Faculty and Student Accomplishments in February

Dr. Cynthia Jenéy presented her paper "Reading the Medieval Horse: Xenophon, Dom Duarte, Theomnestus, The Boke of Marchalsi, and 1,001 Hoofprints in the Historical Record" at the 19th Annual conference of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Phoenix, Arizona on Friday, February 15, 2013. 

On Saturday, Feb. 9, in cooperation with the American Association of Teachers of French, Professor Susie Hennessy hosted a day-long immersion workshop for French teachers. Participants engaged in a variety of language activities to enhance oral proficiency. French instructor Claudine Evans was a presenter for the workshop.

Congratulations to Prairie Lands Writing Project Teacher Consultants: Sara Capra of Park Hill High School, Josie Clark of Bode Middle School, Brandon Haskey of Central High School, and Janet Jelavich of Maryville High School whose students won a Missouri Writing Region Gold Key in the 2013 Scholastic Writing Awards Contest. From nearly 700 entries submitted, sixteen works received Gold Keys after four rounds of blind judging. These works have been submitted to the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers for national competition. Students of Prairie Lands Writing Project’s teacher/consultants Diane Guill, Heidi Mick, Deana (Judah) Bindel, Haskey and Jelevich earned Silver Keys while students of Lori Burns, Tia Frahm, Vickey Meyer, Guill, Clark, Haskey, Bindel, Capra, Jelevich and Mick picked up Honorable Mention awards. In all, students of Prairie Lands teachers accounted for 30 awards. The students and their teachers will be honored at Missouri Writing Region Award Ceremony on March 1 at the Write to Learn Conference in Osage Beach, MO. The Missouri Writing Region is coordinated by the Prairie Lands Writing Project at Missouri Western State University.

Assistant Professor Bill Church was awarded a PORTAL grant for a summer research project leading a student team to compile oral histories of elderly African Americans. Church and the students will work with News-Press reporter Alonzo Weston, who mentioned in a column that he hoped to find time to compile an oral history for the Black Archives Museum.