Kennard and Melva Peden Fund for ECTC supports faculty’s educational pursuits

Published on Jun 21, 2022

ECTC continues to collaborate with the Central Kentucky Community Foundation (CKCF) to ensure faculty and students can apply for grants from the Kennard and Melva Peden Fund for ECTC, which is managed by CKCF and provides funding to enable faculty and student organizations to further their educational pursuits, supporting activities like professional development, conference attendance and study abroad.

The Peden Committee funded each of the four proposals from ECTC faculty members Cheryle Beauchamp, Kevin Parrett, Miky Wright and David Nusbaumer totaling $5,457.98. Each faculty member described their proposal as follows: 

Cheryle Beauchamp: $1,000 for 3 Professional CPA/Tax Conferences 
These funds were requested to pay for 2022 conference fees for three local accounting conferences, totaling five days of in-person attendance. In today's fast paced business environment, accounting is continuously evolving. As an accounting and business instructor, it is important that I teach my students the latest accounting principles and concepts, so that they are better prepared for the work force. My attendance at conferences helps me keep up with these new accounting events and changes. In addition to bringing this information to my students, it also helps me to be a resourceful representative for our Business Studies program at ECTC.

Kevin Parrett: $2,000 for Nanotechnology Conference 2022 
The Nanotechnology Conference in Philadelphia, Pa., is important to keep up with constantly changing technology. What is learned from this conference will go directly into my classes to help our students learn more about what is currently going on with nanotechnology. The conference hosts high-profile advisory board members, keynote speakers, world class researchers, oral and poster presentations, and workshops. Also, oral presentations of sub-disciplines, keynote sessions led by professors and eminent scientists and poster sessions presented interactively by Young Research Forum. The Nanotechnology field engages information technologists and material researchers. Nanotechnology is applied to information technology on a substantial scale. All of this allows ECTC to offer some of the best learning in our region, state and nation.

Miky Wright: $1,500 for Math Association of America Mathfest 
Established in 1915, the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) hosts MAA Mathfest every summer, presenting the latest in mathematical research and education to diverse audiences across the nation. My first experience of attending a Mathematical Association of America (MAA) MathFest was in 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Other than the registration fee funded by ECTC Physical Sciences Division, I paid the rest of that trip from pocket. But I felt so worthy and inspired and want to attend again. I got to network with professionals from all corners of mathematics and other STEM fields and learned from talks that help understand the impact of mathematics on this planet. It was eye-opening to see applications of mathematical skills outside the college. Our students often ask, “Why do we need to learn this?” As an educator coming straight from a math-major graduate, other than using my math skills in daily life calculation, making decisions on personal finance, and teaching, I’ve been asking myself if I have used everything I’ve learned in my math classes. If not, how may I use them? I’ve found it important to keep exploring how mathematical skills could make a difference to our lives and how math educators can closely connect the classroom with the real-world applications.

David Nusbaumer: $957.98 for Radio Telemetry Lab Pilot 
This project will be conducted by three ECTC faculty, a couple of staff members, and approximately six ECTC students. All members of the project team will gain some knowledge of the use of radio equipment in research and teaching applications. They will also be exposed to some wildlife biology techniques, such as live trapping and mark and recapture studies. This knowledge can then be used by faculty for designing hands-on laboratories in following semesters. The students involved will have the option of obtaining one hour of college credit (Bio 295, Independent Investigation in Biology). They will also be exposed to several research techniques that will apply to various science majors and have some field experience that most college freshman are not exposed to. I believe this will also be a very entertaining project that should "light a fire" under some of the students and perhaps help them decide on a college major in the sciences.

Techniques in radio telemetry and small mammal tracking - The project will enlist ECTC students, faculty, and staff to determine the feasibility of using radio telemetry techniques as a tool in biology laboratories at ECTC. The idea is to use radio tracking techniques to introduce students to various STEM topics such as radio wave propagation, radio signal direction finding, and animal behavior.