeri

SOU civics course included on select national list

(Ashland, Ore.) — A Southern Oregon University Course – “Civicus: Advancing Civic Education” – has been recognized as a national resource and included on a select list of such classes by the Hoover Institution’s Alliance for Civics in the Academy at Stanford University. The Civicus course at SOU – created and taught by Philosophy professor Prakash […]

New book for educators by SOU Ashland's Renee Owen

New book suggests transformation of education and educators

(Ashland, Ore.) — A new book by Renee Owen, an associate professor in the SOU School of Education, sold out on Amazon almost immediately after it was published but is now back in stock and getting enthusiastic reviews from educators nationwide. The book, “Becoming a Transformative Leader from the Inside Out,” describes an educational model […]

Open textbook program at SOU Ashland

Open textbook report: 11,000 SOU students, $1.9 million saved

The most recent report from Open Oregon Educational Resources, a statewide initiative that promotes textbook affordability for students at Oregon colleges and universities, shows that a total of 71 different faculty members at SOU have taken part in the program since 2015, enabling more than 11,000 students to save an estimated $1.9 million. The state […]

Design Patterns and AI: Computer Science evolves at SOU

Design Patterns and AI: Computer Science evolves at SOU

(Ashland, Ore.) — A new “Design Patterns” course in Southern Oregon University’s Computer Science program leans on artificial intelligence to perform coding tasks, allowing students to focus on the big picture and serve as architects rather than carpenters. The course – an upper-division elective intended primarily for Computer Science majors – reflects an ongoing shift […]

SOU Ashland's Chandler Campbell and Jacob Nowack present research on artificial intelligence

Graduate and current student present SOU research at national conference

(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University computer science graduate Chandler Campbell and current student Jacob Nowack attended a conference of research software engineers in Philadelphia last month to showcase their work on a pair of closely related projects that hinge on the use of artificial intelligence to simplify and organize highly complex research tasks. Campbell […]

New SOU Ashland program in Ghana funded by Matt and Ella Essieh.

Gift from SOU alumni leads to partnerships in Ghana

(Ashland, Ore.) — A couple who gained a global perspective and the academic foundation for success from their education at Southern Oregon University are funding a pilot project to provide similar opportunities for others, through a partnership between SOU and a pair of universities in the African country of Ghana. The program begins this academic […]

SOU Ashland steps up for special education teacher training

SOU expands special education to meet regional needs

Southern Oregon University’s School of Education is stepping up at a pivotal time for Oregon’s public schools, as the state faces a critical shortage of licensed special education teachers. Across southern Oregon, districts continue to post unfilled positions, rely on emergency or restricted licenses, and struggle to meet the needs of students with Individualized Education […]

SOU's Sojka and de Vries co-author book on transgender experiences

SOU faculty members co-author book on transgender experiences

(Ashland, Ore.) — SOU’s Carey Jean Sojka and Kylan Mattias de Vries – both faculty members in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program, and both previous recipients of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award – have co-authored a new book about the identity experiences of transgender people. The book, “Transgender Intersections: Race and Gender through […]