Editor: Jan Orvik. Contributors: Jan Orvik,

Juan Pedraza, Patrick Miller, and Brenda Haugen. Design: Jessica Peterson. Photograph in 'Military Friendly' courtesy of Corianna Kubasta; photograph in 'Science with a Twist[er]' courtesy of Aaron Kennedy; photographs in 'Rollin on the River' courtesy of Tom Hilpisch and Scott Gavett; all other photographs by Chuck Kimmerle, Office of University Relations.

Graduate Students Aaron Kennedy, Dan Adriaansen and Jason Naylor don't hide from storms. They chase them.

Follow passion and research into the heart of prairie storm country and get up close and personal with a storm. The nastier, the better

“I’ve been doing this since I cheap cialis online was an undergraduate meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, Norman,” said Aaron Kennedy, a Rockford, Ill., native and Ph.D. student in atmospheric sciences. “It’s sort of a state pastime in Oklahoma,” he said. “Norman is in the heart of Tornado Alley, which runs from Texas to the Northern Plains and has more tornadoes

than anyplace else in the world.”

Kennedy is one of several graduate students who pursue storms.

“Storms have always interested me,” said Daniel (Dan) Adriaansen, a master’s degree candidate who grew up in Marion, New York. “I went to the State University of New York-Brockport near Rochester to study meteorology. We don’t get a lot of tornadoes there, but as a kid I was into how science works and the weather always intrigued me. I asked ‘why?’ and decided to pursue more knowledge to figure it out. I did that by sticking with atmospheric sciences. It’s a lot of fun.”

Adriaansen is a modeler — a computer modeler, that is. He looks at how observations in nature compare with computer models.

“I had no intention of being a storm chaser until I came to UND and met Aaron,” Adriaansen said. “I had no idea we could do that here. When I thought ‘North Dakota,’ I thought about 20 below and lots of snow. After our first storm-chasing trip — when we didn’t see any big storms — I said, ‘I’m in.’”

The group also includes Jason Naylor, who was raised in the small Pennsylvania farming community of Eighty Four, about an hour south of Pittsburgh.

“I model tornadoes and severe storms,” said Naylor, who’s on track for a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences. “Chasing storms seems natural for me now.”

The informal group of storm chasers can be found late at night before a potential chase day — when weather conditions look likely — chatting on the computer to decide if this is the system that’ll generate a nice, fat storm.

“And in the morning, we take a last-minute look at things, make the decision, and load up our cameras, gear, and a laptop tethered to the cell phone, and hit the road,” Adriaansen said. “We’re on the Internet all the time, except if we’re in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal. Then it’s back to your roots. You use your eyes.”

It’s about seeing in real time what the computer models can only generate on the screen, Kennedy said.

“We use our field observations to see how well the model does. It’s an alternate reality, one piece of the model, and for it to work we need inputs from real-world observations,” he explained.

So what’s all the excitement about?

“Well, it’s actually pretty boring for the most part — let’s just say that right up front,” Naylor said. “There’s a lot of driving, a lot of sitting.”

“You have to be prepared to be patient,” Kennedy said. “For example, we recently drove out to the Bismarck area — that’s four hours — because the forecasts were for a major storm system. We ate. Then we sat around. Basically, nothing much happened, and there went 11 hours. Really, we treat these ventures like a road trip. So storms are only half of it. We take lots of pictures, but only half may be storm-related. The rest are of clouds and other weather phenomena.”

Patience definitely is the key virtue.

“I spent six years in Oklahoma getting two degrees, and I only saw two tornadoes,” Kennedy said. “I got to UND in August 2006, and went chasing a big storm in South Dakota that put down more tornadoes in a day than I’d seen in six years in Oklahoma.”

So the chase goes on. That includes skipping classes when necessary to learn in the classroom of nature, Kennedy said. And there’s a public service component.

“When chasing storms we give the local National Weather Service office real-time storm data and provide information about the storm track,” Kennedy said. “We can help the NWS to get the warnings out if they haven’t already.”

The trio was close by when a tornado smashed Northwood, N.D., on August 8, 2007.

“We were about five miles out in the middle of that rainstorm, and there was lightning and thunder all around us,” said Naylor.

