Sean Strauman, a sophomore accounting major from South Park who competes in indoor track and field, was named a 2006 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Winter Top Ten Award winner.  Strauman carries a 3.68 grade point average.  He won the PSAC indoor title in the 800m, matching his own meet record with a time of 1:55.05, and also ran a leg on the third-place team in the distance medley relay (10:14.75).  He qualified for nationals in the 800m and followed through as one of five PSAC All-Americans, finishing eighth in 1:53.68.  At the Akron Open he set a school and PSAC indoor record in the 800 by posting a time of 1:51.97. Strauman is a three-time PSAC champion in the 800, including the 2005 and 2006 indoor title and the 2005 outdoor crown.  In addition, he set stadium records in the event at Mansfield (outdoor) and East Stroudsburg (indoor). The Top Ten Awards, selected by the PSAC’s sports information directors, recognize student-athletes who distinguish themselves in the classroom, as well as in the arena of competition. To be a candidate for the Top Ten Awards, a student-athlete must have achieved a minimum of a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and must be a starter or key reserve with legitimate athletic credentials.  

IUP's Office of Communications won three awards from Admissions Marketing Report, a national magazine covering admissions marketing initiatives, in the 2005 20th annual national competition. IUP won two silver awards: one for magazine advertising for the university’s Fortune Magazine advertisement, and one for the video viewbook, “The Perfect Fit.” The advertisement was designed by Ron Mabon with photography by Keith Boyer, copywriting by Karen Gresh, director of communications, and placement by Jerri Cochran, IUP advertising coordinator. The video was produced by IUP videographer Bill Hamilton with assistance from Emily Jaros, videography assistant. The IUP Academy of Culinary Arts viewbook also won an award of merit in the competition. It was designed by IUP graphic designer Emily Wells with selected photos taken by Boyer.

Suzanne Cornelissen has been selected as a candidate for the NCAA Division II College Women Athlete of the Year for 2005-2006. A total of 12 athletes are on the final ballet, one for each women's sport that is sponsored at the Division II level. If selected, Cornelissen will be the first field hockey player to win the award since it was first presented to Division II athletes in 1987-88. The IUP women's athletic fund will receive $1,000 from American Honda Motor Co. Inc. in honor of Cornelissen's nomination.

Daniel Benscoter placed first in the senior men category and Gregory Athanasatos placed second in the freshman men category of the November 2005 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Allegheny Mountain Chapter Student Auditions.  These auditions are an opportunity for students from central and western Pennsylvania to come and sing for comments and adjudication by NATS teachers from around the state. Benscoter is a student of Dr. Robert Peavler and Athanasatos is a student of Dr. Mary Hastings.

IUP English professor and director of the IUP Writing Center Dr. Ben Rafoth and English professor Dr. Shanti Bruce are co-winners of the 2005 Outstanding Scholarship Award for Best Book from the International Writing Centers Association.  ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors was praised for its timeliness,  relevance, and blend of theoretical and practical advice.

IUP's African American Cultural Center placed second in the country in the national Books for Africa drive for spring 2005. As a result, the Center received $2750 from the organization to spend on local programs and initiatives at IUP. While IUP's Center has placed second in the region for the past two years, this is the first year its efforts have been recognized with national placement.

Brian Chubb, a biology graduate student, is the recipient of the 2005 William B. Mcllwaine Science Teaching Award offered by the Pennsylvania Science Teachers Association.

Dr. Valeri Helterbran (professional studies) was selected as the 2005 Teacher Educator of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators. PAC-TE is dedicated to providing strong advocacy for teacher education within the Commonwealth by promoting quality programs of teacher education; working with professional colleagues who are dedicated to the concept of education for all children and youth; collaborating with professionals who believe that the quality of education depends upon the effectiveness of those who teach; advocating the improvement of teacher performance and teacher education programs; providing opportunities for the individual professional growth of all persons who are concerned with teacher education; and serving various councils and committees of national, state, and local government and professional associations in the ongoing effort to improve the professional status and image of teacher education.

IUP's admissions features on its website were recognized as among the most highly rated in the country by the National Research Center for College & University Admissions (NRCCUA®) 7th annual Enrollment Power Index® (EPI), a analysis of the admissions websites of more than 3,000 post-secondary institutions. The fall 2005 research-based study rates how well the functionality and design of college and university admissions websites provide information to potential students and move them from prospect to applicant.  The study graded the sites for each institution on a 100-point scale.  IUP was one of only 130 institutions that received an A.

