Author: Andrew Danielson

Music/Journalism student at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Student Editor of the Summit City Observer.

Young Reporters Race the Clock in Indianapolis’ Keating Journalism Competition

By Andrew Danielson

It’s a simple assignment.

Go to a location. Ask a stranger to tell their story. Write it down for publication.

Easier said than done.

But for student journalists, this is the challenge that awaits them at the Keating Competition.

Sponsored and organized by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, the contest brings 10 student journalists to downtown Indianapolis for two days of intensive mentoring and journalistic competition. These young storytellers are given the task of finding a story to write, edit, and submit in just a few hours. A judges panel then reviews the stories, awarding cash prizes and honors to the top three winning stories.

The ten finalists of the 2026 Keating Competition. PFW student and SCO editor Andrew Danielson (last from left) was one of the participants.

The Legacy of Thomas R. Keating

But the Keating Competition would never have been created without the life and example of Indianapolis journalist, Thomas R. Keating.

“He wrote a daily column about people,” Michael Sanserino explained. “His approach was that everybody had a story, everybody was interesting.”

Sanserino is no stranger to the world of journalism. He is the executive director of the Radio, Television, and Digital News Association as well as the President of the Board of Directors of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation.

Sanserino, who competed and won the Keating Competition as a journalism student at Indiana University, explained that the Keating Competition tries to emulate the kinds of stories Tom Keating covered when he wrote a daily column for the Indianapolis Star.

“It was his job to find people and share their story with the rest of the world,” Sanserino said.

But sharing someone’s story comes with a lot of responsibility.

“As a journalist, you have a responsibility to that person and your audience to be as accurate and truthful as possible,” Sanserino reflected quietly.

Behind the Scenes: Planning the Competition

Organizing a reporting competition doesn’t happen overnight. It takes many meetings and many hands to make light work.

Lindsey Erdody, another member of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation board and the chair person of the Keating Competition committee, plays a big role in helping plan out each year’s competition.

Erdody explained that some of the background tasks for organizing the competition include picking the date for the event, choosing topics the students will be reporting on, and picking professional journalists to serve as mentors and judges for the stories submitted by the participants.

“We do try to make sure that the mentors and judges are different so there’s no bias in the judging,” Erdody said.

For Erdody, being a journalist was an aspiration from an early age.

“I knew I wanted to go into journalism from a pretty young age,” Erdody said.

Attending Indiana University in Bloomington as a journalism major, Erdody herself competed in the 2011 Keating Competition.

She explained that her experience at the Keating Competition was both intense and exhilarating.

“It was a little intimidating,” she said with a laugh. “As a student journalist, I hadn’t really spent much time in Indianapolis. I’m from a smaller town in Michigan.”

But it wasn’t just coming to the competition that made Erdody a little unsure of herself.

“You don’t often get the chance to just sit there and make a connection with a professional journalist and get their thoughts on your work,” she explained.

Erdody’s fellow 2011 Keating Competition participant and IU – Bloomington colleague, MaryJane Slaby, shared a similar feeling.

““It’s stressful – It’s really nerve wracking,” Slaby said with a chuckle.

Slaby’s journey to journalism paralleled Erdody’s own path, starting in journalism as a kid in high school and eventually enrolling in the journalism program at IU – Bloomington.

Like Erdody, Slaby also viewed her experience as a Keating Competition participant as thrilling.

“I remember being just excited, but also really nervous,” Slaby said.

From Application to Assignment: How the Competition Works

The journey from student journalist to Keating finalist starts several months before the competition.

Students interested in participating in the competition must submit some samples of their journalistic work to the competition’s committee.

Application opens in August, and the competition is held in October.

Sanserino explained that, generally, the committee is looking for a few characteristics in this sample work.

“Broadly, I think we’re looking for strong writers,” Sanserino explained. “We’re looking for people who can use descriptive language, who can be colorful…”

But good writing isn’t the only criteria the committee is searching for.

“I think we’re also looking for people who are curious,” he said.

Sanserino emphasized that curiosity in the journalism profession takes time and dedication.

“I think being curious requires continued practice and asking questions and letting the answers be your guide,” he said.

Sanserino explained that the committee typically receives about 40 entrants each year. Once the committee has selected 10 finalists for the competition, the finalists receive an invitation to travel to Indianapolis for the competition. The committee provides some financial assistance to the finalists to reduce travel expenses.

Screenshot of the Keating Competition website (Indianapolis Press Club Foundation)

On a Friday evening, the Keating Competition finalists meet for a combined info and networking meeting. They are connected with an assigned mentor, a professional journalist who reviews their story submissions and goes over some key tips and tricks for getting good stories. The finalists are also encouraged to network with one another, learning about the people who will be their colleagues for these two days.

The next morning, finalists receive a story assignment and are given a location where they will report.

Once at the destination, students have a couple of hours to conduct on-the-street interviews.

At an agreed-upon time, they are picked up and return to their hotel, where they have a few more hours to write, edit and submit their stories to the judges.

On Saturday evening, the competitors are treated to a wonderful dinner hosted by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, where a guest speaker addresses the finalists.

At the conclusion of the evening, the competition’s three winners and their stories are announced, with a group photo of all the finalists held as a final memento of the eventful weekend.

A High-Pressure, Real-World Reporting Experience

The competition’s organizers were quick to point out that the Keating Competition is a challenging experience that can be quite stressful.

“When I’m talking to my own colleagues and explaining what the Keating competition is, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really stressful,’” Slaby said with a laugh. ““But I also think it just gives you such a confidence boost to say hey, this is a thing I can do.”

Sanserino agreed.

“Reporting and writing a story from scratch in just a few hours is a skill that is developed over time,” he said.

But that’s just the point of the competition – to simulate what the real world of journalism can be like.

“You know, pressure, discomfort, you’re gonna experience that as a journalist throughout your career,” Sanserino explained.

The Keating Competition organizers had some great advice for dealing with the stress of random, on-the-street interviews.

“The last question I always ask is, is there anything else you think I should know, or is there anything else you want to tell me?” Erdody explained.

“Kind of slow down and don’t rush through your questions,” Slaby emphasized. “Of course, get contact information as well for those follow-up questions.”

A Defining Experience for Young Journalists

Regardless of the story the student’s write or their placement in the competition, the Keating Competition is a formative experience that will help these young journalists prepare for a life-long career in storytelling.

“Win or lose, being a finalist is a really big deal,” Erdody said.  “We do get more applications than we can accept for it every year.”

Slaby agreed with that sentiment.

“I do think that Keating is one of those things where once you do it, it gives you such a confidence boost,” Slaby said.

Sanserino summarized the entire Keating experience: “I think Keating is one of those things that – it sticks with you forever,” he said. “It is an experience unlike any other.”

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Ham Radio Field Day: How Operators Prepare for Power and Cell Service Outages

By Andrew Danielson

Spring seems to be in the air, with summer knocking on the door.

For many Americans, summer is the time for taking life a little easier, going on vacation, weekends at the lake, and soaking up the warm weather and temperatures.

But for amateur radio operators, summer, particularly the month of June, brings a chance to practice their emergency communication skills in a national event called “Field Day.”

