Nina Lewis Beaver Reports from Diamond, MO

Nina Beaver (Formerly Nina Lewis--BA-English, 1981; MA-English, University of Missouri, 1983) is alive and well and living in southwest Missouri with her husband of 23 years. The Beavers have four kits, two attending Missouri State University (somehow the "Western" got left out of there) and two in high school.

Nina has taught English at Crowder College (Neosho, MO) for 19 years and has been the Communications Division Chair for the last 5 years.

If you'd like to contact Nina, send her mail at nbeaver@crowder.edu.

Omer Libich to begin Graduate Work at LSU

Omer Libich (BA-Spanish) has been informed that the Hispanic Studies Graduate Admissions Committee as approved his application to its MA program at Louisiana State University. The committee has also recommended him for a Teaching Assistantship (which includes full tuition waver).

Omer received the EFLJ Outstanding Spanish Graduate Award in the spring of 2010.

Congratulations, Omer! We'll be interested to hear reports about Cajun Spanish.

Geaux, Tigers!

Mary Stone Dockery teaches and writes in Lawrence, KS

Mary Stone Dockery (BA-Literature, 2009) reports that good things are happening in Lawrence, KS. Mary, a teaching assistant and MFA student at KU, has had her creative work published with regularity.

Last year, Mary's piece "Somewhere Inside" (creative nonfiction) appeared in Touchstone. Her poem "Giving" appeared in FuturCycle poetry, both online and in print. Her poems "After Getting the Mole Removed" and "The Woman Doing Cartwheels in the Living Room" will appear in the Pennsylvania Literary Journal in January 2011. Mary has also served as a reader for the inaugural issue of the Blue Island Review, a journal published out of Lawrence, KS that features poets from the greater Kansas City area; Mary has had her work published in BIR as well. Currently, Mary is serving as a reader for the new literary journal for the creative writing program at KU - Beecher's - scheduled to come out in 2011.

Mary reports that teaching is going well and that her "students strive toward creative and insightful projects, always surprising [her] with how much they know."

Drop Mary a line (or a poem you'd like published) at dockstone82@gmail.com.

Betty Sawin Appointed to National Committees

Dr. Betty Sawin, MWSU Honors Program Director, has been appointed by Dr. Bonnie Irwin, President of the National Collegiate Honors Council, to two standing, national committees.

Betty will be involved in Partners in the Parks Committee (charged to develop in cooperation with the National Park Service and other sponsoring bodies, academic experiential programs in national parks, and other facilities under the authority of the park service) and Teaching and Learning (charged to make available to the membership in NCHC scholarly essays, monographs, and other print and electronic materials focused on current research and ideas in curriculum design for academically talented students).

Congratulations, Betty!