“It was very difficult to see because the tornado was rain-wrapped, but we could see it faintly in between lightning flashes. When we enhanced the contrast of the photos we took, we definitely saw the funnel. But we had no idea how bad the storm actually was until we got back to town.”

Gretchen Mullendore, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences, knows firsthand the value of these “field trips.”

“We get lots of valuable data from storm chasers, measurements that actually add up to useful science, even as far as helping us understand climate change. Storm chasing still is relevant today,” even amid all the computer models, said Mullendore, who’s done a road trip or two herself.

Mullendore and Atmospheric Sciences colleague Matthew Gilmore both recently got federal grants to study severe storm systems: Mullendore to research how and how fast air masses move from ground level up to the stratosphere where the ozone layer resides; and Gilmore to dig deep into the computer models of such storms and design models that more accurately represent reality.

Interest in storms encouraged the department to launch an atmospheric sciences course called “Severe and Hazardous Weather.” It is designed to appeal to a broad cross section of students, including those with no science background, Mullendore said.

Basically, atmospheric scientists are striving to provide answers in two broad fields, or big picture areas, Mullendore said.

“The first is to help people predict severe weather better,” she said. “The second is to help us understand climate better, and that includes a deeper understanding of climate change. Ultimately, it’s all intertwined, as climate change is affecting the types, locations, and frequency of severe storms.”

So while most of us seek shelter when the storm sirens go off, these intrepid scientists venture out to witness the potentially deadly spectacle firsthand. The dust boils, the trees shake, the winds howl, and amid all this natural traffic, they find answers.

JUAN PEDRAZA | STAFF WRITER

Panorama of a supercell taken by Aaron Kennedy

UND President Robert O. Kelley receives gifts from international teachers visiting UND, one of four universities to host international teachers through the TEA program.

They came from four continents to the center of North America. Twenty-one teachers from 12 countries, educators who came to learn from the faculty at the University of North Dakota College of Education and Human Development.

UND was one of just four universities in the nation chosen by the U.S. State Department to participate in the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program last fall. Designed to introduce and familiarize these teachers with the U.S. educational system, the six-week program has produced benefits beyond that.

“There have been a lot of cross-cultural experiences with teachers and students, as well as with the TEA students,” said Donna Pearson, an assistant professor with UND’s Teaching and Learning Department, which garnered the TEA grant.

“I feel that I was born again,” said Roman Kuzembayev, who teaches students in grades 5-11 in Kazakhstan. “I will share what I learned at UND with my fellow teachers, and I found a lot of pen-friends for my students here.”

During their time at UND, the TEA teachers lived on the same floor in Brannon Hall.

“That brought a greater sense of collegiality,” Pearson said. They also ate on campus and met and mingled with UND students.

While UND’s Teaching and Learning Department headed up the program, it had a lot of help from others on campus, including faculty advising, arts and sciences, language, and math. TEA participants also spent 12 half-days with mentor teachers in Grand Forks schools.

“They really enjoyed going to school,” Pearson said.

They were paired with mentors who teach the same grade levels. Wendy López Muñoz of Guatemala was paired with Laura Wendt, who teaches English at Grand Forks Central High School.

“The whole experience made me appreciate my job, my country, and the world,” said Muñoz. “This experience opened my mind into different ways of teaching a language.”

“My students absolutely loved her and were sad to see her go,” said Wendt. “She gave my students a different perspective on the material we were covering in class. We’re reading a novel that deals with the consequences of apathy as well as what it means to think and act for yourself. She was able to take that novel and add her own touch. That’s so important, especially at the high school level.”

Muñoz was even able to step in and teach the class when Wendt was sick.

“I knew from our first meeting that Wendy was a fluent English speaker and an excellent teacher,” Wendt said. “As much as I didn't want to miss a day while she was here at Central, I felt very comfortable letting her lead the lesson. I think it was a great experience for the class.

“The thing buy cialis that really surprised me is how much more reflective I was in regards to my own teaching,” Wendt said. “She certainly gave me some great ideas for online pharmacy next year.”

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits is an understanding that around the globe, we’re not all that different.

“I have known that is possible, but now realize people of different countries can understand each other if they want it,” said Luydmila Gorzhuy, a teacher from Kazakhstan. “I like our collaboration.”