“The purpose of Field Day is to get outside and to test kind of the EmComm side of amateur radio,” Adam Warrix, KD9NRT, said using the abbreviation “emcomm” to describe emergency communications.

Warrix is a past president of the Fort Wayne Radio Club. A science teacher at Snider High School, Warrix first received his amateur radio license in 2019 after observing ham radio’s use on a field research trip he had taken to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Amateur radio operators, also called “ham radio operators,” are individuals licensed by the federal government to own and operate personal radio stations.  These radio stations must be operated in accordance to federal regulation, as overseen and enforced by the FCC – the Federal Communications Commission.

Screenshot of Field Day locator page from the National Association for Amateur Radio

Before they receive an amateur radio license, ham radio operators must successfully pass required knowledge examinations covering electronic theory, radio signal propagation, federal laws governing radio transmission, and related material.

Upon successful completion of these exams, hams are assigned a federally-issued callsign. In Warrix’s case, his assigned callsign was KD9NRT, although there are many other combinations of letters and numbers available and used in the amateur radio service.

As of 2026, there are approximately 734,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States according to licensing statistics published on the website of the ARRL – the American Radio Relay League. In Indiana, the amateur radio operator population sits at just over 15,000 individuals.

One of the core reasons that the federal government allows and encourages the existence of the amateur radio service is their ability to provide radio communications during times of local and national emergencies.

But providing emergency communications doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and training. Field Day provides a perfect opportunity for ham radio operators to train and practice those emergency communications skills.

Local radio amateur Dr. Josh Long (callsign W9HT) explained that Field Day is all about identifying what assets are needed for a portable amateur radio station, such as what kind of antenna to use. 

Long is a young ham with plenty of experiences. A licensed amateur radio operator for 26 years, Long’s interest in radio communications was sparked by a Montgomery Ward receiver he was gifted by his parents as a child.

Now a professor of economics at Indiana Institute of Technology, Long currently serves as the director of the Central Division of the American Radio Relay League, a geographical area encompassing the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

Long has personal experience using his amateur radio station to provide emergency communications.

In 2008, Fort Wayne was struck by a winter storm that included large amounts of ice. With power outages caused by ice buildup plaguing the city, the local chapter of the American Red Cross set up a temporary shelter in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum for residents affected by the storm.

During the emergency, Long volunteered his services as a ham radio operator, helping pass general welfare messages via a portable amateur radio station he set up at the Red Cross shelter at the Coliseum.

Nationally, amateur radio has played a vital part in providing emergency communications for other parts of the county hit by severe weather.

In 2024, the American Radio Relay League posted a press release detailing the EmComm activations by ham radio operators following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Those efforts included providing emergency communications support to towns and residents who had lost power and cellular service due to damage to the power grid.

In 2025, the American Radio Relay League detailed efforts radio amateurs made to provide emergency communications during the Jan. wildfires that ravaged portions of California in a press release. Some of those efforts included using amateur radio stations to report on weather conditions.

In between emergency communication activations, amateur radio operators practice their communication skills and abilities by participating in training events and exercises like Field Day. Field Day gives amateurs practice in not only learning how to set up portable radio stations, but also in the skills needed to communicate a message across the country quickly.

“It [Field Day] needs to test emergency communications,” Warrix said.

Field Day has been held annually since 1933 according to the American Radio Relay League. A mixture of competition, socializing, and EmComm skill training, Field Day has a lot of features packed into one event.

Long said that Field Day covered a multitude of training aspects when it comes to setting up a portable radio station.

 “It’s not just the technological stuff, it’s the environmental stuff like bugs or weather” Long said.

Several local amateur radio clubs in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana participate in Field Day, including the Fort Wayne Radio Club. In just the past couple of years, the Fort Wayne club has held its Field Day event on the campus of Purdue Fort Wayne as well as the historic Old Fort, a recreation 1812 War-era fort in downtown Fort Wayne.

But choosing a site for Field requires careful planning.

Field Day lasts a little over 24 hours, so amateur radio participants must request permission to stay overnight for their Field Day activation. The Fort Wayne Radio Club’s activations for Field Day also take into consideration public access for visitors to the site as well as technical operating parameters needed to make the activation successful.

But Field Day is more than a chance to practice one’s communication skills in a simulated emergency. It’s a chance for ham radio operators to socialize with one another and build community. 

One local amateur radio operator, Bill Rodgers (callsign K3HZP), has participated in Field Day since he was first licensed in 1959.

“We just set up in the field and operated it,” Rodgers recalled, talking about his first Field Day event over 60 years ago. “I remember going through the barbed wire fence to get to the field.”

That was when Rodgers was growing up in Pennsylvania. A retired electrical engineer with his doctorate in electrical engineering from Ohio State University, Rodgers continues to enjoy participating in Field Day, most recently with the Whitley County Amateur Radio Club.

Rodgers’ experiences are the very core of Field Day – setting up a radio station and joining one’s friends and acquaintances to test out radio communication skills and gear.

The reality is that emergencies don’t come for the asking (or the refusal). They strike at one’s home, community, and country, whether that happens in the height of summer vacation or the middle of the freezing winter.

While many Americans enjoy all that summer has to offer, ham radio operators will be busy at Field Day training and preparing, ready to help fill the communication void should an emergency happen.

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Taking Flight: Allen County, Indiana’s Aviation History

By Andrew Danielson

Southwest of downtown Fort Wayne, the thunderous roar of jet engines pulses through the air at Fort Wayne International Airport. Passengers concentrate on gate departure and arrival times as they hurry through the long corridors of the travel edifice. A voice announces baggage claim details over the PA.

But Fort Wayne International isn’t the only airport in the city.

Across town, located off of West Ludwig Road, the buzz of a small single-propeller plane cuts through the air, sounding like an enormous dragonfly. Suddenly, a small white speck hurtles down a runway, sailing into the air in a graceful arc. Flight operations are in full swing on this crisp, clear day at Smith Field Airport, a small airport on the north side of Fort Wayne.

As I stood and watched that small airplane begin its flight into the wild blue yonder, I realized that I was seeing almost 100 years of aviation history. For this airport is the birthplace of commercial aviation in the Summit City.

Historic Hangar built in 1930

Smith Field: The Origins of Fort Wayne Aviation

Smith Field first opened as the Paul Baer Municipal Airport in June of 1925, according to the History of Fort Wayne & Allen County, Volume 1 (History of Fort Wayne).

The History of Fort Wayne article on aviation detailed how Smith Field was named after the first American ace (a pilot who shoots down at least five enemy aircraft) Paul Frank Baer. Baer had served as a pilot during World War 1, first in the French Foreign Legion. When the United States joined the war in 1917, Baer became part of the US military as a pilot.

Following the war, Baer was a hero of his hometown, the Summit City. It was only fitting that Fort Wayne’s first official airport should be named after this American hero.

However, that all changed in World War II.

A documentary by PBS Fort Wayne explained that in 1940, the Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the US Air Force) was building air fields across the country.

For Fort Wayne, the choice came down to either converting Baer Field (as Smith Field was then called) to an army air corps base, or building a brand new airport for the army.

