Students from 13 Riverina high schools are expected at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Friday 16 June for the latest MyDay event. Aimed at giving Year 11 and 12 students a taste of university life, the day will focus on courses in the fields of accounting, management, marketing, business studies, IT and computing studies. Approximately 24 students will meet with CSU academics, attend information sessions about the various pathways to get into CSU, opportunities for international study experiences,  and advice on financial matters. A full list of upcoming MyDay events at CSU can be found here. 

High school students from across the Riverina will gain an insight into the work of agricultural and veterinary scientists when they visit Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Friday 10 June. The annual EH Graham Centre Ag-Enrichment Day gives primary industries students the opportunity to observe some of the work done by scientists while learning about university courses and career opportunities. Students also gain some hands-on experience with sessions on beneficial insect identification, the importance of fungi, salinity and sheep reproduction. This year, 70 students from schools in Wagga, Albury, Coolamon, Barham, Finley and Lake Cargelligo will take part in the event.

The nature of human emotions and their relationship with pain will be the focus of a public lecture by Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer Dr Andrew Delaney in Griffith on Wednesday 15 June. Dr Delaney is a neuroscientist who recently joined CSU as senior lecturer at the CSU School of Biomedical Sciences to start a new electrophysiological research laboratory in Orange. His presentation, ‘The Emotional Brain’, will examine questions that have fascinated psychologists and neuroscientists for more than 100 years; ‘what are emotions?’ and ‘how does the brain generate an emotion?’ He will also talk about advances in tracing the neuronal pathways that are involved in generating an emotional response to pain. “I will highlight the neuroscience research that my colleagues and I will be conducting to address how the emotional circuits of the brain are activated during a painful experience,” he said. “We are also examining how changes in these circuits might contribute to the high rate of depression and anxiety in sufferers of chronic pain, a relationship that has particular relevance to those living with pain in rural communities.”

Help is at hand for adults having problems with their speech, voice, fluency, communication or swallowing. Final year students in the speech pathology course at Charles Sturt University (CSU), based in Albury-Wodonga, will run intensive speech pathology services for clients over 10 weeks, starting Monday 25 July. Acting course coordinator, Dr Anna O’Callaghan said the clients will also “help educate and provide invaluable experience for speech pathologists of the future, many of whom are destined for positions in regional Australia”. Clinics will run from 9am to 5pm each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday until Friday 30 September at the Education and Research in Communication Clinic (ERiCC building) on the University’s Thurgoona site. “One in seven Australians has a communication disability, which can be present at birth or acquired later in life. Adults often experience acquired communication disabilities following a stroke or traumatic brain injury and can suffer frustration, anger, embarrassment or grief as they try to communicate.” To take part in this intensive remedial program, contact Dr O’Callaghan on telephone (02) 6051 9223 or send an email. 

American philosophy scholar Professor Theodore Schatzki will be a special guest at Charles Sturt University (CSU) later this month during a three-week visit to Wagga Wagga. “Professor Schatzki’s visit is significant for Charles Sturt University because he is a world-leading philosopher of practice, helping to develop new ways to understand the way the social world is organised,” said Professor of Education at CSU Stephen Kemmis. The Professor of Philosophy from the University of Kentucky is a guest of CSU’s Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE).  Professor Schatzki will address the Institute’s annual research conference to be held on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 June. The conference involves some of RIPPLE’s 35 academics involved in research to support a range of professions including family day care, childcare, preschools, schools, the vocational education and training sector, business and management, nursing and allied health professions. Professor Schatzki will give a free public lecture at the annual RIPPLE conference in the Convention Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga from 3.30pm to 4.45pm on Thursday 16 June. He will also meet academics from the School of Education at CSU in Wagga Wagga from 9am to 12midday on Friday 17 June.

Despite numerous community education campaigns, public awareness of the prevention and risks of osteoporosis remains distressingly low, according to Associate Professor Maree Donna Simpson from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr Simpson addressed inland pharmacists at CSU’s latest Pharmacy Continuing Education Session on Sunday 25 March, urging them to look for any signs of the debilitating disease amongst their patients. “Look for the symptoms – a broken bone, those who are particularly slim, very low body weight. For example, one of the easiest viewed indicators of osteoporosis in older women is a body mass of less than 70 kilos.” Professor Simpson says osteoporosis is a “disease of the ‘baby boomers’. But they think it is a disease of their ‘mums and dads’. Risk factors include genetics, medications for asthma or Crohn’s Disease, or having had an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia.”

Life, colour, noise and action are ideas not previously associated with the traditional academic library, but Charles Sturt University has transformed its Bathurst Campus library to reflect modern thinking in the way people now learn and interact. “The new Learning Commons on Bathurst Campus is a significant departure from what a traditional library used to be, and is part of CSU’s response to the rapid evolution of learning that is driven by technology,” said CSU Library Services executive director Ms Shirley Oakley. “With our focus on co-location, co-operation and collaboration between students and academics, we have developed this 24 hour a day, seven day a week facility to support students and to attract the next generation of students to CSU.”  Bathurst Regional Council (BRC) has shown considerable interest in the new facility, with Ms Oakley and director of library operations Ms Kerryn Amery taking the Mayor of Bathurst, Mr Norm Mann, Councillor Gordon Crisp, and BRC executives on a tour of the new Learning Commons at 4pm on Monday 2 April.

Three Charles Sturt University (CSU) researchers have investigated what it means for Indigenous children, families, schools and communities to be prepared for schooling. The result is an approach that goes well beyond being concerned only with what children might know or be able to do. CSU Professor of Education with Murray School of Education, Bob Perry says, “We know a few things that do work: having high quality Indigenous staff in the school, good links between school and pre-schools, positive involvement of families and communities in the the transition to school, and top quality pre-school education all contribute to positive experiences. However, we must include Indigenous families and communities in the transition process and show them cultural respect as their children’s first educators. Children, families, communities and schools all have strengths that need to be recognised and celebrated.” The report, titled ‘School readiness: What does it mean for Indigenous children, families, schools and communities?’ will be launched on Tuesday, May 31 at Parliament House in Canberra by the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon. Jenny Macklin MP. The report includes input from local Wiradjuri community member, Ms Leonie McIntosh, as an adviser to the research team.

A project involving children with disabilities living in a Vietnamese orphanage is building a close relationship between health services and educators in Australia and Vietnam. Phu My Orphanage, located in Ho Chi Minh City, has helped more than 110 students from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Community Health complete the final clinical practice requirements for their occupational therapy, speech pathology and physiotherapy degrees since 2002. This year 12 CSU students, based in Albury-Wodonga, will work closely with over 400 children and their carers, living in the orphanage for six weeks starting in June while also demonstrating therapy to the carers. They will be accompanied by CSU occupational therapy course coordinator, Associate Professor Michael Curtin, and speech pathologist Ms Jo Shugg, physiotherapist Ms Kate Willoughby and occupational therapist Ms Brooke Carroll from Yooralla, a Melbourne-based organisation that specialises in working with children and adults with disabilities.