BRENDA HAUGEN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gulf War Veteran Jon Dennington is pursuing an aviation degree.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

The path that brought Jon Dennington here was anything but usual.

Dennington, his wife Rachel and their three children moved from North Carolina to Grand Forks this past summer to complete the final two years of what he hopes will be a degree in aviation management.

As a disabled veteran, he receives assistance through the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) vocational rehabilitation program.

“I’m 37 years old and this will be my first degree,” Dennington said. “It’s time that I have a degree where I can provide for my family.”

In its 2010 guide, G.I. Jobs Magazine named UND one of the top “military-friendly schools” in the nation. Dennington agrees.

“UND’s veteran friendly,” he said. “I’m considered handicapped, and the campus is certainly disabled veteran friendly. And accessible.”

A veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Dennington admits that he was bitter after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

“The military was being downsized, and because I tore up my knees in the Airborne jumping out of airplanes, they decided they couldn’t use me any more,” he explained. “I didn’t want any benefits. I never pursued the GI Bill.”

Although he didn’t know it then, Dennington’s journey to North Dakota began in late August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. He and his family were living in southern Arkansas. The hurricane tore the roof off the home they were in the process of buying.

Unfortunately, Arkansas didn’t qualify for federal disaster assistance. The Denningtons planned to leave their children in North Carolina with Jon’s parents while they returned to Arkansas to live in a tent and repair their home. But that plan went awry when a collision with a deer totaled their car.

“We kind of got stuck in North Carolina,” he said. “My parents made the best of it.”

At an air show at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, Dennington stopped at a UND booth. There, he learned about an aviation program offered in partnership with a local community college.

“I decided that was something I’d like to do,” he said. “I was no longer eligible for the GI Bill, but I was eligible for a VA vocational rehabilitation program. They paid for my tuition and my books, and also provided a living stipend buy cialis online to make it easier.”

He enrolled, started school in fall 2006, and began flight training for a degree in aviation management. In spring 2008, the Denningtons prepared to move to Grand Forks where Jon would complete the final two years of his degree.

Fate intervened. An auto accident left him in a coma for three weeks and Rachel hospitalized for six months. It would be another year before Dennington could resume work on his degree.

Throughout the ordeal, Dennington found helping hands at UND.

“Everybody who worked with me was so great,” he said. “The housing office was fantastic. They put me back up to the top of the list for this year. The admissions office jumped through hoops to get me here.”

The family arrived in Grand Forks the evening of June 26.

“Everybody is so friendly,” he said. “It’s been fantastically easy, and Grand Forks is a beautiful city.”

The Denningtons received additional assistance from UND during their transition.

“I contacted Carol Anson (in UND Veteran Services), who helped get my VA health care set up and set me up with a vocational rehab counselor in Fargo. If I have any questions, I contact her and she points me in the right direction.”

Because Rachel is in a wheelchair while convalescing from her injuries, handicapped access to the family’s on-campus apartment is essential. Within a day after Jon contacted UND housing, a ramp was installed in the parking lot.

It’s been a long and difficult journey, but Dennington is confident his decision to attend UND was the best one for him and his family.

“When I saw the UND booth at the air show, I researched it and decided that this was a great school, one of the top aviation schools in the country,” he said. “All along, I knew I was coming here.”

Corianna Kubasta in Iraq

TO IRAQ AND BACK

From student to soldier, Corianna Kubasta has experienced some of the most stressful challenges a college student might face these days.

The help she has been receiving from fellow veterans and the Veteran Services Office are just part of UND’s commitment to being as military friendly as possible.

“I’m really lucky that there are a lot of people on campus who have been through this,” said Kubasta, 21, a native of Lidgerwood, N.D. “I call them, ask what to do, and they help me out. It’s what I hope other people coming back from military duty will experience.”

GI Jobs Magazine ranks UND in the top 15 percent of military-friendly schools in the nation, based on the results of a survey of 7,000 schools.

Just before the end of the fall semester of her sophomore year in late 2007, Kubasta left UND for deployment in Iraq as a specialist in the North Dakota Army National Guard 191st Military Police Company.