The fear was that if Baer Field became primarily a military airfield, Fort Wayne could lose its bustling commercial air traffic. Baer Field was doing a roaring business, and Fort Wayne didn’t want to lose this valuable asset to the city’s economy and quality of life.

The final decision? Build a brand new air field on the southwest side of Fort Wayne.

At the time of its completion in 1941, the new air field cost $10 million according to the Fort Wayne Airport Authority’s website.

But the new airfield needed a name.

As explained in the History of Fort Wayne, the army’s tradition was to name these kinds of military installations after military aviators.

Fort Wayne residents, on the other hand, preferred to name the new airfield either after the Revolutionary War hero General “Mad” Anthony Wayne or the aviation pioneer and Fort Wayne native Art Smith.

In a compromise, it was decided to rename Baer Field in honor of Art Smith, while the new airport took on the name of Baer Field.

The decision was appropriate, as it honored two of Fort Wayne’s aviation heroes, Paul Baer and Art Smith.

Art Smith: Fort Wayne’s Aviation Pioneer

Art Smith was a rock star of the early aviation world.

The History of Fort Wayne recounts that Art Smith was the first American pilot invited to Japan. Smith had received an invitation extended by the Emperor of Japan to come put on exhibitions of flying.

In the course of his career, which included being a stunt pilot, military pilot instructor, and air mail pilot, Smith amassed an enviable number of awards and a network of famous friends.

The National Air and Space Museum records that Art Smith, known as the “Bird Boy” of Fort Wayne, received a tremendous outpouring of tributes upon his untimely death in an airplane crash in 1926. Tributes came from the giants of aviation, including Orville Wright, the first human to ever fly an airplane. Famed pilot Charles Lindbergh also paid homage, circling the city of Fort Wayne three times in honor of Smith’s legacy.

Today, a monument to Art Smith, at a height of nearly 40 feet, stands in Memorial Park in downtown Fort Wayne on the same location in which Art Smith first took off in his homemade airplanes.

Wartime Innovation at Smith Field

Perhaps one of the most intriguing elements of Smith Field’s history is the fact that it served as a top-secret military installation in addition to its commercial activities during World War II.

According to the History of Fort Wayne, the US military built and designed what is the predecessor to today’s guided missiles or weaponized drones, the TDR-1 Assault Drone. A twin-engine aircraft that could carry explosives and be guided by radio control via an early form of television, the TDR-1 was flown to Smith Field, electronics installed in the cockpit, and then shipped to the military via a rail line that ran alongside the airport.

TDR-1 missiles were unmanned, being remotely piloted. They saw action for a limited period of the war, being deployed against the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre. Eventually, the project was ended by the military for a variety of reasons.

Today, only one example of a TDR-1 assault drone exists in the world according to the History of Fort Wayne. That example is currently on display in Pensacola, Florida at the U.S. Naval Air Museum.

Historic Hangars and Rare Architecture

But Smith Field is not known for just its wartime efforts.

The airport actually hosts two historically significant architectural elements, both hangers.

Hangar 2, with its three large doors and spacious interior, was unusual at the time of its construction in 1930 as mentioned in the PBS Fort Wayne documentary. Its size was enough to accommodate the large passenger aircraft of the time, such as the Douglas DC-3, which could carry about 20 passengers.

But perhaps the most unusual and rare historic artifact at Smith Field is its Carousel Hangar.

The National Park Service describes the Carousel Hangar at Smith Field as, “…the only example of Clark W. Smith’s patented design ever built.”

The outside of the Carousel Hangar

Smith’s design was to build a rounder hanger that looks very similar to a grain silo. A door in the side can be rolled back, revealing the interior of the hangar and the carousel network.

The network itself consists of a series of long, metal tracks, sticking out of a central, rotating hub like spokes in a wheel. There are enough tracks to support up to four small planes.  

Scott Noble, a local private pilot who stores his small plane in this Carousel Hangar, explained the basic function of the hangar design.

He said that the carousel network can be rotated around the central hub (just like a carousel).

“You could put your airplane in this and then they would just move it to wherever they needed to,” Noble explained.

Scott Noble’s plane inside the carousel hangar
Detail of the central hub of the carousel

Basically, if a pilot wants to get his airplane from this hangar, they simply need to open the doors of the hangar, rotate the carousel until their particular plane is pointed to the exit of the hangar, start up the engine, and taxi out on to the runway.

One of the neat features of this carousel method of plane storage is that the entire assembly can be rotated by hand. It does take a little muscle to get the carousel moving, but the entire mechanism is remarkably compact and efficient.

Smith Field’s Role in Modern Aviation

Even though Smith Field is more than a century old, it continues to be a hive of aviation activity.

With the edition of a brand new terminal building in 2013, Smith Field only seems to be increasing both activity and size.

“Look at how big this thing is,” Noble said excitedly. “I mean, this is double or triple the size of what it used to be.”

New Terminal Building

The reality is that Smith Field serves a vital role in the aviation industry of the Fort Wayne area.

According to the Fort Wayne Airport Authority’s website, Smith Field has been designated the primary reliever airport for Fort Wayne International.

But what is a reliever airport you might ask?

As explained on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) website, a reliever airport is, “An airport designated by the Secretary of Transportation to relieve congestion at a commercial service airport and to provide more general aviation access to the overall community.”

Basically, a reliever airport takes the pressure off a main commercial airport like Fort Wayne International. For example, while Fort Wayne International handles large aircraft and numerous commercial flights for passengers, Smith Field can handle the smaller planes of general aviation and private pilot flight traffic.

This isn’t to say private pilots can’t fly in and out of Fort Wayne International – it just means that private pilots and general aviation traffic have another option available to them for takeoff, landing, refueling, and storing their personal planes.

That’s good news for everyone. Fort Wayne International can keep an efficient flow of large commercial traffic coming in and out of the city while Smith Field serves all of the smaller airplane traffic.

But Smith Field is important for more than its reliever role.

Sweet Aviation, a local business owned by the founder of Sweetwater Sound Chuck Surack, currently operates out of Smith Field. According to Sweet Aviation’s website, the business provides, “…maintenance, charter, detailing, aircraft rentals, and robust flight training.”

Inside the new terminal building

In addition to Sweet Aviation, Smith Field also hosts the Aviation Center, which is home to Ivy Tech’s Aviation Maintenance Technology program. Built in 2012 at a cost of $2.3 million, the Aviation Center is a large facility – 21,000 square feet – and it provides both hangar and classroom space for Ivy Tech’s programs.

Beyond its commercial use, Smith Field also serves as the introductory location to young people to the world of flight.

The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program, which sees young people taken on airplane rides by private pilots, has several upcoming rallies scheduled for the airport,  sponsored by the EAA’s Chapter 2. Through this program, young people are introduced to the excitement of soaring into the sky and the world of aviation.

A Historic Airfield with a Modern Mission

Smith Field has so much to offer the northeast Indiana community.

Listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, Smith Field’s historic past is firmly recognized, an indelible testament to its honored service in times of peace and war.

