Students Enjoying Costa Rica Trip

Dr Bausset-Page reports from Costa Rica that the eight students studying there for the MWSU intersession are having quite a time. As part of their immersion experience they are taking Spanish, Latin dance classes and even cooking classes. More to come on their return!

Alumna Jenny Ellis Directs Small Town Library

Jenny Ellis (BA, English-Literature, `04) was awarded a Masters of Library Science (MLS) from University of Missouri in 2009 and has been director of a small, rural library in Albany, Missouri.

Jenny confesses, "I never would have thought I’d be a library director. I had always thought I’d just be a department head of a big city library It’s interesting going from a larger library system (St. Joseph Public Library-where I was only an assistant) to a single library with a small budget and being in charge. It’s interesting making all of the decisions. I have a support system of friends who are or have been directors; and there’s a networking group of directors that meet up quarterly as well as a statewide group of library directors that meet up twice a year for a conference."

One perk included in directing a small town library is that comes with housing. "A couple donated a building located down the street from the library. It’s a storefront with an apartment above it. The weekend after the job offer the board president invited me to town for a town tour (He joked it was a 17.3 minute tour including construction detours) and a tour of the apartment. It’s HUGE. The only downfall is as one of the board members described it “it’s a penthouse with no elevator”. There are a lot of stairs leading up to it. They don’t really bother me except when I have groceries. The downstairs of the building is our Friends of the Library bookstore."

"I do a little bit of everything with this job. I’m responsible for finances, facility maintenance, personnel, grant writing, community relations and collection development/maintenance. I work the desk a lot (we’re open 37 hours and I only have 25 hours of part time workers)."

Drop by the Albany, MO library for a visit: browse a book, work the front desk, or maybe even help sweep up a bit!

EFLJ Holds Retirement Reception

On Monday, April 30, EFLJ faculty, retirees, students, alumni, and fans gathered to honor Dr. Jane Frick and Dr. Ann Thorne for their years of service and friendship to the department. Over the course of two hours on a pleasant afternoon, gifts were given, stories were shared, and cake was munched.
 

Ann 

   

Jane







President Vartabedian and Diane Watson visit

Jane is completing forty years in EFLJ. She arrived when one Nixon had won re-election and is leaving as another Nixon seeks it. Jane was chair of EFLJ for almost half of those forty years, 18 to be precise (1983-2001). When our colleague Judy Martin left the department because of her fight with cancer, Jane stepped down as chair and assumed duties as our English Education professor and Director of PLWP. PLWP was in pretty good shape back in 2001, but today—over a decade later—is a national model. Our Student National Council of Teachers of English has flourished under Jane’s leadership. She designed the first graduate certificate at MWSU, which resulted in first graduate diploma awarded from MWSU. She has served as a National Writing Project and DESE consultant, a Missouri Association of Teachers of English board member, served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Departments of English, received a distinguished professor award, and was the most recent recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award (at the Alumni Assoc. banquet she regaled the audience with her time as a woman among the boys here at MWSC back in the seventies. It was Classic Jane). And in her spare time this year she has taken a year of Chinese (we hope to ship her overseas). We look forward to hearing to what Jane will put her prodigious energy.



Stacia Bensyl and Karen Fulton chat with Ann



Jane receives a PLWP T-shirt Quilt





Ann has only been here a quarter of a century. The October, 1987 EFLJ newsletter (JEM Notes)—what we did before blogs—notes that Anne Thorne is “looking forward to the production of a top-notch yearbook this year.” She goes on to say that she believes that “producing a successful yearbook gives everyone on staff a tremendous sense of accomplishment.” Many yearbook students over the past twenty-five years have had that sense of accomplishment. The yearbook under Ann has won many state-wide and national awards over the years, most notably a Gold Circle Award from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association in both 2008 and 2009, and most recently a Silver Crown Award at Columbia University’s School of Journalism this past March 18 in NYC. She has made the yearbook at MWSU a nationally-recognized publication. She has served her profession for many years, and was recently Chair - History Division, American Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication. College Media Advisers, a national organization of her peers, awarded her a lifetime membership just this past month. She, too, is a winner of a MWSU Distinguished Professor award.



Some Crystal for the Grandkids to break

We expect to see Jane and  Ann around Eder Hall in the months to come--Jane to work part-time for Prairie Lands Writing Project and Ann to check in on (and likely feed) the Yearbook staff. Both look forward to some traveling this fall.