“A lot of my friends were going, so I volunteered to go with them,” she said. “My teachers were really good about it. They made sure I finished all the necessary course work for getting credit for my classes. I didn’t have to drop classes or take incompletes.”

Kubasta, a physical education and exercise science major, traded her textbooks for an assault rifle, a pistol, body armor and camouflaged fatigues. Her unit patrolled the Rusafa district in eastern Baghdad, including Sadr City, one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of Baghdad.

“We trained the Iraqi police and a few other security entities,” she said. “We were outside in Baghdad every day. It was like your adrenaline was always going. You had to watch your back and have everything correct. Your life depended on it every single day.”

“We opened schools and hospitals, and we secured areas,” she said. “We provided people with security so their kids would feel safe when they were out in the yard playing. The violence went down about 90 generic viagra online percent while we were there. It’s a really good feeling when you hear about that.”

As her tour of duty neared an end, Kubasta decided that she wanted to return to UND, but limited communications complicated the process. She managed to get in touch with Carol Anson, UND’s veteran certifying official.

“I couldn’t have done it without Carol,” Kubasta said. “I told her I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but I wanted to go back to school right away. She told me that she’d set everything up for me and got me into classes.”

Anson, who served in the U.S. Air Force at Grand Forks Air Force Base, says requests such as Kubasta’s from active-duty military are the norm for her office, which also helps students enroll in UND’s distance education programs.

“Many decide to attend UND because all veterans and all active-duty members receive the in-state resident tuition rate,” she said. “We have a student in Iraq right now taking online classes.”

Within two weeks after her final mission in Iraq, Kubasta was in Grand Forks, a few days late for the 2009 spring semester.

Carol Anson

“Coming back was so slow-paced compared to what I was used to,” she said. “It was hard to go to school the day after I turned my rifle in.”

Not only was the climate vastly different, but she also had to readjust to college life as a civilian. Kubasta instinctively scanned crowds for trouble, even though she knew there was no reason to do so.

“I’d find myself watching my back,” she said. “I couldn’t sit in front of the classroom. I had to sit in back because I couldn’t stand having people behind me.”

Kubasta also wasn’t sure how faculty and other students would treat her if they knew she’d served in Iraq. She didn’t want to talk about it.

“The first class I had was foreign policy with Dr. Berger [Albert Berger, associate professor of history],” she said. “He was really supportive of the two veterans in the class.

“When it came to talking about post-9/11 foreign policy, he was really cool about asking us our opinions on what Iraq was like compared to what the textbook said. He was really respectful of us.”

The reception she received in a course on international human rights was similar.

“It was constructive discussion, and it was a very good learning environment for everyone in the room,” she said. “It definitely made my first semester back a whole lot better.”

And when people learned Kubasta was a veteran of the war in Iraq?

“They told me it was awesome that I’d helped people in another country,” she said.

Anson and her staff assist approximately 700 students on campus who identify themselves as veterans.

“We process education benefits for National Guard, dependents of disabled veterans and active-duty members who are using the GI Bill,” she said. “We also process enrollment for the new post-9/11 GI Bill for students who served on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001, and for veterans using the GI Bill under the Montgomery GI Bill. We have students using VA (Veterans Affairs) vocational rehabilitation.”

Corianna Kubasta

Whether it’s providing in-state tuition to all veterans, creating a Facebook page for them, helping them find classrooms or making sure they enroll in the programs that provide the most benefits, it’s no accident that UND is considered one of the nation’s most military-friendly schools.

“We have a veterans advisory group that gets together each semester to come up with things we can do to make veterans feel more welcome,” Anson said.

As Kubasta can attest, it’s well worth the effort.

PATRICK MILLER | STAFF WRITER

Simulators used for instruction at the College of Nursing

Nursing's New Century at UND

From caps to computerization, nursing education has changed over the century.

“The hallmark white uniform is no more,” remarked Julie Anderson, dean of UND’s College of Nursing. “Today, the scope of practice is so varied, and students have many options besides the traditional bedside nurse.”

A century ago, when nursing instruction was first offered at UND, the education mostly consisted of hands-on training in hospitals. Nurses were expected to do everything from scrub floors and empty bedpans to administer medications, sharpen needles and

change bandages.

The scope and responsibilities of the profession are different now, and so are the students.