Robert E. Cook Honors College student William Harder from Coopersburg  received the 2005 Frank Shakespeare Award for Political Writing for his summer 2005 internship work at the World Wildlife Fund. He completed the internship through Georgetown University’s American Studies Institute on Political Journalism in Washington, D.C. He wrote, edited and researched pressing global issues for the World Wildlife Fund, dealing mostly with the Congo Basin, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. After Harder completed the internship, the World Wild Life Fund hired him to continue working on its Congo Basin project, a series of partnerships and fieldwork aimed to protect and preserve the world’s second largest expanse of rain forest.

IUP Magazine, edited by Karen Gresh, director of IUP’s Communications Group, has won a national award for excellence in the 2005 Seventeenth Annual Awards for Publication Excellence Competition Sponsored by the Editors of “Writing That Works: The Business Communications Report (APEX).” The most recent award brings to 42 the number of major awards the Communications Group-Office of Publications has won: 20 for IUP Magazine and 22 for other projects. Along with IUP Magazine, the Office has won awards for its marketing and sales brochures, websites, videos, graduate view books, undergraduate catalogs, undergraduate prospectus, and the President's Five-Year Report.

Whitney Hampson, a junior in IUP's Robert E. Cook Honors College, has been named one of 15 Gilder Lehrman History Scholars for 2005, chosen from more than 300 candidates nationwide. Each scholar will be in New York City during summer 2005 for an exclusive six-week program that combines historical research, seminars with eminent historians, and behind-the-scenes tours of rare archives. In addition to transportation, room and board, and a $2,400 stipend, each scholar receives a chance to produce original research resulting from his or her summer work. Applicants to the scholarship program represent more than 186 colleges and universities across the United States.

IUP's communications media department won a 2005 Telly Award of Excellence in the “Recruitment Video Broadcast” category for a video highlighting the College of Education and Educational Technology.  This is the fourth Telly Award for the department, but the first in this category.  Competitors in this category include other educational institutions, private corporations and U.S. military branches like the Marines. The Telly Awards competition receives 10,000 entries annually, and past winners include “Newhart,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and “What Women Want.”  Entries are judged by advertising and production professionals against a standard of merit. The awards honor local, regional and cable television programs, as well as film productions.  Commercials or programs that have not appeared on national feed or one of the four major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX) are eligible.

IUP's Lasting Impressions, an organization of journalism, marketing and public relations students, won the 2005 group Volunteer of The Year Award from the Indiana County Human Services Council. Lasting Impressions was nominated by the United Way of Indiana County for its members' assistance in publicity and organization of fundraising events on behalf of the United Way.

Robert E. Cook Honors College student Tom Bogacz of Gibsonia is the first IUP student to win first prize at the annual “Europe: East and West Undergraduate Research Symposium” sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies. Bogacz, a senior French for international trade and economics major, won for his paper, “Investment Enigma: Determinants of U.S. Foreign Direct Investment in Europe” at the April 2005  symposium held in Pittsburgh.

IUP's student newspaper, The Penn, and a Penn writer, Ashley Gurbal, have been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists in the annual 2004 Mark of Excellence Awards, announced in April 2005. The Penn won second place in the non-daily student newspaper in its region. Gurbal’s story, “Zealots Preach in the Oak Grove” won third place in the spot news reporting category in the region. The IUP entries competed against 326 entries across the 45 categories in the central and western Pennsylvania region.

IUP's Small Business Institute received third place in the 2005 Small Business Institute Directors’ Association Case of the Year Competition. The award-winning case with Lockheed Martin’s Blairsville facility focused on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies, which are used to meet the Defense Department’s requirement for tracking materials shipped to its facilities.  RFID is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using devices called RFID tags, a small object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. Lockheed Martin has worked with IUP’s SBI on 13 projects within the past four and a half years.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Communications Group won two awards in the 2004 20th annual national Admissions Marketing Report competition, announced in February 2005.The “Welcome to IUP” video, produced by videographer Bill Hamilton and featuring IUP theater major Brett Mack of Indiana, won a Gold Award in the competition. IUP Magazine, edited by Karen Gresh, IUP director of communications, won an Award of Merit in the competition.

