Christa McCay Wins Literacy Award

At the twentieth annual MWSU Literacy Luncheon, held on April 30, 2010, Christa McCay was the recipient of the Helen Long Volunteer Award given by Pass the Power Adult Literacy group. The citation notes Christa's dedication and commitment to literacy and her many students.

U.S. Congressman Roy Blunt was on hand to congratulate Christa and the other award recipients at today's luncheon.

Christa, a professor in EFLJ for many years, began her work with Pass the Power in 2000 following her retirement from Western. For the past decade, Christa has continued to help students in northwest Missouri as she did during her many years at Western.

Congratulations, Christa!

4th Annual ENG 100 Reading Celebrates Student Writing

The annual reception to celebrate the ENG 100 student publication, Discovering the Student, Discovering the Self, was held on Wednesday, April 2. At the reception, students were awarded prizes, certificates and copies of the book and also shared excerpts from their winning essays. Students and their families and friends, faculty, staff and administrators were all in attendance and had the opportunity to hear inspiring, eloquent and moving stories.

The student essays reflected the struggle and the joy, the hard work and the rewards that these students have experienced both in their lives and in the classroom. Furthermore, these essays reflected the diversity of our English 100 students and the uniqueness of this course. It truly was an afternoon of celebration!

If you wish to read the essays, go to http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/ENG100/ and as you read, we hope that you will discover the same things that the students have discovered: during their first semester in college they are discovering themselves, realizing that they are part of many communities and defining themselves as individuals, students, scholars and citizens.

2010 EFLJ Awards and Scholarships

EFLJ is proud to announce its 2010 award and scholarship recipients. More complete descriptions of the awards can be found on the MWSU financial aid site.

Joseph and Minnie Doherty Scholarship: Staci Hersh, Blake Thorne, Kaitlin Newhart

Isabel Rice Sparks Recognition Award: Lauren Dillon, Sarah Derr

Richard B. Taylor Award: Morgan Breckenridge, Eboni Lacey

Jennifer A. George Memorial Scholarship: Sarah Walters

Rosemary Hoffman Scholarship for Study in France: Katherine Laws, Donald Hughes

Hayes Bagnall Literacy Scholarship: Andrew Needham

Irene Ertman Memorial Travel Award: Lauren Burback

Francis and Marceline Davis Scholarship: Roxanne Chase, Andrea Irvin

Western Excellence Award: Emily Tyson, Brenna Nelson-Wilkes, Kayla Weidmaier, Janel Olson, Natalie Spivey

Sandra Jacobs Recognition Award: Eric McCrerey

Foreign Language Achievement Scholarship: Katherine Laws, Eric McCrerey

Outstanding English B.A.: Rachel Stancliff

Outstanding English BSE: Josie Clark

Outstanding Spanish Graduate: Omer Libich

Congratulations to all of our EFLJ award-winners!

Former Marine Sergeant Slides Toward Graduation

Sarah Reese, former Marine Corps. sergeant and current ETC student, has shown off some of her web skills in a new slide show for the MWSU library website:
http://www.library.missouriwestern.edu.

Sarah is the narrator for this show, and it will be used indefinitely by the library to explain the use of journal alerts to the faculty and students. Sarah's slide show will be featured later on GriffonToday.com. Sarah is among our many EFLJ students who will graduate in a few weeks.

ENG 100 Publication Celebration

The annual reception to celebrate the ENG 100 student publication, Discovering the Student, Discovering the Self, will be held on Wednesday, April 21, at 3:00 pm in Blum 219 (also known as the Hoff Reception Room 219).

At the reception, students will be awarded prizes, certificates and copies of the book and are also invited to read an excerpt from their winning essays. In addition, there will be refreshments. This will be an afternoon of celebration and everyone is invited!

You saw that part about refreshments, right?

LeAnn Neal Reilly Publishes Novel

LeAnn graduated from MWSU back when it was MWSC (1990--hey, that's seven years before the Clock Tower!) and went on to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned the M.A. She recently published her debut novel, The Mermaid's Pendant, available on Amazon.com.

"My writing degree and my experience on The Griffon News has been invaluable in my development as a novelist," LeAnn writes. She invites all to learn more about the book on her website (www.nealreilly.com).

River's Edgy Writers to Share Work

To complement the ongoing open-mic sessions at Foster's, the English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism Department has initiated a different type of event, the "Edgy Writers Reading Series."

Each event will feature three accomplished writers with MWSU ties who will read from their new works for twenty to thirty minutes per writer. The writers will include one faculty member, one MWSU graduate, and one current student. For the inaugural event last Wednesday, April 7, current student Ryan Bradley joined alumna Mary Stone-Dockery and poetry professor Meg Thompson at Foster's. Bradley, in addition to writing prose and poetry, serves as this year's Canvas editor. Stone-Dockery, whose poems have begun appearing frequently in literary magazines, is working toward her MFA in poetry at the University of Kansas. The Department plans to offer one Edgy Writers Reading each semester.

The final open-mic reading of this semester will be at Foster's on Wednesday, April 28, at 7 p.m.

Individual Awards Won by Griffon Yearbook Staff

Please congratulate the following students who all won awards this year in New York.

The 2009 Griffon Yearbook won 14 individual achievement awards at the annual national College Media Advisers Convention. The Circle Awards, a national competition sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, were presented March 14th in New York, NY. The students who won the awards were:

Raphaelle Drew, 1st Place, Design Essentials, Index
Raphaelle Drew, 2nd Place, People Spread
Raphaelle Drew, 2nd Place, Academic Spread
Kelsey Wear, 2nd Place, Academic Photo
Shawn Lesny, 3rd Place, Sports Feature Photo
Raphael Drew, Certificate of Merit, Design Portfolio
Raphaelle Drew, Certificate of Merit, Academic Spread
Raphaelle Drew, Certificate of Merit, Sports Page
Raphaelle Drew, Certificate of Merit, Sports Design
Yearbook Staff, Certificate of Merit, Feature Presentation
Linda Shireman, Certificate of Merit, Academic Photo
Marty Ayers, Certificate of Merit, Sports Action Photo
Marty Ayers, Certificate of Merit, Sports Photo
Jourdan Huffman, Certificate of Merit, Sports Reporting

Congratulations to our outstanding yearbook staff and to their faculty advisor, Dr. Ann Thorne!