One big difference, notes Marlys Escobar, director of student and alumni affairs at the College of Nursing, is that generations ago, nursing was a two-year program, and getting buy viagra online a four-year RN degree was a big deal.

Today, she observed, “many students are ultimately looking beyond that.” Even as they begin their nursing studies, some are planning on graduate degrees that will allow them to take on advanced patient care, become administrators, family nurse practitioners, and more.

The program has changed as well. Students still receive hands-on training. And they learn theory, too: why what they do works. “Nurses want technical skills,” said Anderson. “It’s critical to connect theory to practice.” That connection helps them better think through patient care. They learn through textbooks and computer modules, as well as the latest in technology: patient simulators.

Patient simulators are basically high-tech “dummies” that are able to speak, show pain, and react to treatment. Their biggest advantage is that professors can use them to simulate not only routine conditions but also rare situations. This ramps up the students’ abilities to deal with unusual cases.

The sims, as they’re called, don’t replace clinical experience in education, but enhance it. “The simulators will never replace hands-on care and personal interaction with patients,” Anderson said. “They let us provide high-risk experiences that most students would never encounter in school. They get experience before they enter practice and refine their skills.”

“The simulators are wonderful tools,” added Escobar. “These smart ‘dummies’ really increase the lab experience, and students love them. They’d do simulations every day if they could.” The sessions are recorded for students to watch later. “They can receive immediate feedback on their clinical performance, including what they did and didn’t do well,” Escobar said. Students are not graded on the simulators — they're viewed as a learning experience. “Students want to do well, no matter what,” Escobar explained. “They take simulation very seriously, and they’re high achievers.”

UND students are well prepared, say employers. “Our clinical sites have always told us that students were well prepared,” noted Anderson. “Now they say that our students are even more so, and asked what we were doing. It’s the simulators. They noticed the difference.”

JAN ORVIK | STAFF WRITER

Kim Anderson and Laura Dravitz

Third-generation nurse thrives under pressure.

In the Emergency Room, every second counts. And nursing senior Kimberly Anderson thrives on the pressure, thanks to a lifetime connection.

When she began her UND cooperative education rotation in the ER, Anderson was taught by one of the best: her mom, who is also her best friend.

“I fell in love with emergency nursing,” Anderson said of her experience. “The ER is not what most people think. It can be pretty intense, exciting, and a ‘rush.’ You don’t know who is going to be really sick and who is not, so you need to keep an eye on the whole picture and know what’s going on.”

Her mom, Laura Jessen Dravitz, also a UND graduate and a second-generation nurse, has coordinated the nurse co-op program and also served as coordinator of UND practicum students at Altru Health System over the last six years.

“I love to teach others what I have learned,” Dravitz said. She began her career at Meritcare in Fargo in 1982, and began working at Altru after her family moved to East Grand Forks about 10 years ago. She later moved to the ER, and says it’s the best job she’s ever had.

“You are always learning,” Dravitz said. “You never know what will come in the door. When a person has a problem, figuring out what’s wrong is like putting a puzzle together.” That’s why Dravitz emphasizes biological, psychological, and sociological aspects to understand patients and their problems. It’s what she was taught in nursing school, and she teaches it to students. “We are a patient’s voice, ears, and hands, even with more tools than ever before at our fingertips.” Dravitz, who received the North Dakota Nurse Excellence Award in 2006, currently serves as state president of the Emergency Nurses Association and was recognized for leadership at the group’s national annual meeting this year.

Like her mother, Anderson fell in love with emergency nursing. She recently completed a capstone practicum in neuromedical intensive care unit (ICU) at Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis.

“It’s intense, because you work 196 hours in six weeks, plus homework, as well as spend 32 to 36 hours in class,” she said.

Anderson put herself through school as a critical care technician in Altru’s ICU. UND’s Student Nurse of the Year in 2009, she has served as president and secretary of the Student Nurses Association. And like her mom, she may end up in critical or emergency care.

“It’s amazing to have a doctor come up and ask what you think a patient needs. That trust doesn’t happen right away, but the doctors depend on you.” She said that the needs of critical patients are particularly motivating: “They make you think more, make decisions, and work harder. I like the challenge of working to save them.”

