Ohio Northern University

New Polar Bears! Discover the village of Ada during ONU's Ada Community Engagement (ACE) Day on Saturday, August 22. Sign up today to volunteer alongside other new Polar Bears: https://www.onu.edu/aceday

ACE Day is an opportunity to meet other new Polar Bears and to make a difference in your home away from home!

Ohio Northern University student Tyler Wood chose a double major in finance and accounting because of the variety of career options. This summer, his credit internship with Waterford Bank N.A. in Toledo is showing him how wide those options really are.

“Before this, I wasn’t aware of how many career paths existed in the banking industry beyond the traditional bank teller role,” he says.

Tyler, whose hometown is Toledo, has always enjoyed working with numbers and using analytical thinking to solve problems. He credits ONU with not only helping him to obtain the internship, but for requiring that all business students complete one.

📲 Read more about Tyler's hands-on experience: https://bit.ly/4hf4bGA

Cora Neville feels most at home in nature, so this summer, the Ohio Northern University student is relishing the chance to spend long days in the field studying her favorite creatures—wild birds.

An honors student and environmental & field biology major, Cora obtained a competitive Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan.

There, she is assisting with a research project to determine whether Salmonella prevalence in wild birds differs between agricultural and natural areas. She is also testing antimicrobial resistance, contrasting how Salmonella and E. coli react to two widely used livestock drugs versus two human antibiotics.

📲 Read more about Cora's research experiences: https://bit.ly/4xbT5GW

With dreams of becoming a structural engineer, Ohio Northern University student Mollie Kinkead is engaged in an ideal internship at Jezerinac Geers & Associates in Dublin, Ohio.

Her mentor is ONU alumnus and Director of Operations Andy Heigley, BSCE ’99, who played a pivotal role in the construction of ONU’s state-of-the-art James Lehr Kennedy Engineering Building. Andy’s mentorship is a testament to ONU’s loyal alumni network and its dedication to helping fellow Polar Bears prepare for their future careers.

Andy’s summer assignment for Mollie? To absorb as much knowledge as she can through listening, observing, asking questions, and seeking answers.

📲 Read more about Mollie's experiences and how Andy and others helped her: https://bit.ly/3U4uMwe

Thirteen juvenile Eastern Box Turtles recently traded the threat of euthanasia for a life foraging for worms and berries in a Northwest Ohio forest, thanks to groundbreaking conservation work at Ohio Northern University.

Leading the effort are ONU biology professors Dr. Kat Krynak and Dr. Bob Verb, along with their students, who are participating in a new initiative by the Ohio Division of Wildlife to safely rehabilitate and release captive, rescued, or confiscated turtles back into the wild.

The program, called ROBOTs (Repatriating Ohio’s BOx Turtles), addresses a growing crisis: turtles are rapidly disappearing due to illegal collection for the black-market pet and food trades.

Every year, the Ohio Division of Wildlife receives hundreds of turtles. Some are surrendered by owners and others confiscated at airports from smugglers attempting to traffic them overseas.

📲 Read more about the program: https://bit.ly/4x5aIYW

At Ohio Northern University, students find ways to meld their passions, even if they are as seemingly incompatible as lacrosse and creative writing.

Case in point: Martin Watson. A midfielder on the Polar Bear lacrosse team who dreams of a career writing and directing films, Martin landed a social media internship at the European Box Lacrosse Championships in Prague, Czech Republic.

For two weeks this summer, this honors student sharpened his writing and photography skills while interacting with players, fans, and individuals who are championing the growth of lacrosse across Europe.

📲 Read more about his international experience: https://bit.ly/45u8fvn

Ohio Northern University is at the Ohio State Fair! Come say "Hi" in the Lausche Building all day today and August 5! Make sure to snag some free merchandise and check out what ONU has to offer!

Evelynn Schneider is interested in “what makes people tick”—especially those with a criminal mind. At Ohio Northern University, she’s growing her knowledge of both psychology and criminal justice with plans to attend graduate school to become a criminal profiler.

“I hope to conduct research pertaining to childhood trauma and how it may influence future violent criminal behavior,” she says. Being able to identify “early warning signs,” she adds, could help prevent tragedies like mass shootings.

This summer, Evelynn is interning in the adult probation department at the Hancock County Common Pleas Court, gaining experiences that bring her career goals into focus.

📲 Read more about how she combines her classroom work with her internship: https://bit.ly/4fYuNdG

In track and field, individual effort is paramount, but the team provides momentum.

At Ohio Northern University, this sentiment plays out at every meet, and more recently on a grander scale, when committed alumni banded together to fully endow the University’s track and field fund and rename it after a beloved coach.

Bolstering the fund provided a way to not only honor the contributions of Jason Maus, but to support future generations of Polar Bear track and field athletes, said Brett Neff, BSCE ’93. He and his spouse, Jodi (Feasel) Neff, BSPh ’93, generously gave the lead gift to fully endow the fund, requesting its renaming to the Jason Maus Track and Field Endowment Fund.

Track and field director Maus has built a powerhouse program in the Ohio Athletic Conference and mentored hundreds of talented student-athletes during his 17 years at ONU. He is ONU’s all-time winningest coach in men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, achieving an impressive 2,595-723-7 record for a winning percentage of .782.

📲 Read more about Coach Maus' achievements and what inspired the Neff family's generosity: https://bit.ly/4vJpkfo