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The 2021 WVU Day of Giving was an important effort for CPASS, raising $40,288 for the College, while West Virginia University generated more than $11.9 million — a new Day of Giving Record. The fourth annual event, held March 3, encouraged students, faculty, staff and friends of WVU to provide critical funding to ensure the continuation of numerous opportunities for growth.

Excitement grew with every minute, tracking the donations as they rolled in, knowing that contributions support student success initiatives such as the development of the CPASS Student Services Center that provides tutoring, career services and mentoring.

Despite barriers and delays caused by COVID-19, partners around the state have found imaginative solutions to empower communities striving to overcome West Virginia’s health-related challenges.

A year ago, the College’s Center for ActiveWV set out to empower communities through a statewide initiative to create opportunities for physical activity. Access to outdoor recreation is a valuable tool to boost immune systems and manage stress.

Dana Voelker, CPASS associate professor and director of undergraduate online education, received the 2020 Diane Gill Paper of the Year Award from the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, recognizing her research on body image and weight and appearance pressures in competitive sport.

Voelker was honored for her publication, “It’s Just a Lot Different Being Male Than Female in the Sport: An Exploration of the Gendered Culture Around Body Pressures in Competitive Figure Skating,” with Dr. Justine Reel at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

What do sport and exercise sciences have in common with chemical engineering? Probably not much. But the distant relationship between these two academic fields was not an obstacle for faculty and students from West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. The groups joined forces with their counterpart programs at Universidade Federal do Parana in Brazil to create a one-day virtual workshop in April 2021 that gathered more than 140 participants.

The partnership originated in fall 2017 when WVU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Universidade Federal do Parana. It was championed by CPASS in collaboration with the School of Physical Education at UFPR and was the result of several years of research and faculty exchanges. The MOU looks to act at the university level, not just the departmental level, so the collaboration was expanded in 2018 to include the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Statler College, which also partnered with its equivalent department at UFPR.

After 25 years of steadfast service to the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and West Virginia University, Barbara Dalton, director of the International Center for Performance Excellence and Fitness Information Technology Publishing, has retired.

“Barb Dalton deserves a great deal of thanks for her dedicated service to FiT Publishing and CPASS. During her 13 years working with FiT, her performance was so strong that she kept moving up the ladder until she was named the director in December 2015,” Jack Watson, CPASS dean said.

FiT Publishing has experienced some changes: Barbara Dalton retired as director in May 2021. She has had 25 years of service with West Virginia University, the last 13 with the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and six of those years as director of FiT.

Former managing editor Eileen Harvey has moved into the director position while Kassi Roberts has assumed the managing editor role. FiT continues to pursue academic standards in publishing and strategic improvements set in motion by Barbara that Eileen is now striving to accomplish.

Numerous new and existing collaborations will advance the College's presence in teaching, research and service related projects. Highlights include expanding undergraduate student experiential learning and increasing physical activity and wellness in West Virginia. Various funding arrangements will provide in depth look at the coach-athlete relationship, continuation of strength and conditioning positions in the area, establishing counseling training opportunities and enhancing an ongoing partnership to help grow community hockey participation. 

Suncrest Early Learning Center, Emi Tsuda, assistant professor, Physical Education and Kinesiology. Physical Education and Kinesiology students in PET 350 Primary Physical Education course will visit Suncrest Early Learning Center and teach physical education to PreK children. The course meets twice a week for 15 weeks in the fall 2021 semester. Undergraduate students will plan a lesson and faculty will provide supervision of their planning, teaching and reflection.

Three College alumni — Kalista Gioglio, Ashley Hartert and Jackie Riggleman —discussed their time at West Virginia University and how it helped prepare them for careers in leadership roles. They shared stories about a typical day at the “office” and the people and places that helped them succeed.

Each of these expert alumni offered advice for students wanting to enter their field. They expressed the importance of finding internship opportunities, as they greatly valued the experiences they had and connections made during their time as Mountaineers.

On Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. athletic coaching education seniors Charles Teeter and John Craig wait to greet their student athletes for a soccer practice session over Zoom. They revisit soccer drills taught from the past week, demonstrate new ones through PowerPoints and YouTube clips and oversee drills that student-athletes perform with their families so they can practice during the week on their own. This virtual approach has allowed ACE 488 students to maintain their connection with the community during the pandemic.

Through the 2021 spring semester, the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Adapted Physical Activity practicum invited children and adults with disabilities to join weekly virtual instruction.

West Virginia University women's sports visionary Martha Thorn, 83, coach of the WVU women's tennis team from 1973 to 2000, passed away in April 2021.

She was responsible for starting the WVU women's tennis program one year after the Title IX legislation was enacted in 1972.