Sims, Nelson Receive Great Plains IDEA Awards

21 Apr 2016     By Keith McGuffey

Kelsey Sims, CYAF Office Associate, and Doug Nelson, CYAF Adjunct Professor, were honored with awards at the 2016 Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA) conference in Kansas City.

Kelsey Sims earned the Rookie of the Year award for her work coordinating the Early Childhood Education in a Mobile Society program. The program aims to train students to work with families in a society that is always "on the go", with an emphasis on military families. It is the only Bachelor's program offered by Great Plains IDEA. According to Great Plains IDEA, "She has learned Great Plains IDEA processes and is a wealth of information for students. Kelsey's determination to understand and assist is keeping her teammates in the game down to the last out."

Doug Nelson, CYAF adjunct professor, won the Great Plains IDEA Grand Slam Award. The award acknowledged his work creating "Nelson's Pub", an online community where students in the Family Financial Planning program can ask questions and chat with one another. According to Great Plains IDEA, "Doug knocked the cover off the ball by creating a space for students to network with each other and their instructor. The Pub is a creative way to bring real-life experiences to students and help them keep their head in the game."

Great Plains IDEA is an academic alliance that offers fully-online graduate and undergraduate coursework and program options in high demand professional fields. It offers 21 programs in Agriculture and the Human Sciences with instructors from 20 different universities across the Midwest.