But Smith Field also looks forward to the future, serving as the birthplace for the flight dreams of young aviators today, and the pilots and aircraft mechanics of tomorrow.

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Outdoor Warning Sirens: Obsolete Technology or Valuable Safety Devices?

By Andrew Danielson

Tornado siren.

For those of us in the Midwest, outdoor warning sirens, commonly called “tornado sirens” are a sound that is almost familiar, frequently triggering during periods of severe weather.

But with the advent of modern technology, such as severe weather alerts sent to one’s cellphone or broadcast on television, a debate has erupted in the public sphere.

Are tornado sirens effective tools that can save lives, or are they relics of a bygone and technologically illiterate past?

Following the deadly floods in the US last year, particularly in Texas, that debate has only intensified.

Screenshot of warning sirens test results from May 6, 2026 (Allen County website)

History of a Siren

Don Sell (WB9TYJ) is a licensed amateur radio operator and a recently retired professional meteorologist that provided aviation weather reports to air traffic control at Fort Wayne International Airport. He outlined some of the background history to outdoor sirens.

According to Sell, warning sirens got their start in World War II.

At the time, the sirens were intended to warn residents of incoming air raids. With cellular technology not even invented and television just starting to enter the family home, these blaring trumpets of alarm were new technology for the era.

Following the Second World War, the sirens changed purpose from warning of incoming raid sirens to warning of impending nuclear attack. It was the Cold War, and fears of a nuclear conflagration erupting between the United States and the Soviet Union provided a perfect use for the sirens.

Sell said that tornado sirens first came to be used as severe weather alarms following the 1974 tornado outbreak.

That outbreak of severe, damaging weather was no joke.

On April 3-4 of 1974, the central and eastern portions of the United States, as well as parts of Canada, experienced one of the most severe tornado outbreaks in history according to an article on the webpage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The federal agency stated that the outbreak of tornadoes was so deadly that over 6,000 people were injured, with 335 “direct fatalities” and financial losses extending into the billions.

The Limitations of a Tornado Siren

But how effective a tornado siren may be in America today is up for debate.

Jim Elliott (KE9IWX) is another meteorologist that worked with Sell at the Fort Wayne International Airport providing aviation weather reports. He shares Sell’s hobby of amateur radio and provided some of the pros and cons of outdoor warning systems.

Elliott said that the sirens are intended primarily to warn people who are outdoors, such as folks enjoying an outdoor sporting or music event or perhaps walking across the PFW campus between classes. For these folks, a tornado siren would be perfect since everyone is outdoors and should be capable of hearing the siren’s warning wail.

But what about people in their homes?

Elliott said that sirens have limitations when it comes to warning people who are indoors.

“Today’s homes are well insulated,” Elliott said. “Sometimes, if I’m in my house, I cannot hear those sirens.”

The Financial Cost of a Tornado Siren

There is another angle to the impact of outdoor warning sirens, and that’s the financial cost of maintaining or repairing the current outdoor tornado siren system.

Last year, Channel 21 published an article about the Allen County warning siren system, interviewing Bernie Beier.

Beier is the county emergency management and disaster preparedness director, and a military veteran with combat experience having served with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beier estimated that Allen County would need anywhere from $700,000 to possibly $1.2 million to totally update the current warning system, according to Channel 21’s article.

Finances are a common theme in the on-going national discussion about outdoor warning sirens.

Officials in Texas, following the deadly July, 2025 flash flooding that killed over 100 people, have been mulling over the prospects of installing outdoor sirens as a last line of defense to warn communities of rising flood waters.

NBC published an article discussing the possible effectiveness of outdoor warning sirens that were used in one Texas community, Comfort, which was downstream from the harder hit areas of Texas.

Comfort had recently installed a two-siren warning system, according to the NBC report. Comfort experienced no fatalities during the flash flooding – a stark contrast to the experience of communities lying upstream in Kerr County which did not have outdoor warning sirens.

NBC did clarify in the article that outdoor warning sirens are meant for folks outdoors, not asleep in their homes. Many of the fatalities that occurred in Kerr County were people who were indoors.

 However, the lack of victims in Comfort versus those in Kerr County suggests that possibly, outdoor warning sirens may have been a contributing factory in saving peoples’ lives.

How Outdoor Warning Sirens Function

Yet another aspect of tornado sirens is the technology used versus modern cellular systems. Today’s smartphones have access to emergency alerts, and public TV and radio stations will also broadcast severe weather warnings.

“Everybody has a cell phone,” Elliott said.

That proliferation of technology should mean that the majority of a community’s population will receive automatic alerts sent directly to their personal device, negating the need for tornado sirens.

But what if cell coverage is spotty or knocked out?

“Those alerts may not get through,” according to NBC. “Particularly in rural areas with bad service or in the night when phones are off.”  

Even modern technology isn’t fool proof. There’s debate on whether or not cellular and internet service are truly reliable.

“You’re dealing with cell towers, you’re dealing with cellular networks, you’re dealing with the internet,” Sell said. “How reliable is that when a tornado comes ripping through here and tears everything up?”

Warning Siren Upkeep

Efforts are being made by volunteers and warning siren officials to keep track of how Allen County’s warning sirens are doing.

Jim Moehring (KB9WWM) has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 2000, upgrading to the top-level amateur radio license “Amateur Extra class,” in November of 2001.

Moehring said that he was intrigued by emergency communications particularly after the 9/11 terror attacks that struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

Since that time, Moehring has become heavily involved with emergency communications provided by ham radio operators, particularly through a program called ARES – the Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

According to the American Radio Relay League, ARES “…consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment … for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.”

Moehring has served on a variety of local and state-level positions with ARES. He currently serves as the emergency coordinator of Allen County, as well as the district three coordinator, which includes 11 counties throughout northeast Indiana.

One of the services that the ARES team in Allen County provides is to help with the monthly tornado siren tests.

Moehring explained that the radio amateurs in the ARES team collaborate with officials in Allen County in charge of the sirens, to test the performance and ability of the outdoor warning system.

Held the first Wednesday of every month at noon (except for times of inclement weather when the public may confuse a test with an actual weather emergency), Moehring said that the monthly tests are a good way for radio amateurs to test their equipment and to give back to the community.

“It’s part of our community service to do that,” Moehring said.

He explained that he has 10-12 operators who fan out across the county and listen to their assigned siren. Once the sirens have finished their activation, operators use their portable amateur radio sets to communicate to Moehring in an organized, on-the-air gathering called a “net.”

Operators report on the status of their assigned siren, including listing how long the siren was activated, whether or not the siren rotated (not all sirens are designed to rotate), and whether the siren had good volume output.

Moehring said that the warning sirens in Allen County are turned on and off remotely by officials via a series of tones sent over radio waves. 

He explained that one of the benefits of ham radio operators participating in the test is that officials can easily get a status report of many sirens in a short period of time.

“It makes the job of making sure the sirens are working much easier,” he said, “Because it takes us about 10 minutes to get all the reports in.”

Moehring said that sirens who don’t have a volunteer listening for the siren require officials to either send out a staff person to that site or call someone living near the siren. That can take up a lot of valuable time, so the service the hams provide is welcomed by officials.