“Kim has a gift,” said Dravitz. “I’m so proud of her. She’s cialis not task-oriented — she sees the whole picture. I knew she would be good. I look for a passion for nursing, eagerness to learn, and people who have common sense. That makes a good ER nurse.”

JAN ORVIK | STAFF WRITER

Sandra Braathen, an associate professor in the UND College of Business and Public Administration, received an e-mail that appeared to be from her bank and seemed legitimate.

It included the bank’s official logo and a correct toll-free phone number. The e-mail’s subject — regarding a financial transaction she’d made earlier — added an air of legitimacy. But rather than clicking on the link provided in the e-mail, Braathen called her bank.

“I wanted to verify it because I’d heard that I should never respond to a banking e-mail,” she recalled. “It was a hoax. The bank told me that I’d never be contacted by e-mail.”

Braathen, who teaches information systems and business education, narrowly avoided becoming the victim of a “phishing” scam, a technique used to get people to provide private information that can be used to steal their identity.

“When it comes to e-mails or trusting a Web site, a good rule of thumb is the same thing I tell my 12-year-old about making decisions,” she said. “If it feels wrong, it probably is.

“If something in an e-mail just doesn’t feel right, don’t trust it,” she continued. “Make that phone call and find out. Otherwise, it could become a costly mistake. Billions of dollars are lost every year to simple phishing scams.”

People are using computers at home, at work and in public locations. More and more, they access the Internet wirelessly. Online computing provides ease and convenience, but it also creates opportunities for scammers, hackers and others.

Yanjun (Frank) Zuo, assistant professor of information systems, noted that when it comes to Internet security, most people fall into one of two categories: either they’re overly optimistic about their level of protection or they see danger lurking everywhere.

“People think that if they get a new computer, install the latest antivirus software and antispyware, turn on their firewall and back up their files regularly, they’re really secure,” Zuo said.

“They are relatively secure,” he explained. “But there is no such thing as 100 percent perfect security.” That doesn’t mean that there are threats lurking around every corner of the Internet.

“Some people feel that the Internet is a black box and it’s too dangerous,” Zuo said. “There’s really nothing to be afraid of. As long as you keep your computer patched and install the necessary, required security mechanisms, you’re relatively safe.”

Braathen and Zuo offered some helpful advice.

Take basic security steps — “Installing antivirus software is your first line of defense and is absolutely one of the easiest things that you can do,” Braathen said. “You’re just asking for a virus if you don’t.” While these programs can’t guarantee total security, they provide a high degree of protection from viruses and other threats that come through e-mail and via the Web. Check to make certain that the operating system’s firewall is on (usually enabled by default).

Automatically update, patch and scan — Allow antivirus and antispyware programs to automatically update. Set the system and often-used applications to automatically install security patches. The patches plug security holes that viruses and hackers can exploit. Routinely scan your computer to detect viruses and remove spyware.

Create strong passwords — Braathen noted that an eight-character, all-lower-case password can be cracked in two seconds. Longer passwords containing upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters are much more difficult to crack. Don’t use passwords containing information that’s easy to discover, such as names of children, birth dates or pets. Zuo suggests using made-up words not found in the dictionary. Also, don’t use the same password for everything. For those who have trouble remembering passwords, Braathen recommends using a root word and then creating variations of it. Be sure to change passwords regularly.

Secure home wireless networks — Don’t place a wireless router near a window because it allows the signal to transmit farther. Use the router’s security settings to enable encryption (WPA2 is strongest, WEP is weakest). Change the router’s default settings, especially the log-on password. Rename the network (known as the SSID or service set identifier) and don’t broadcast the SSID. Use the router’s address filtering feature to limit network access to specific computers. buy viagra online Also enable the wireless router’s firewall to limit the potential of unwanted cyber intruders.

Safeguard unattended computers and log out on public computers — If you leave your computer unattended at times, set the operating system to automatically log off after a few minutes of inactivity. Require a password to log back on, which will discourage unauthorized use. “If you’re entering private information on a public computer or a network, make sure that you log out when you finish,” Braathen warned. “If you’re not logged out, people can go back on the Internet and find information that you’ve entered.”

