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VCSU Speakers Bureau

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VCSU has provided academic leadership for the Valley City and Barnes County communities since 1890. The University has created a listing of speakers available and suggested topics of interest. Groups or organizations interested in having a presentation not included on the list below can contact Kelly Spanier to arrange a potential speaker.

2023-2024 Presentations Available

Careers in Art

Interested in pursuing a career in art? In this presentation, I will discuss my journey, along with others who have pursued their passion for art.
Instructor: Angela Mircsov

Curating art for an exhibition, client, or portfolio

Thinking about starting your own business in art? Thinking about submitting work to a show or a school? How do you curate your work to show a potential client? In this presentation, we will discuss how to curate work and what to think about when presenting your work to others.
Instructor: Angela Mircsov

Design Thinking

The objective of this lecture is to develop students’ creative confidence. Through the design thinking process, students will come up with ideas to solve problems that do not have a clear answer. Students participate in a series of exercises to develop ideas for a design project.
Instructor: Ekow Ephrim

Learning How to See (Photography)

This interactive workshop will use “photography prompts” to help students get more creative in taking photos. Students capture specific themes using smartphones, experiment with techniques that make them more observant and train their photographic eye as they try to find photo opportunities that fit the theme.
Instructor: Ekow Ephrim

Agribusiness

How do you begin marketing your grain crop? The first step is to create a crop budget and determine your break-even price. This session will explore how to create a crop budget and introduce the futures trading market.
Instructor: Brenda Tyre

Investing

You just got your first job, should you contribute to your retirement account? What about that new car you want to buy? Is buying a house in your future? Come learn about some tools you can use to optimize your earnings and minimize your spending. You can also learn about investing in the stock market by playing a game and deciding how much to invest in selected stocks. Finance is both an art and a science, see how it can enrich your life.
Instructor: Wesley Wright

Business Communications

Learning how to communicate professionally is a skill that is valuable not only in every industry but every phase of life! This session will teach you some of the basics of business communication ranging from, but not limited to email composition, social media use, and difficult conversations. Come take the first step in developing a professional persona and say hello to Business Communications!
Instructor: Taylor Mounts

Entrepreneurial Mindshift

Open yourself up to new opportunities without having to go anywhere! This is a hands-on workshop that will help you shift your mind into a more entrepreneurial mindset. Whether you are in business, science, general education, or the arts, thinking like an entrepreneur reframes your view and increases your possibilities! We can help you learn to be more aware of your world of possibilities, open to new ideas, and resourceful, all while building your confidence to think outside of the box.
Instructor: Cheryl Duvall or Dr. Peter Amah

Turn Problems to Opportunities

Got any problems? This workshop teaches the same skills that have helped entrepreneurs solve problems around the world for years. We use a hands-on project-based approach to generate problem-solving ideas we didn’t even know we had in us. This fun and fast-paced project will be eye-opening and energizing for students (and teachers) from any discipline. Consider using this workshop to start students on a path to better and more confident problem-solving.
Instructor: Cheryl Duvall or Dr. Peter Amah

Communication is Your Superpower

Focusing on the AAA power in Communication, participants create their own Superhero to empower their academic, personal, and future professional lives. This step-by-step approach guides students in an art exercise so they put mind and body to use in developing their plan. At the end of this fifty-minute session, participants know how to appropriately Ask, Advocate, and Apologize with powerful messages that can change their destiny!
Instructor: Jenni Lou Russi

Supporting English Learners in the Classroom

What do you do with a student in your classroom who is new to the English language? An increasing number of classrooms in North Dakota are welcoming students from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. This presentation will provide practical tips and strategies for the classroom teacher on supporting English Language Learners in the content areas.
Instructor: Mari B. Rasmussen, PhD

Approaches to Teaching Beginning Improvisation in Band

A 50-to-75-minute session that explores improvisation in a jazz/pop context. Can be conducted with any type of band of any size. On-site instructors get suggested lesson plans and other materials so that improvisation instruction can continue throughout the year.
Instructor: Ken Jimenez

Developing Healthy Singing Technique

A session that explores the fundamental aspects of singing technique. Appropriate for individual lessons or groups of students. Topics covered include posture, breath support, alignment, oral space, and resonance. Healthy technique in the popular/MT context is stressed.
Instructor:Stephen Cunningham
Instructor: Kewen Cheng

 

Band 9-1-1

Is your band not currently producing their best sound? Are you experiencing challenges with instruments or equipment? This session offers guidance toward improving both performance and physical aspects of your instrumental program and can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual school.
Instructor: Jerrold Heide

Livestreaming 101

A session intended to familiarize groups or individuals with fundamentals of livestreaming, addressing software, hardware, terminology, and techniques. This session is of particular interest to the music teacher or to community groups.
Instructor: Ken Jimenez

Psychology

Who Am I?

This question can seem straightforward but can become quite complex. This presentation explores the origin of the self, influences on how people think about themselves, and how these all combine to form each person’s unique perspective on reality. Concepts include the self-concept, self-esteem, self-regulation, and self-monitoring.
Instructor: Kiersten Baughman

Relationships: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Humans are social creatures interacting with each other in many ways every day. This presentation emphasizes the components of healthy relationships while exploring elements such as respect, trust, loyalty, and boundaries. Concepts also include the need to belong, warning signs to watch out for that relationships are less healthy, and how to implement early changes to maximize satisfaction.
Instructor: Kiersten Baughman

Memory: How Truly Memorable is That and Why?