Moehring shared a similar viewpoint when it comes to the effective of sirens to warn people indoors.

“They’re not effective for anything indoors unless you happen to be right underneath one or very close to one,” he said.

Are Sirens the Answer?

It’s difficult to draw a conclusion as to the effectiveness of the sirens. The expense of the system makes it prohibitive for counties and small communities to invest in the necessary resources required to maintain and update these systems.

On the other hand, it appears that alternative means of warning are not as bulletproof as could be wished. A damaged cellular system or failure of internet service providers could potentially knock out two of the most modern means officials have of warning citizens of impending weather dangers.

Perhaps the best way of viewing warning sirens is that they are an older technology that serves a useful purpose – to act as a backup and final means to warn residents of impending danger.

If residents have access to any other forms of technology, they should have those devices ready to go and be monitoring for severe weather as it approaches their community.

“The best way is through your local media – the radio, the TV stations,” Elliott said. “Also, the NOAA weather radio is a great source [of severe weather information] as well.”

For Sell, the reliability of modern technology and alerts all depends on cellular and internet systems remaining active and functional.

Whatever communities decide to do in regard to warning sirens, there will hopefully always be volunteers like Moehring who will support their communities with their radio sets and their volunteer service.

For more information on NOAA weather radio, please visit the following web link. https://www.weather.gov/nwr/

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Upcoming Forum to Discuss Student Experience in Higher Education

By Andrew Danielson

College students and recent graduates will have a chance to relate their educational experiences with the Fort Wayne community at a unique forum opportunity on Tuesday.

The forum, entitled “Students Speak Out” is open to the general public and will be held Feb. 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Meeting Room B at the Allen County Public Library, 900 Webster Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Organized by the Higher Education Working Group, the forum is a chance for students to share their positive and negative experiences of studying at an institution of higher education in a public, “citizen’s hearing” style of meeting.

“It’s important to hear from local people about how higher education works,” Dr. Leonard Williams said.

Williams is one of the main organizers of the event and he’s no stranger to education. Now a professor emeritus in political science, Williams spent nearly 40 years teaching American politics and political philosophy at Manchester University before retiring from there in 2020.

Now, Williams is returning to his educational roots.

In 2024, Williams, together with a few colleagues and friends, formed an informal organization called the Higher Education Working Group.

“It’s a group of faculty, students, staff members, some current and some former, who got together to kind of raise the profile of higher education issues in the Fort Wayne area and northeast Indiana generally,” Williams said.

He said that the group held a teach-in event last November, focusing on issues in higher education. The response from that first event was so engaging that the group began planning their next event, the “Students Speak Out” forum.

“The reception we received there was that we need to have more events to kind of talk about what’s happening to higher ed, not just in Indiana, but across the country,” Williams said.

That passion for sharing the student perspective is shared by one of Williams’ co-members of the Working Group, Dr. Noor Borbieva O’Neill.

O’Neill is the President of the Indiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University Fort Wayne. She explained that this meeting, sponsored in part by the Indiana Conference of the AAUP, was a chance to hear from the students’ perspective on higher education.

“We’re hoping this second event [of the Working Group] is going to give us a much clearer sense of what needs to be done to help students, to make sure that higher education is serving their needs, our needs as a community,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill explained that the Working Group is hoping to hold a third event in the coming months with a possible screening of the film “Freedoms Under Assault” (date to be determined).

Folks not able to attend the forum can still participate and share their experiences by emailing the Higher Education Working Group at their email address: HiEdWkGp@gmail.com

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PFW Graduate Students Lead Wildlife Conservation Efforts in Indiana

By Andrew Danielson / Photos by Lauren Lee and Justin Moore

A species of ground squirrels. A unique camera trap with motion-activated cameras. And the states of California and Rhode Island.

As it turns out, all those items have a lot in common, particularly when it comes to the wildlife biology laboratory of Dr. Scott Bergeson, associate professor of animal biology at Purdue University Fort Wayne in the department of biological sciences.

For over a year, two of Bergeson’s graduate students, Justin Moore, originally from Rhode Island, and Lauren Lee, who hails from California, have been working on separate but complementary research projects focusing on wildlife conservation and management.

Lee, who received her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is working on a project to survey and identify the variety of small mammal species that exist throughout Indiana.

“The goal is to survey the entire state for small mammals,” Lee said.  

Lee’s mentor, Bergeson, explained that the last time a survey of small mammals in Indiana was completed was around 2007. That means that wildlife conservation officials such as those at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have no fresh statistics on the health and population figures for small mammals.

Mammals are good indicators of the health of a particular ecosystem. If there is a diverse population of mammals in the area, that ecosystem is probably healthy.

“All of these small mammals and all of the other things help maintain the health of these natural spaces,” Bergeson said. “Even our agriculture would suffer if we didn’t have the natural spaces that help filter the pollutants that would otherwise get into our crops. Everything is connected.”  

Smile – You’re on Camera

Lauren Lee and one of her technicians, CJ Klopfenstein, inspect one of the cameras used in the project
Graduate student Lauren Lee

Lee’s project, which is funded by a $150k grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is ambitious to say the least. If she were to use traditional trapping methods to conduct her survey, as was done in the 1960s, her project would take many years to complete.

But Lee and Bergeson have a solution: camera technology and upside-down buckets.

Lee explained that she installs “camera traps” on publicly-owned property, at least 100 meters away from any trail or road.

Each camera trap consists of a temporary “wall” made of a plastic material that leads to overturned buckets. An upside-down bucket with entrance holes cut into the bottom houses the actual camera.

The traps don’t use any bait, relying instead on animals’ natural curiosity or scent. When an animal approaches the trap, the “wall” barrier naturally guides them to the hole in the bucket. Once the animal walks into the bucket, their photo is snapped.

The cameras are infrared-equipped and motion activated, so there’s no bright flashes when the camera snaps photos. The lenses used on the camera are designed to provide close-up, magnified views of the animals, providing easier identification of the small furry visitors.

Long-tailed weasel
Southern flying squirrel
Juvenile Virginia Opossum

Lee explained that she currently has 102 camera trap sites, spread across the entire state. To collect the photos taken from her cameras, she has to drive to each site, swap out SD cards in the cameras, and perform maintenance on the site as needed.

From those sites, Lee has collected 1.5 million photos, with hundreds of thousands of photo sequences.

To help collect and process all of that information, Lee is being assisted by two undergraduate technicians and an artificial intelligence software. The AI automatically sorts through the sequences of photos and provides Lee with some basic species identification. She then checks what the artificial intelligence has done, making sure that the identifications are accurate.

“So, the whole idea is that we have this huge database of photos from everywhere and then for the next 100 years we can start mining that data to figure out other sorts of things,” Bergeson said.

A Squirrel’s View on Indiana

Yet another of Bergeson’s graduate students, Justin Moore, is also undertaking an ambitious wildlife conservation project with the assistance of two undergraduate technicians.

Moore, who received his undergraduate degree in wildlife conservation from the University of Rhode Island, is working to help stabilize a population of ground squirrels here in Indiana, called the Franklin’s ground squirrel.