Online shopping — Zuo urges people to minimize online shopping. Always buy from trusted Web retailers with solid reputations. “If you’re entering credit card numbers or anything like that, you absolutely want to make sure that it’s a secure site,” said Braathen. When making purchases, make certain the site is using a secure protocol that encrypts (scrambles) the information you send and receive. There are two ways to check this. The easiest it to look for a small padlock icon displayed near the

bottom of the browser’s window. The other is to check the Web address or URL of the site. Site addresses beginning with “https” are using a secure protocol.

Don’t fall for phishing scams — “Never click on a particular hyperlink provided by a third party,” Zuo said. E-mails that look official may direct you to a Web site that asks you to provide information that can be used for identity theft or redirect you to a site from which personal information can be stolen off your computer.

Clean up and back up — Deleting unwanted and unneeded temporary Internet files off your computer not only helps it run better, but keeps it more secure. Zuo suggests deleting “cookies” too, which sometimes contain confidential information that can be stolen. “In my classes, I always highlight the importance of backup,” he said. “Some information, you just can’t lose. Ideally, Zuo said, files should be backed up to a computer at another location. If that option isn’t available, Braathen suggests using an external hard drive.

Be wary of free software offers — “Are they really free?” Zuo asked. “Many times, it turns out they’re not because there’s a hidden cost.” Wallpaper, screen savers, music-sharing programs, browser tool bars, and other free applications that display information on your computer’s desktop can not only slow your computer, but also jeopardize its security.

Create different e-mail accounts for different purposes — With the prevalence of free e-mail accounts, Braathen recommends using separate e-mail accounts for specific purposes. For example, use a business e-mail address for business only and another account for online shopping. Create a personal account strictly for personal correspondence. An e-mail from a financial institution addressed to your personal correspondence account is surely a phishing scam.

Braathen and Zuo agree that vulnerability to online threats sometime depends on what you’re doing online. Someone who surfs the Web and corresponds by e-mail will be of less interest to hackers and thieves than someone with passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive information stored on their computer.

“A company can have a lot invested in the latest hardware and software security,” Zuo noted. “But all it takes is a person making a phone call to trick someone into giving him all the information he needs to defeat the system. You’re only as strong as your weakest link.”

Too often, the weakest links are computer users who fail to protect themselves.

“Unfortunately, we learn more through the school of hard knocks,” Braathen said. “Some people have to experience it before they believe it. We can tell them the horror stories, but they don’t always listen.”

PATRICK MILLER | STAFF WRITER

The story of two engineering students

who paddled the Mississippi.

Many start, but few finish. This summer Scott Gavett and Tom Hilpisch paddled 2,320 miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Setting out from Lake Itasca in Minnesota, it took the UND engineering students 69 days to complete the trip. They joined the ranks of just eight to 12 adventurers each year who successfully complete the journey.

“It was sheer stubbornness,” said Hilpisch, a chemical engineering senior from Savage, Minn. “We would not quit.”

The two friends got their inspiration from Edmund Eilbacher, a 2008 aeronautics graduate who had earlier completed the journey.

“He planted the seed,” said Hilpisch. “It was a crazy cool idea.”

Last May, they bought a canoe, learned how to use it on a calm lake, and then took off with some Army Corps of Engineers maps and a few weeks’ worth of food.

As for plans, those went out the window after the first couple of days.

“We just did it,” they said.

Storms, wind, and currents made sticking to a plan impossible. And despite adversity, harrowing weather, and primitive living conditions, they’re still friends.

Hilpisch canoeing at the beginning of the trip.

“We depended on each other,” they said. “There wasn’t anything to fight about. We were going in one direction, we paddled all day, ate the same food. There were no big decisions to argue about.”

They were pretty sore the first few days, and learned the hard way that their tent leaked. They soon grew accustomed to sleeping in mud.

“We were the luckiest unlucky people,” said Gavett. “We hit a rock near St. Cloud, Minn., and tipped the canoe — nearly bent it in half. A guy downstream gathered our stuff, and we swam for the rest.”

Hilpisch and Gavett camping during the trip

“The hardest part was dealing with Mother Nature,” said Gavett, an electrical engineering senior from Mounds View, Minn. “It rained about half the days we were on the water. We had a lot of storms, and there always seemed to be a head wind.”

