Pam Wagener, Coordinator of Financial Aid at Kishwaukee College, has announced the recipients of the 2006 Academic Achievement Awards.  Academic Achievement Awards waive in-district full-time student tuition and mandatory fees at Kishwaukee College for two academic years.  Academic Achievement Awards are awarded to students who excel academically and also to students who are active in various sports, journalism, forensics, and student government.

The scholarships were available to 2006 district high school graduates with a class rank in the upper 25% who will be attending Kishwaukee College in the fall 2006 as full-time students (carrying 12 credit hours of coursework).  To maintain eligibility for all four semesters, students must remain full-time and earn a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.1/4.0. 

This year’s recipients of the Academic Achievement Awards are:

From DeKalb High School: Alicen Cann, Ryan Fisher, Jacoby Holtz, and Katie Jones; from Genoa-Kingston High School: Alexandra Anderson, Brianna Michael, and Miles Tishhauser; from Hiawatha High School: Stacy Dreska and Brittany Driscoll; from Oregon High School: Eric Bruns and Tabitha Duncan; from Paw Paw High School: Lindsey Kingery and Michael Striegel; from Rochelle Township High School: Marla Jennings, Benjamin Valdivieso, and Ashley Wing; and from Sycamore High School: Kristen Dombek, Dustin Johnson, Brittany Sheldon, and Christine Williams.

 For more information on financial aid opportunities at Kishwaukee College, call 815-825-2086, ext. 224.

NIU launches Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab

Naperville, Ill.-Northern Illinois University has announced plans to revive a unique and proven cancer treatment that blends advanced medical science with accelerator physics developed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a Department of Energy laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

The newly formed NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab will deliver neutron therapy to patients and conduct extensive research on the high-tech cancer-fighting treatment. Neutron therapy has been shown to be superior for some types of cancer, including adenoidcystic carcinoma, locally advanced prostate cancer, locally advanced head and neck tumors, inoperable sarcomas, and cancer of the salivary glands.

The institute will serve as many as 145 patients annually and could begin treating patients as soon as mid-January. Working in tandem with hospitals in the region, the neutron therapy center at Fermilab treated more than 3,100 patients over nearly three decades. But treatments came to a halt in May of 2003, when a local hospital ended its involvement with the program.  (more)

More information on the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab is available online at www.neutrontherapy.niu.edu.

Survey: NIU students give 'thumbs up'
to online courses

Online learning is a hit at Northern Illinois University, according to a pilot survey of 149 students who have taken some classes via their computers.

The report, issued this fall based on surveys taken near the end of the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 semesters, shows overall satisfaction varies with the level of the students surveyed.

More importantly, however, most are willing to enroll in more online courses.

Students also are pleased with the degree of technology support they receive, the survey found, and the majority of the students believe the completion of their online courses improved their ability to master technology.

In Fiscal Year 2004, more than 1,800 course sections were delivered via Blackboard to an enrollment of 34,790 undergraduate and graduate students.

The survey covered 16 course sections from the 300 to the 600 level in four colleges. Response to the survey accounted for 45 percent of the 328 students enrolled. (more)