{"id":6004,"date":"2017-05-03T11:01:11","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T15:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=6004"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:50:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:50:31","slug":"graduate-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2017\/05\/03\/graduate-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: This article highlights the 2016 Averitt Award winners. The 2017 Averitt Award winners were announced as we went to press. John David Curtis (Science and Biology) \u2013 Excellence in Research and Ray Delva (English) Excellence in Instruction will be profiled in a future issue of <\/em>Georgia Southern Magazine.<\/p>\n

HONORED FOR EXCELLENCE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Instead of two winners \u2013 three graduate students were named the 2016 winners of the top award in the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies. Martin Muinos<\/strong> and Heidi Moye<\/strong> received the Averitt Award for Excellence in Research and Desiree Riley<\/strong> was honored with the award for Excellence in Instruction. Each of the winners received the Crystal Eagle trophy and a $1,000 prize.<\/p>\n

Heidi Moye: Tracing History <\/em><\/strong>\"GS<\/a>
\nFresh out of high school, Heidi Moye was working as a bank teller in Sylvania, Georgia, when a visit to an old cemetery showed her a new direction. \u201cIt was a summer afternoon, and I\u2019d decided to follow Sherman\u2019s March to the Sea through Screven County on Old Louisville Road,\u201d she said. \u201cI actually took the wrong fork in the road and ended up on Old Elam Road, which is where the cemetery is located.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moye stumbled across the gravestones of the John Hergen Ash (1843-1918) family and was intrigued when she noticed his second wife and their three young children died on the same day. \u201cTheir story has been the inspiration for my education,\u201d she explained. \u201cDigging into their lives is the reason why I started going to college at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her research into the life of the Confederate soldier is the reason why she won the highest honor the College of Graduate Studies awards its students \u2013 the 2016 Averitt Award for Excellence in Research. The history major is hoping to turn her thesis, \u201cA Forgotten Confederate: John H. Ash\u2019s Story Rediscovered,\u201d into a book. \u201cThe story of Ash and his family is so good, people will be interested in it whether they like history or not,\u201d she said. \u201cI am hopeful that it will be published and through its human appeal, educate the general public on Georgia history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moye found that Ash\u2019s family emigrated to Georgia from Germany in 1734 at the beginning of Georgia\u2019s history as a colony. His first wife died when he was fighting in the Civil War. The soldier remarried after the war and studied to become a Baptist minister. On a hot summer night in 1871, his wife Laura poisoned herself and her three children with strychnine. \u201cIt was called a murder-suicide,\u201d said Moye. \u201cIt was a brutal and painful death and a sensationalized case. The Savannah Morning News<\/em> covered it and it was in The New York Time<\/em>s and other national papers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soldier\u2019s story didn\u2019t end there, but continued until his death in 1918. \u201cWith my thesis,\u201d said Moye, \u201cI\u2019m attempting to explore the history of Georgia from colony, through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and then its attempt to shape itself as a New South. \u201c<\/p>\n

Moye earned her bachelor\u2019s in history while working full time in the Regents Center for Learning Disorders at Georgia Southern. She received her master\u2019s in December. The graduate student credits history Professor Anastatia Sims Ph.D., for keeping her research on track. \u201cShe listens to me and helps me sort out the direction I need to take,\u201d Moye said. \u201cShe helps me with my writer\u2019s block. She\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin Muinos: Professor Sparks a Love for Engines<\/em><\/strong>\"GS<\/a>
\nMartin Muinos transferred to Georgia Southern as a sophomore, and said he had no set plans for his future. He just figured he\u2019d get his engineering degree and see what happened from there.<\/p>\n

Not long after his arrival, however, Muinos met Valentin Soloiu, Ph.D., the Allen E. Paulson Distinguished Chair of Renewable Energy, who brought the young student into the Engine Combustion and Emissions lab, a place that changed the trajectory of the young student\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin showed an extraordinary determination to succeed, be successful and excel in research,\u201d said Soloiu, who nominated Muinos for the award.<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Muinos spent much of his free time in the laboratory learning concepts and theories, helping with experiments, and then writing and reporting the findings under intensive deadlines.After only six months, Muinos was accepted as a full researcher in the lab \u2014 one of the fastest student promotions in years. He later became the lead undergraduate researcher in the lab, and published four peer-reviewed papers and presented more than 10 posters and discussions at prestigious conferences across the U.S.<\/p>\n

Muinos\u2019 focused his graduate research on Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) with renewable fuels, a process which delays combustion in a fuel-efficient diesel engine, reducing its soot and smoke emissions and cleaning up its dirty reputation.<\/p>\n

The research earned him a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, which placed him among only 2,000 graduate students in the United States who received the $136,000 grant out of 16,500 national applicants. The fellowship placed him among student researchers from such institutions as Georgia Tech, MIT, Stanford, Princeton and Cornell.<\/p>\n

He says he can\u2019t imagine getting to do the work he\u2019s done anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to visit a research facility conducting similar research anywhere in the United States, we would be surrounded by post-docs, Ph.D.\u2019s, and grad students,\u201d said Muinos. \u201cIn the Engine Combustion and Emissions lab at Georgia Southern, I am one of four graduate students working under the supervision of one professor and working alongside 15-20 undergraduate students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muinos said the Averitt Award was a \u201cgreat surprise,\u201d and one he couldn\u2019t have achieved without the help of his professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to give all my thanks to Dr. Soloiu,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a very selfless professor. The best professor I\u2019ve ever had and most of his students have ever had. If it wasn\u2019t for him staying late with me, working out problems and diving into theory and providing me the avenue to do all this research, I would not have been able to get this award or the NSF award, for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desiree Riley: Chemistry to Literature to Teaching<\/strong> <\/em>\"GS<\/a>
\nDesiree Riley (\u201813, \u201816) never planned to be a teacher. She enrolled in Georgia Southern as a chemistry major, but soon changed her mind. \u201cThe introductory courses everyone takes as a freshman ignited my interest in literature. And that\u2019s why I changed my major to English,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

After earning her undergraduate degree, Riley began working on her master\u2019s. Fueled by her love of books and stories, her heart was set on becoming a book editor, but changed course when she entered the Department of Literature and Philosophy graduate program. \u201cThe program offered all these opportunities for teaching. And once I started teaching I found my passion,\u201d Riley explains.<\/p>\n

Her impact in the classroom did not go unnoticed by her professors and her students. They nominated her for the Averitt Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction for 2015-16. It recognizes outstanding teaching by a graduate student. Riley was shocked when she was announced the winner at the 2016 Research Symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surprising. I had no idea that anyone was paying that much attention to me. I am extremely honored and humbled,\u201d she says. \u201cI was more touched by what the students said in the feedback that was read just before the winner was announced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like teaching a lot,\u201d she notes. \u201cYou see that look on students\u2019 faces when they don\u2019t understand something. But, then you see their eyes light up when you explain it and help them understand it. Those are the rewarding moments. They are what I consider those little \u201cahha\u201d moments. I want my students to enjoy literature as much as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley, a Double Eagle, says she may pursue a doctorate. For now, she plans to gain more experience teaching at the college level. \u201cI hope students leave my classroom appreciating literature more than when they came in. At the end of my course, I want students to understand why literature can have an impact on the world and why we keep talking about these authors and stories years after they were written.\u201d \u2014 Sandra Bennett, Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of two winners \u2013 three graduate students were named the 2016 winners of the top award in the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}