The IUP Ambassadors won a "Most Outstanding Program" award for the Tuition Raffle Program at the 2005 district II conference. The IUP Ambassadors have won a total of 15 awards for excellence from CASE, including a District II award in 1994 for outstanding organization; District II awards in 1997 for outstanding organization and outstanding advisor; international awards in 1998 for outstanding organization and outstanding advisor; a District II award in 1999 for outstanding program; an international award in 2000 for outstanding program; District II awards in 2000 for outstanding organization and outstanding advisor; international 2001 outstanding organization;  District II award for outstanding advisor in 2001; an international award for outstanding advisor in 2002; a “Spirit” award, given by the hosting school to the group that is most involved and enthusiastic throughout the conference at the 2003 district convention; and most outstanding advisor award in 2004. IUP’s Ambassadors, approximately 50 students, serve as a liaison between prospective students, current students, administrators, faculty members, alumni and friends of the university.

IUP’s Missy Swindel, a senior soccer player, has been selected by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference as one of the league’s Fall 2004 Top Ten Award winners. The Top Ten Awards, selected by the PSAC’s sports information directors, recognize student-athletes who distinguish themselves in the classroom, as well as in the arena of competition. The conference designates award winners after the fall, winter and spring sports seasons. To be a candidate for the awards, a student-athlete must have achieved a minimum of a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and must be a starter or key reserve with legitimate athletic credentials. Fall award winners are chosen from the following sports: men’s and women’s soccer, football, field hockey, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country. Swindel, from Toledo, Ohio, is also a star in the classroom. She has a perfect 4.0 grade point average as history pre-law major in IUP’s Robert E. Cook Honors College, and was selected as the sixth annual Foundation for Indiana University of Pennsylvania Community Volunteer Service Award winner in 2004. This scholarship, established to celebrate the Foundation for IUP’s 30th anniversary, was created to recognize IUP students who have made significant volunteer service contributions. Swindel is a Dean’s List student and a Provost Scholar. She is the founder of Access IUP, a program designed to motivate struggling ninth grade students to help them set goals and plan for college, and is a member of Delta Phi Epsilon sorority. She was also the runner-up for the IUP Women’s Undergraduate Leadership award in 2003.  As an intern, she worked on assignment with the British Consulate in New York City. Other sports related honors, in addition to the Top Ten Award, include being named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District II team and earning first-team honors and a spot on the national ballot. She helped lead her team to the PSAC Championship and a first-ever spot in the NCAA tournament this season. During her three-year career at IUP, she started 57 of the 59 games, while helping to lead a defense that averaged only one goal allowed per game. Swindel was named first-team Academic All-American by ESPN The Magazine and second team All-PSAC West in 2004 and is and a three-time Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Scholar Athlete.

IUP’s Students in Free Enterprise team cashed in at the fall 2004 Purdue University’s “Battle in the Boilerlands” financial consulting competition by winning second place in the contest. The second place win earned IUP’s team $1,000 to invest in its economic outreach activities in the Indiana community.

An Indiana University of Pennsylvania professor has been awarded a 2004-2005 Fulbright Scholar grant for the second year in a row. Dr. Wenfan Yan, professional studies in education professor, will lecture at Southwest Normal University in Chongqing, China from February to July 2005. Yan’s Fulbright assignment will be to teach graduate courses for Chinese students majoring in education administration. He will advise Chinese colleagues on curriculum development for higher education administration programs, advise graduate students in doctoral dissertation writing and conduct workshops on large-scale policy analysis in higher education. Yan is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 140 countries for the 2004-2005 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program.

IUP’s Eberly College of Business and Information Technology is included in The Princeton Review’s Best 143 Business Schools, 2005 edition. Faculty at The Eberly College got high marks from students interviewed for the guidebook: “Though it is not a large program, students appreciate that The Eberly College of Business is not only nice and modern, but the class sizes are just right and the professors … are great.” According to students,” the guidebook continues, “one of the greatest strengths is its faculty. … Our professors are very passionate about their careers, and this passion is displayed in the classroom …” Student comments in the guidebook go on to praise the career center and networking opportunities offered at The Eberly College. Book editors note that surveys indicated that students believe The Eberly College is “teaching-intensive, state-of-the-art technology and is designed with students in mind.”

Joshua Kelly, a senior viola player at IUP, won third place in the 2004 Keynotes of Music for Mt. Lebanon 34th annual scholarship competition.