Foreign Language Programs Hold Year-End Picnic



Tiantian with Full-time Foreign Language Faculty and Dr. Cadden

Students and Faculty in German, Spanish, French, and Chinese gathered on Tuesday afternoon, May 1 to celbrate their year. An important part of the day was devoted to saying farewell to Tiantian Zou, our Chinese Fulbright scholar. Tiantian will spend a month sight-seeing in the United States before returning to Xidian University in June. We have enjoyed having her with us in EFLJ this year and look forward to welcoming a colleague of hers for the fall.

Tiantian receives a certificate of appreciation

Outstanding Spanish Graduate Matt Starr with his high school teacher(and MWSU adjunct faculty member) Saundra Dibella



EFLJ Accomplishments in April

Kaye Adkins participated in the Eighth Annual Workshop for Teachers of Technical Writing at Missouri State University in Springfield on April 27. Presenters at the workshop included practitioners from industry and government, and national leaders in the field.

Bob Bergland, together with students David Hon, Sarah Noe and alumna Lisa Crawford, published the article "Multimedia and Interactivity on Newspaper Websites: A Multi-Study Analysis of Six English-Speaking Countries" in the spring edition of the journal International Symposium on Online Journalism. http://online.journalism.utexas.edu/ebook.php

On April 14, EFLJ hosted the Academy of Future French Teachers. High school and college students from Northwest Missouri were nominated by their teachers to attend the Academy. The main event was a panel presentation by French teachers on the rewards and professional opportunities of teaching.

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012, Dawn Terrick, Director of the ENG 100 program, hosted a reception to honor those students whose essays were chosen to be included in the 6th edition of the ENG 100 student publication Discovering the Student, Discovering the Self. 17 students were in attendance to receive their awards and read from their published works. The student essays reflect the struggle and the joy, the hard work and the rewards that these students have experienced both in their lives and in the classroom. After the reading, students reconnected with their ENG 100 Instructors and introduced their family and friends to their professors. Smiles, hugs and even a few tears could be seen throughout the room. Overall, approximately 75 faculty, staff, students, friends and family were in attendance to enjoy the reading, food and camaraderie and conversation that carried over into the afternoon. If you wish to read these student essays, go to: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/ENG100/ENG100Pub2012.pdf

Two undergraduates in Missouri Western's Technical Communication program, Jennifer Heater and Rochelle Whitman, presented posters at the Tenth Annual Student Technical Communication Conference at Missouri State. The Student Conference met April 28. Jennifer's research project is titled "Visual Media: to Believe or Not to Believe." Rochelle's research project is titled "Webmasters and Writing Code." Also attending the conference were Technical Communication graduate students Anita Ford, Rachel Stancliff, and Melissa Wine.

Jennifer Heater

Rochelle Whitman

Twelve Technical Communication students presented posters at Missouri Western's Multi-Disciplinary Research Day on April 26. Students created the posters Dr. Kaye Adkins' ETC 421 course. In the course, students conduct a semester-long research project and present their findings in the three formats most commonly used by technical communication practitioners--as a written paper, as a conference poster, and as an oral presentation.

At the Missouri College Media Association convention hosted by Missouri Western April 15, The Griffon News received 22 individual awards and editor Dave Hon won Journalist of the Year, the honor bestowed upon the top college journalist in the state. Dr. Robert Bergland was named Adviser of the Year by the organization. He also presented two workshops, a beginning and an intermediate session on Adobe Flash for journalism.

Hennessy and Cadden Intramural Champions

Dr. Susie Hennessy and Dr. Mike Cadden are, respectively, MWSU women's and men's intramural racquetall champions.

Over the course of spring semester, Hennessy and Cadden fought off the hordes of would-be racquetball champs in a viscious and relentless pyramid challenge that had them struggle to keep life/work balance in tact. "It just about did me in this term," Cadden whined. "Though we are all 39-years-old in EFLJ, I felt almost 48 out there." Hennessy weighed the achievement in her life: "Sure, there was being awarded knighthood by France and being elected Faculty Senate President, but really they pale in comparison to this honor." Cadden has had no accomplishments, and so it is difficult to come up with experiences to which this could be compared.

They will be making various appearances across campus in the weeks to come; photo opportunities will be plentiful. They do not give autographs as it may play havoc with the important wrist tendons that have gotten them where they are today.