Humans rely heavily on their memory system to create a world of experiences. This presentation explores the features, myths, realities, and limits of the human memory system. Concepts include the components of memory, biased recall, and tips to improve the likelihood of accurately remembering important information in the future.
Instructor: Kiersten Baughman

How Learning Works: Reinforcement, Punishment, and Everything in Between

Knowledge is learned from some source, whether from others, experiences, or some combination. This presentation offers a deep dive into the realm of conditioning and how classical and operant conditioning principles differ from one another. Concepts emphasized include classical conditioning terminology, reinforcement, punishment, and lots of examples showing how knowledge is acquired in a variety of contexts.
Instructor: Kiersten Baughman

Mental Health Matters!

Our understanding of mental health and its importance has come a long way in recent years but sometimes all the information can feel overwhelming. In this session we’ll break it down: what is mental health, what kinds of things impact our mental health, and why should we care about mental health. We’ll spend some time exploring ways that we can prioritize and improve our own mental health.
Instructor: Katie Woehl

Stress

“I’m so stressed out.” “I’m under a lot of stress”. “Things are really stressful right now.” Many of us rarely go more than a day or so without saying or hearing phrases like this but what do we really know about stress? Spoiler alert: not all stress is bad! During this session we will define stress, consider its causes, look at the effects of stress on our bodies, and explore some stress relief activities backed by research.
Instructor: Katie Woehl

Using Empathy and Active Listening to Improve Connection

How can we feel more connected with individuals around us? How can I show someone that I am listening to them? This interactive presentation will provide an overview of the concepts, including more practical empathetic and active listening tips that can be used in everyday conversation.
Instructor: Emily Fenster

Writing Your Obituary: An Opportunity for Practical Self-Reflection

Most wait until it is necessary to write an obituary for others, and even fewer create one for themselves. What could you gain from writing your obituary today? This presentation will address the fundamentals for writing an obituary, examples of different approaches, and how it relates to self-reflection and goal setting. Tips and strategies will be provided to help begin the process during this session. Starting is often the hardest part, so why not begin now?
Instructor: Emily Fenster

Exploring Culture and Socialization through Observation

This interactive presentation explores the basics of socialization within culture(s) and highlights how much we can understand about groups by observing people in various environments. Concepts addressed will include values, norms, folkways, mores, symbols, language, and technology.
Instructor: Emily Fenster

Ageism 101: What is it and Why Should I Care?

Ageism – stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination of individuals based on their age – is still present and often accepted today. This presentation will provide an overview of ageism, why it is a concern, and what we can do to address it. Suggestions will be provided to help you become an advocate for older adults and foster more age-friendly environments.
Instructor: Emily Fenster

Field or Pasture? Agricultural Landscapes

This interactive presentation and activity will help students understand why certain agricultural activities take place where they do. Through analysis of statistical and spatial data, students will explore the agricultural activities of North Dakota and Minnesota and determine why an area might be better suited for a field or pasture.
Instructor: Jacob Clauson

Gamifying the Classroom: Build up to WWI

This activity uses an interactive simulation game within a classroom to help students better understand the buildup and causes of WWI. Students will get an engaging experience in learning about the causes AND teachers will get a firsthand look at how gamifying a classroom can increase engagement and critical thinking about events, ideas, and people.
Instructor: Jacob Clauson

Culture, Heritage, and Tourism

Tourism represents a multi-trillion-dollar global industry with its own unique ethical dilemmas around pollution, land rights, sustainability, cultural appropriation, and economic development. What motivates tourists and how do encounters in tourism shape social dynamics?
Instructor: Anthony Dutton

The Age of Independence and Slavery

How did the same founding generation that articulated the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights fail to extend basic, fundamental rights to nearly 1/5th of the US population? This presentation uses documents and census data to examine the dichotomy between ideals and actions at the foundation of the United States of America.
Instructor: Anthony Dutton

Silk Roads and Felt Tents

Central Asian nomads mediated and facilitated continental trade in the 13th and 14th centuries, building an expansive empire (which fragmented nearly as dramatically as it grew). This presentation examines Mongolian culture, the Mongol Empire, and the Silk Roads, linking China, Inner Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Instructor: Anthony Dutton

Civil Rights and Liberties

As Americans we enjoy Constitutionally protected rights, but what does this mean? This presentation will address the US Supreme Court’s interpretation of rights and liberties. We will explore how these rulings over time change our understanding of rights and liberties as Americans.
Instructor: Alexander Jorgensen

Elections

What does it take to become a politician? Let’s explore the fascinating world of politics to understand how we pick our political leaders. This presentation provides information about local, state, and federal elections, how they are structured and what it takes to win.
Instructor: Alexander Jorgensen

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Potential Topics and Speakers
See a complete list with presentation descriptions at https://www.vcsu.edu

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Kelly Spanier

Kelly Spanier

Executive Assistant for VPAA