Moore explained that ground squirrels are similar to tree squirrels, but they’re actually separate species with different diets, preferred habitat, and behavior.

According to Moore, Franklin’s used to have a fairly wide range in Indiana. However, due to the loss of prairies across the state, the ground squirrel’s preferred habitat, that population has shrunk to just one natural population in the region.

Franklin’s ground squirrel leaves its burrow in a hay bale

“They are state endangered in Indiana, and they’re declining across most of the Midwest,” Moore said.

Moore’e project, which is also fully funded by a roughly $200k grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is to help stabilize the Franklin’s population by re-locating healthy specimens from other states to Indiana. His project is a pilot study, so the techniques he is using will help in future re-location projects of either Franklin’s or other small animals that are endangered.

How to Move a Squirrel: Carefully!

Moore explained that, together with his mentor Bergeson, they identified a strong, healthy population of Franklin’s in South Dakota. Moore and Bergeson quickly formed an agreement between wildlife conservation officials in South Dakota and Indiana, enabling them to bring Franklin’s from South Dakota back here to Indiana.

But moving squirrels is no easy task.

“There’s a lot that goes into the trapping to make sure that the squirrels and we [the researchers] are safe,” Moore said.

Handling of a baby Franklin’s ground squirrel
Justin Moore holds a Franklin’s ground squirrel

The capture sites for the squirrels in South Dakota are designed to minimize stress and discomfort to the animals, including routine checks on the traps and special coverings to provide shade to captured animals in the traps.

Researchers receive rabies vaccines before interacting with the animals, and all captured animals are initially handled through special handling cones that keep the squirrels calm and unable to bite the researchers.

Once the animals have been captured, they undergo a thorough process of medical checkups, including treatments for any diseases spread by ticks or lice. A veterinarian check-up and a full 21-day quarantine period are also rigorously followed to ensure that diseased animals are not brought into Indiana.

Once Moore brings the squirrels to Indiana, he releases them into what are called “soft release” enclosures, allowing the newly translocated squirrels to get used to their new habitat before being fully released into their Indiana home.

Moore is assisted by technician CJ Klopfenstein as they collar a Franklin’s ground squirrel

To keep tabs on the squirrel population and its well-being, Moore uses small radio transmitters attached to the Franklin’s that allow him to track their movements using a small receiver and antenna.

The new Franklin’s ground squirrels being brought to Indiana are being released in Newton County on property owned by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit group that advocates for wildlife conservation.

PFW Biology Students Having National Impact with Research

Both of these research projects are forging new ground in the world of wildlife conservation.

Dr. Bergeson said that Lee’s project has already resulted in a research protocol that is now being shared among various states engaged in wildlife research. That protocol, coupled together with her unique use of artificial intelligence, will provide other researchers with tools and techniques needed in today’s field of wildlife conservation.

Moore’s project is also making inroads into the field of wildlife conservation.

As he talked about his project, Moore said that the project will hopefully result in Franklin’s populations stabilizing. That means the population will, one day, grow strong enough to be removed from the state endangered classification.

And these projects are already paying dividends for their researchers, as Moore, Lee, and their technicians, all gain conservation experience from their projects.  

“I feel like any new experience with any kind of wildlife is really, really cool,” Lee said.

Moore agrees with that view.

“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” he summarized.

It’s a win-win situation for Lee, Moore, and their two undergraduate research technicians who assist them with their projects. They all gain valuable research experience and the opportunities to do future projects or write and publish their findings in research journals.

For the undergraduate technicians, the field research training they are gaining will help them strengthen their potential future applications to graduate school.

But perhaps the greatest benefit these projects are providing is the effect they have on wildlife conservation.

Bergeson said that projects like Lee’s camera traps and Moore’s squirrel translocations are having valuable impacts on Indiana’s conservation efforts.

“Our lab has actual impacts on that, which is super cool,” Bergeson said.  

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Star*Quest Observatory Helps Northeast Indiana Reach for the Stars

By Andrew Danielson

Just to the east of New Haven, Indiana, resides a window to the cosmos: the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society’s Star*Quest Observatory.

Located at 1730 South Webster Road, the Star*Quest Observatory houses telescopes and advanced technology that allow the user to gaze into the heavens with an unblinking eye.

“We are very pleased with the operation,” Gene Stringer said.

Stringer, a long-time member of the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society, led the society’s campaign to build the new Star*Quest Observatory, a modern facility packed with incredible technology.

Photo Credit: Russell Ainslie (Reproduction: Facebook)

The design process of the observatory includes an interesting anecdote tying the facility to local educational institution: Students from PFW’s (then IPFW) School of Structural Engineering assisted in creating a design for the new observatory.

Additionally, professors from both IPFW and Ball State University joined FWAS members and other committee volunteers to choose a final observatory design from architectural firms.

The final design for Star*Quest is what Stringer calls a “delta wing” design.

The building includes two main sections. The front section has swept-back “wings,” with room for up to four telescopes. A control room with additional technology and items makes up the other portion of the observatory.

To facilitate easy sky viewing down to the horizon, the delta-wing sections of the observatory split apart. The roof rolls backward in two different sections via tracks, allowing an uninterrupted view of the heavens for much of the sky.

In addition to the new 16” telescope, Star*Quest also hosts a large computer with 7 terabytes of data storage, computer monitors, and other equipment, as well as the society’s original 12.5” telescope.

The new computer technology, made possible by an approximately $15,000 grant from the Foellinger Foundation, allows the FWAS to host a variety of visitors, including school groups, and offer a diverse array of educational programming.

One of those items of high-tech gear Stringer mentioned was what he called a “spectroscope,” a device that enables scientific research with the telescope by splitting incoming starlight into its composite “spectra.”

“A spectroscope is one of the prime instruments that every observatory wants to have in order to do scientific work,“ Stringer explained. “Most of what we have learned about the sky has been through the use of the spectroscope in order to understand what it is we’ve been looking at.”

According to the Center for Astrophysics, analyzing the spectrum of light and the various colors of that spectra can provide great insight into celestial objects.

“The specific colors and relative amounts of each color reveal information about temperature, what atoms are present, and the speed of the astronomical object being observed, which reveals the distances to far-off galaxies,” the center states.

Star*Quest Observatory and Its Predecessors

Star*Quest has its roots with the origins of the society and their original observatories.

Stringer said that the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society (abbreviated FWAS) began in the mid-1950s. In 1959, the society was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization with 60 original members.

Shortly after the founding of the society, two members of the organization, Glenn Harnishfeger and Maurice Crow, led efforts to build a 12.5” Newtonian-style telescope and observatory for use by the society.

The new members document for the society records that the original observatory and telescope were completed in 1963.

Stringer said that the location of that first observatory is now the site of a grocery store, located off of Lima Road.

The FWAS’ website mentions that the society moved their observatory and telescope in the 1970s to a new location in Fox Island County Park which had been a Christmas tree farm in its prior life.

At that point in time, any trees on the former Christmas tree farm were only a few feet tall, and the society enjoyed great viewing conditions with low levels of light pollution and good views to the horizon.

