Transformational Learning 2020-2021

Emily Ruff poised to celebrate as one of first graduates of MSU's LIFE Scholars Program

Ruff, 36, will receive an Associate of Arts degree from Gallatin College MSU, as well as a certificate from MSU’s LIFE Scholars Program – LIFE stands for Learning Is For Everyone. The program supports students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and Ruff credits it with providing her with the support she needed to graduate.

The MSU LIFE Scholars Program is an inclusive post-secondary experience that consists of three main components: academics, career development and campus engagement. Students in the program may choose to either audit classes or take them for credit. LIFE Scholars also engage in extracurricular campus activities and complete an internship in order to develop job skills and explore careers. LIFE Scholars who have strong independent living skills can also live in the residence halls on campus.

To help support LIFE Scholars, current MSU students serve as peer partners who are matched with individual scholars and meet on a regular basis to offer academic or campus engagement support. Academic peer partners attend classes with LIFE Scholars, while peer partners focused on campus engagement participate in a variety of activities with scholars – anything from having lunch together to attending a sporting event to watching a movie. The program also offers monthly events for LIFE Scholars and their peer partners. 

MSU’s Montana Dietetic Internship program marks 10th anniversary

The MDI provides students a supervised dietetic practice experience that combines clinical nutrition, community nutrition and food service management with a concentration in sustainable food systems.

Approximately 230 students have completed the program since its inception in 2011, Kaiser said. And, as of 2020, more than 55% of its graduates were working in Montana. Those graduates are employed in a range of settings, such as hospitals, K-12 school systems and universities, as well as at Farm to School programs and nonprofits like the Food Resource Center in Livingston and the Women, Infants and Children program.

“This is a great example of what a land-grant university does,” Kaiser said. “It provides training and professionals for the workforce in the state they serve.”

MSU professor and colleague suggest new way for educators to approach students’ traumas

Stanton, an associate professor in the Department of Education, and Robert Petrone, a former MSU faculty member who is now an associate professor at the University of Missouri, have published an article in a prominent academic journal exploring the question. “From Producing to Reducing Trauma: A Call for ‘Trauma-Informed’ Research(ers) to Interrogate How Schools Harm Students” was published in May in Educational Researcher. Petrone is the article’s lead author.

“Trauma-informed education is really a bit of a hot topic right now,” Stanton said. “The essence of it is recognizing that some students – many students, maybe – have experienced trauma in their own lives. Because of that trauma, they are unable to learn as effectively or they might act out in certain ways.”