Educational Innovator Chen to Speak at NMU Commencement

Northern Michigan University is partnering with Saginaw Valley State University to enhance behavioral health care in the Upper Peninsula by expanding educational opportunities for advance practice nurses at a cost savings of nearly 85%. Through the BRIDGE UP program, SVSU is offering its psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) training in collaboration with NMU to 31 U.P. nurse practitioners annually. The program is funded with a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources & Services Administration.

Political Science Department Head and Professor Carter Wilson is the 2024 recipient of the Stephen Young & Tricia Kinley Distinguished Faculty Award, Northern Michigan University's top honor for significant professional contributions to teaching, scholarship and service. He will be honored along with other faculty award winners at the Celebration of Excellence at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 22, in Ballrooms I and II of the Northern Center.

Elementary education major Grace Cook of Memphis, Mich. will appropriately reference the premise of a popular children's book when she delivers the student commencement address at Northern Michigan University on Saturday, May 4. She said author Patrice Karst's story about The Invisible String that permanently connects every person to the hearts of those they love has impacted her, and seems relevant as graduates leave their college friends to embark on their careers.

At the end of World War I, American soldiers—mostly from Michigan—were deployed to join the Northern Russian Expeditionary Force for a vaguely defined mission. They found themselves embroiled in a civil war, battling Bolshevik revolutionaries for months after the Armistice ended fighting in France. A new play inspired by these men, known as the Polar Bears for enduring harsh winter conditions, will have its world premiere May 9-11 at Northern Michigan University. The idea for Ghost Soldiers by Keli Crawford-Truckey stemmed from a war-time journal bound by leather from the boot of a dead Bolshevik soldier. It was kept by the grandfather of NMU employees Dan and Paul Truckey.