SOU Academic Stories

Outstanding Graduate Student award recipient Matthew Havniear, SOU Ashland

SOU’s Havniear receives Outstanding Graduate Student award

(Ashland, Ore.) — U.S. Marine Corps veteran, nonprofit leader and graduating MBA student Matthew Havniear will be celebrated as the 2025 recipient of the University of Guanajuato Outstanding Graduate Student Award during the Southern Oregon University commencement ceremony on June 14. The prestigious annual award honors a graduate student who exemplifies academic excellence and meaningful […]

SOU Ashland's Calli Pelkey is in top 1% nationwide in MBA test

SOU MBA student places on top percentile in nationwide test

(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University student Calli Pelkey, a participant in SOU’s Online MBA Program, has earned a remarkable distinction, placing in the top 1% nationwide on the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Major Field Test for master of business administration programs. The MBA Major Field Test is a national standardized exam taken by thousands […]

Open textbooks at SOU

SOU faculty members take lead role in open textbook project

(Ashland, Ore.) — Open Oregon Educational Resources, a statewide initiative that promotes textbook affordability for students at Oregon colleges and universities, is releasing four new open textbooks whose authors include four Southern Oregon University faculty members and a student in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program. “Our goal with these projects is to provide rigorous […]

SOU Ashland graduate Thilini Dissanyake stars in "Earnest" at OSF

Recent SOU alumna stars in OSF production of “Earnest”

(Ashland, Ore.) — Sitting in the backseat of her family’s car after a third-grade play, Thilini Dissanayake surprised her mother with a bold declaration: “I wanna be famous.” That moment – following her turn as the Little Red Hen in her class play – sparked a love for acting that would lead Dissanayake to Southern […]

Creativity Conference at SOU Ashland set to begin

Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University set to begin May 15

(Ashland, Ore.) — The 7th annual Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University will offer something for everyone in four days of presentations, May 15 through 18. The conference delivers a wealth of information for those who study the science of creativity, seek to leverage research on creative thinking or simply consider themselves to be creative. […]

Tacit knowledge grant awarded to SOU Ashland's Boscoe

SOU’s Boscoe awarded second “tacit knowledge” grant

(Ashland, Ore.) — Bernadette Boscoe, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Southern Oregon University, has been awarded a second grant to fund her study of tacit knowledge in research settings – gathering, storing and retrieving the unspoken practices of academic teams that sometimes are lost when a project is disrupted or ends. […]

McNair Scholars program at SOU Ashland

McNair Scholars: Apply or nominate potential grad students

Undergraduate students who have stood out in the classroom and have an interest in graduate school can apply or be nominated to join the next cohort of SOU’s McNair Scholars Program. The application deadline for spring interviews is Friday, May 30. The McNair program, a U.S. Department of Education initiative that began at SOU in […]

Taran Cross is bound for Oxford after receiving bachelor's degrees at SOU Ashland

Unorthodox path: recent SOU graduate bound for Oxford

(Ashland, Ore.) — Achieving success wasn’t the issue for Taran Cross. He had risen to the position of vice president with a Medford-based healthcare technology company, despite dropping out of college soon after he began back in 2007. But he had unfinished business and higher ambitions. “I dreamed of going to Oxford as a kid […]

Criminology & Criminal Justice students from SOU Ashland

SOU Criminology & Criminal Justice class visits historic UK sites

A group of Criminology & Criminal Justice students from SOU spent their spring break on an immersive academic journey to Nottingham, London and other locations in the United Kingdom, delving deep into the UK’s rich legal and criminal justice history. The students in Alison Burke’s CCJ 389 class visited two prisons, a British courtroom and […]

outh Programs department brought local high school students to the university campus recently for the César E. Chávez Leadership Conference returns to SOU Ashland

César E. Chávez Leadership Conference returns to SOU

Southern Oregon University’s Youth Programs department brought local high school students to the university campus recently for the César E. Chávez Leadership Conference, which began at SOU in 2012 to celebrates the late civil rights leader’s heritage and teach young people to carry on his legacy of leadership. Last month’s 14th annual César E. Chávez […]