However, over a 30-year period, the trees on the site grew up, gradually blocking the views of the observatory. This meant that celestial objects that the society wanted to view with their telescope, such as some select planets, were blocked by the growing trees.

In the mid 2000s, the FWAS undertook a project to find a new location for their observatory and telescopes.

“We started the project to build the observatory in 2006,” recounted Stringer, who served as the project manager for the Star*Quest Observatory project.

That project was complicated, as it included finding a new observatory site, fundraising and building a new observatory with modern technological equipment, and getting the word out about the new site to the public.

The FWAS found a new location for their future observatory in Jefferson Township Park. The park provides several desirable characteristics for astronomical observing, including fairly dark skies and clear views down to the horizon of celestial objects.

But a new location was only one of the challenges facing the society. A new observatory required funding.

Stringer said that the FWAS raised approximately $250,000 to build the new, modern observatory, which was completed and opened to the public in 2017.

Named the “Star*Quest” observatory, the facility sports up-to-date technology.

The new members’ document mentions the society’s new 16” Meade RCX400 telescope, which now is the primary telescope for the FWAS. The telescope is equipped with a GPS receiver as well as a 100,000+ object computer database of celestial objects.

Star*Quest Observatory Offers Educational Opportunities

But the new observatory and its technological muscle are available for more than just researchers or FWAS members.

The newsletter of the FWAS, The Eyepice, mentions that on every clear Saturday night, from April till November, the public is invited and welcome to come for star gazing at Star*Quest. Those public viewing hours start one hour after sundown and continue for two hours.

Stringer said that, if any person from the public wants advice on how to use their own personal telescopes, they can bring their equipment to the public-viewing times. Members of the FWAW will provide assistance and instruction in using the scope, all free of charge.

In addition to hosting the Saturday viewing times, the society has partnered with a variety of area organizations for astronomy-focused activities, including Canal Days, Fox Island Sol Fest, the Homeschool Fair, and other events.

The FWAS also enjoys hosting visitors for astronomical events, such as total solar eclipses.  

Stringer said that, during the April 2024 solar eclipse, the Star*Quest Observatory hosted an estimated 800-1000 visitors.

How to Get Involved

Anyone interested in attending events hosted by the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society has a variety of offerings from which to choose.

The society’s general meeting is typically held the third Tuesday evening of every month on the campus of PFW in the Walb Student Union. Meetings start at 7:30 p.m. and generally run till 9 p.m.

Annual memberships in the FWAS for individuals, including their family, are $40. Student memberships are $25 a year. Membership in the society comes with an automatic membership in the Astronomical League, as well as access to the FWAS’ online forum and members-only events. The society’s newsletter, The Eyepiece, listing current and future events can be downloaded from their website.

Although Stringer has spent over 60 years in the world of astronomy, he continues to enjoy sharing the cosmic views seen through a telescope with anyone interested in the heavens.

“Truly, what you see through the eyepiece of a telescope cannot be shown in any other venue,” he said. “You have to look through the scope live to see that sparkling star.”  

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PFW Esports – A Team Sport for the Digital Age

By Andrew Danielson

For Jordan Cunningham, computer games aren’t just a means of relaxation. They are an intensive sport requiring concentration, teamwork, and careful organization.

“It’s so accessible for anyone,” Cunningham said. “You just need a computer.”

A graduate of the Indiana Institute of Technology with a degree in psychology, Cunningham is starting his second year as coach of the PFW Esports team.

But he brings a lot of experience to the table when it comes to gaming and coaching.

Prior to PFW, Cunningham has been both a competitive player of games such as “League of Legends,” as well as an Esports coach, serving as the coach for Indiana Tech’s Esports team.

There’s a lot that goes into running an Esports team, and that digital world is continuing to grow in popularity among universities across the globe, with Esports programs and arenas being installed at the Purdue West Lafayette campus, Purdue Northwest, and PFW.

Esports Originates at Home

Cunningham explained that Esports originated with enthusiastic League of Legends players when they held a tournament for the game in one of the player’s basements. From there, a formal, global tournament was held in 2011, and the world of Esports gaming was born.

Cunningham said that around the year 2016, Esports teams were beginning to pop up at various universities, with smaller colleges and STEM schools generally being the ones most interested in starting Esports teams.

“They started getting this idea of smaller schools can do something that bigger schools aren’t able to do,” Cunningham said.

He explained that bigger schools with high-level division athletics probably aren’t going to offer Esports. For smaller universities, Esports are a way they can offer students a team experience without the expenses entailed with more traditional team sports.

“The maintenance is so low,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said that the Esports team at PFW is self-sufficient. Once the basic computer hardware and peripherals like computer mice, headphones, keyboards and software have been purchased, there largely is no maintenance to be done.

Esports – A Team Experience

Cunningham said that when he came to PFW as the Esports coach, one of his first tasks was to write a policy handbook for the team.

That manual is largely based off of the manuals in use by the traditional sports teams at PFW.

“I’m going to run this like an athletics team,” Cunningham said.

Esports team members have the same grade requirements as the other sports teams at PFW. If student grades begin falling, they are restricted from participating in tournaments and games.

The Esports team mentality and camaraderie are reinforced in a variety of ways beyond grade requirements, including personal hygiene standards and practice sessions called “scrimmages” held once or twice a week. Scrimmages are simulated tournaments where Cunningham and his team play against other college teams in fake-tournament style competition, with each team trying out new tactics that they might use in the future.

Players on the team have the opportunity to travel to tournaments and stay the weekend. Such opportunities give the players the chance to both build team spirit with their fellow Dons and experience what it’s like to travel as a team to a competition.

Esports – Organized and Regimented

Cunningham explained that each player on the team has one game in which they specialize, such as Rocket League or Super Smash Bros. That speciality is the game at which the player is the most proficient and comfortable at playing. When that team member is playing their special game, they are competing in leagues and levels of comparably ranked players across the country.

If a player wants to play a different game in addition to their primary specialty, Cunningham will sometimes allow that player to be part of a lower-ranked team. That way, the player can maintain their skills in their primary game but also have the chance to play something else.

Cunningham said that each game, called a “title,” has its own days when competitions are held. For example, the Rocket League team will play on one particular day, while the Super Smash Bros team may play on a different day.

When it comes to what titles the PFW Esports team plays, there are several criteria that must be met.

“I’m interested in what the students are interested in,” he said.

If students are interested in playing a particular title, Cunningham will investigate and see if that title is worth the time and effort needed for a dedicated team for that game.

But the biggest factor deciding what titles are played by PFW’s Esports teams is whether the game is currently offered in tournament competitions. If there are no tournaments being held for that game, then there’s no point in adding a team for that game.

Esports Coaching Provides Big Picture

Cunningham laughed when he was asked what he does as an Esports coach.

“That’s my favorite question,” he said with a chuckle.

Cunningham explained that his role is to both coordinate the entire Esports program as well as provide coaching for the players. That means he is tasked with keeping the equipment ready to go, purchasing new computers and peripherals as needed, and scheduling games and practice sessions.

For the coaching side of his job, Cunningham said he’s really providing both a macro and a micro level of instruction to his players.