They recalled one storm in Iowa, where winds reached 98 miles per hour, and they and the canoe were thrown into rocks on the riverbank. Their supplies fared even worse: those were hurled 10 feet away, over a chain-link fence.

The people who maintain the locks between dams helped them collect their belongings and lent them their first aid kits. Luckily, they just suffered cuts and bruises.

Taking a break on the shore.

The beautiful scenery along the river and the warmth of people made up for the hardships. One man in Quincy, Ill., drove them to a store and bought them groceries, while another replaced their paddles, which broke during a storm, and gave them maps.

Then there were the showers — or the lack of them. After the first three days of the trip, they stopped in a backyard and the owner offered showers and a place to stay. By the end of the trip, they had spent three weeks without showering, from St. Louis to the Gulf.

“Our standards sank,” Hilpisch said. “We stopped caring.”

Gavett at the end of the journey.

They camped on sandbars and islands. The entire trip cost around $3,000, with the canoe and gas for the return trip the biggest expenditures. Food cost around $4 to $5 a day for the two of them. They survived on carbs, mainly rice, mac and cheese, pasta, peanut butter-and-honey sandwiches, and canned tuna.

The river was busy, especially further south, with tugboats, barges, and pleasure boats. “After Baton Rouge, there were ocean liners,” they said. “They’re fast, huge, and quiet. And they don’t care about canoes.”

When they reached Head of Passes, about 15-20 miles from the Gulf, the current was so strong that they ended up paddling in place, and hitched a ride in a fishing boat.

“We had our 17-foot canoe in the fishing boat, and they were telling us what a dumb idea it was to paddle to the Gulf. And we thought ‘We’re here, aren’t we?’”

After talking a friend into driving down to pick them

up, they spent a day in New Orleans.

“A lot of people say they wish they’d done something like this,” they reflected. “And a lot of people said we were crazy.”

JAN ORVIK | STAFF WRITER

In addition to his duties in UND's Office of University Relations, photographer Chuck Kimmerle

spends much of his time exploring the

nuances which help define the reticent landscape of the Northern Plains. His solo exhibit this past summer at the North Dakota Museum of Art was well received. That same show is scheduled to visit art venues throughout North Dakota starting in the fall of 2010.

“We want nurses to keep learning and advancing in the profession,” said Julie Anderson, dean of the College of Nursing. While the college has long had programs to help LPNs and RNs earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees, helping those with baccalaureates earn advanced degrees is fairly new.

“It is a new philosophy to encourage nurses to continue their education while they’re working at the bedside and gaining experience,” she explained.

Anderson herself is an example of this model of continuing education. A Grand Forks native, she has always been interested in health care. Her mother was the secretary for the chair of nursing while Anderson served as a hospital candy striper. After high school, she was awarded scholarships for both art and nursing. She chose to become a nurse, relegating her art — both painting and quilting — to hobbies. As a practicing nurse, she kept going back to school, eventually earning her doctorate and becoming a professor. And even as a dean, she still finds time to work as a flex nurse at Altru Health System in the neonatal ICU.

“It’s important to be current, and an ideal way to do that is to maintain a clinical nursing practice,” she explained. She works as a transport

nurse, helping in the management and care of critically ill babies who transfer to another hospital.

Anderson also continues to do research as

part of a team exploring ways to prevent and treat pressure ulcers and other forms of skin breakdown. Her interest in this research, in which UND has been a leader for years, grew out of her son’s experience, at age 13, with pressure ulcers after an injury. So she joined the skin and wound research team at the College, which conducts product trials of dressings and topical agents to both prevent and treat the ulcers.

The team works with professors at the School of Engineering and Mines, where they’re researching the use of infrared imagery to predict skin breakdowns before they happen. “We’re on to something,” Anderson said. Their work, which involves students from both colleges, includes testing support surfaces such as wheelchair cushions and mattresses and also conducting trials on prospective treatment products.

Why conduct research? “I have a thirst for knowledge that can impact patient care,” Anderson said. “Our mission at UND is to help effect change in nursing and improve patient care. We want to decrease the time frame from the discovery of knowledge to its implementation at the bedside.”

JAN ORVIK | STAFF WRITER