Cunningham said that he gives his players advice and tips on the bigger picture of the game they are playing. That advice helps the players to adjust their strategy to balance the opposing team’s tactics.

“I always just tell them [the players] to treat it like a math equation,” Cunningham said. “What happens on one side of the equation needs to happen on the other.”

 Cunningham said that he also focuses on the mental game for his players, helping them to compartmentalize their emotions and engage with the game and their teammates in a healthy, constructive manner. That approach of channeling emotions and learning from one’s mistakes helps the player to become both a better player as well as a better person.

Esports Benefits the PFW Community

For Cunningham, the Esports team provides several benefits to PFW.

For some students, the chance to play Esports at the collegiate level while working toward a degree is a dream opportunity. With a beautiful arena on the second floor of Walsh containing 21 Alienware gaming computers, that dream can easily be made a reality.

Yet another advantage to having an Esports arena is that any student on PFW’s campus may use the gaming computers for free.

According to the Esports webpage on the PFW website, the Esports arena is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and is available for faculty, students, and staff.

But beyond the recruitment and gaming opportunities offered by the Esports arena, Cunningham said that the Esports team gives students an outlet to be part of a team atmosphere – an experience they may never have had.

“They get that team experience,” he reflected.

And that team experience, of bonding with one’s comrades and working towards a goal, has paid dividends for the players and the university.

Cunningham said that the Esports team has great retention, with students staying on the team and most students remaining at PFW for their education instead of transferring to other schools.

“My students are awesome,” Cunningham said with a smile. “We’ve had so little academic issues.”

In summarizing what he hopes to accomplish with Esports, Cunningham was candid about his long-term goals.

“We’re all here to help them get through college, have a good experience,” he said. “It’s seeing those life skills and professional skills that you helped them develop at such a pivotal age.”

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PFW Esports Players Learning Teamwork and Life Skills

By Andrew Danielson

The sounds of intense competition permeate the room. PFW athletes communicate in short, terse comments as they strive to overcome the opposing team.

But these athletes are not your typical sports team playing a traditional college sport. These are part of PFW’s esports team, a community of 67 student athletes who compete with universities and colleges across the world in a variety of competitive computer games.

For these student athletes, the Esports team is more than just an outlet for competition. It’s a chance to build community and learn life skills that will support them throughout college and into the future.

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International Students: The Path to an American Collegiate Experience

By Andrew Danielson

A student wants to build microcontrollers in Silicon Valley.

Another wants to travel back to India and provide counseling to troubled young people.

A third student wants to specialize in bio-technologies.

These are just a few of the stories behind some of the students who participated in PFW’s Global Student Celebration.

Held Friday evening on November 21, the Global Student Celebration is a fun occasion that caps a week of festivities at PFW, as international students share a snapshot of their culture with their fellow Dons through food, music, and dance.

Students Ajinkya Naik, from India, Gustavo Corsi da Silva, from Brazil, and Alan Chen-Trejo, from Venezuela

But this week of celebrating international studies and students at PFW is actually part of a broader movement called “International Education Week.”

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, International Education Week is held annually. According to the department of educations’ website, the event holds dual purposes.

First, the week is part of the department’s efforts to prepare Americans for studying abroad. It also serves as a method to educate the future leaders of other nations who are studying in the United States.

In other words, International Education Week is an opportunity for the US to engage in scholastic diplomacy with potential long-term benefits for both the United States and for countries around the globe.

How the process works for an international student to come and study in America is a fascinating and sometimes arduous process.

Coming to Study in America

Like any American college student, an international student must first decide on a college to attend. Name recognition can go a long way toward influencing where an international student decides to apply and study.

For Ajinkya Naik, an international student from India, going to college and getting an education has been a goal since his youth.

“From childhood, I always wanted to get a good quality education in college,” Naik said.

Naik explained that it was Purdue’s good name and reputation that drew him to enroll in the computer science program at PFW.

“In hindsight, it was a great decision,” Naika said with a smile.

But for students like Naika, enrolling at an American university typically requires more than just the normal college-enrollment paperwork.

International students wishing to pursue their academic studies in the United States must first obtain an F-1 category visa. They can only apply to study at universities which have received a Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.

Besides paperwork, another challenge international students must navigate includes culture shock as they enter the American collegiate system.

John LaMaster, senior instructor of Mathematics at PFW, has observed some of that culture shock in his international undergraduate and graduate students.

“In other countries, those in higher education are much more select,” LaMaster said. “It isn’t an education for all in other countries.”

He explained that, in other countries, only a select group of students usually get the opportunity to study at a university.

 When an international student comes to study at an American university, that student is already highly motivated to perform at a very high academic level. That means that, most likely, an international student would find it unthinkable to sign up or register for a class and never attend, since even one class is an invaluable resource and opportunity.

But it’s not just the academic system that’s a culture shock to international students.

Farah Combs, director of Honors and Experiential Learning at PFW, shared her story of coming to the United States as an immigrant.

Combs explained she and her family emigrated to the United States from Kuwait shortly before Combs was about to enter college.

One of the culture shocks Combs experienced was the level of free speech Americans enjoyed.

“I would say one of the major ones [culture shocks] is honestly … how much freedom of speech people have in regards to talking about the government,” Combs said. “That is not happening back home.”

Beyond culture shock and college applications, international students face another hurdle after graduation: staying in the United States to live and work.

After completing their degrees, international students have limited options for employment in the U.S. These range from working under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program to obtaining a green card. Many of these pathways are highly competitive and often temporary, lasting only a few years and requiring renewal processes that must work their way through government bureaucracy and red tape.  

Graduate Student Teresa Nabangala, from Kenya

Advantages International Students Bring to the United States and the Globe

Although there are challenges to coming to the United States for academic study, international students bring a host of benefits to America and the global community.

Maureen Linvill, director of International Education at PFW, explained that many international students will, upon graduation, return to their home countries and start implementing their academic knowledge in their professional lives.

“A lot go home to share what they’ve learned,” Linvill said.

Other international students, including those coming to PFW, hope to stay in the United States and contribute to American society.

For computer science major Ajinkya Naik, career goals include continuing his higher education in the United States and using his computer science degree to improve the bio-technology and health care fields.

International students at U.S. universities and colleges contribute $42.9 billion to America’s economy according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. For every three international students, one job in the United States is either created or supported.

International Students in the United States
In the 2024/2025 academic year, international students helped support over 355,000 jobs.
The top five countries of origin for international students are China, India, South Korea, Canada, and Vietnam.
The 1.1 million international students represent 6% of U.S. enrollments as of 2024.

Locally, international students help improve the PFW community by introducing their colleagues at student housing to new experiences.

Shelby Mansfield, assistant director for International Student Services at PFW, explained how international and domestic students living in the same student housing help encourage each other to try new things.

“They get each other to do something new,” Mansfield said.

Trying something new and sharing a global perspective is part of what helps broaden domestic PFW students’ perspectives.

Director Combs mentioned that, for American and international college students, getting to study together in a university setting like PFW is a life experience that students can take with them into their future careers.

“When you go to the workforce, you don’t know what you’re going to be talking to in the business,” Combs said. “It [studying with international students] makes you a better person because you have better understanding.”

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