Students Present at Technical Communication Conference

Graduate students Kris Miller and Rachel Stancliff and undergraduates Jennifer Heater and Brandon Herring attended the Student Technical Communication Conference April 27 at Missouri State University in Springfield. 

 

Students learned about User Experience and Usability Testing, ethics, working in international teams, and preparing for the job market. 

 

Speakers included representatives of IBM, Jack Henry (a banking services company), and organizations that do usability testing and interface design for companies ranging from Clorox ("We even make bleach sexy") to Nissan to Nike. 

 

Kris Miller and Rachel Stancliff shared the results of their Master's thesis projects during a poster session.

Mochila Review and Canvas Launch 2013 Publications

Adviser Dr. Bill Church Welcomes the Crowd

The staff of The Mochila Review and Canvas hosted a reception and reading on April 25 to celebrate the release of the 2013 editions.

Following an awards ceremony, students and alumni read from their original works in Canvas.

Canvas Editors Give out Awards

This year's winner of the Barnes & Noble Prize for The Mochila Review is Shelby Hughes. For Canvas, the winners are as follows.

Best Visual Art: Ellie Green, for "Kelsey";
Best Poetry, Sara Mathews, for two poems, "Oceania" and "Gold Rush" ;
Best prose piece, Josh Comninellis , for "The Crew."

French Graduates Earn Overseas Opportunities

Triumph for French Students!

Sharon Moore, who will graduate with a BA in French this summer, has been accepted to teach English in France for the coming school year. In a very rigorous screening process, French Cultural Services evaluate hundreds of applicants every year based on their French language ability and relevant experience. Sharon will teach in the Nantes region, which includes the city of Angers, where she studied for a semester on the MWSU exchange program.

Stacey Weidemann, English and French major who will graduate this spring, has been accepted as a Peace Corps volunteer. Although she does not yet know where she will be posted, her orientation and eventual departure will happen early in the fall.

 

Congratulations and Good Luck to Sharon and Stacey on these great opportunities! 

Griffon News Wins Missouri College Media Awards

Please join me in congratulating our students who won awards this last weekend in Joplin at the Missouri College Media Association. We were competing in Division II, with other mid-sized institutions. Dr. Bob Bergland, the newspaper adviser, was especially proud of the work done in the main writing divisions, as the newspaper did very well in Editorial, Sports, In-Depth and Investigative reporting categories.

Below are listed the individual and group awards received by MWSU students in the state categories:

Sweepstakes (overall number of awards)

Third place: The Griffon News, Mo. Western

News Writing

Honorable Mention: Katelyn Canon 

Editorial Writing

Second Place: The Griffon News

Third Place: The Griffon News 

  

Feature Writing

Honorable Mention: Eboni Lacey 

Sports Writing

Second Place: Kyle Inman

Third Place: Thomas Huitt-Johnson

Honorable Mention: Thomas Huitt-Johnson

In-Depth Reporting

First Place: Matt Hunt, Ellis Cross, Eboni Lacey, Albert Shelby and Brian Ramsey

Second Place: Dave Hon, Katelyn Canon, Matt Hunt and Ellis Cross

Investigative Reporting

First Place: Eboni Lacey

Second Place: Caitlin Cress

Honorable Mention: Matt Hunt and Ellis Cross

Regular Column

Honorable Mention: Dave Hon

Entertainment Review

Honorable Mention: Caitlin Cress

Feature Photography

First Place: Jason Brown

Sports Photography

Second Place: Jason Brown

Political Cartoon

Third Place: Chad Hammontree

Honorable Mention: Chad Hammontree and Andrew Setter

Story Illustration

Third Place: Chad Hammontree and Andrew Setter

Sports Pages

Third Place: Jason Brown, Tevin Harris, Evan Roberts, Kyle Inman, Christian Mengel, Albert Shelby and Andy Inman

Photo Page

Second Place: Dave Hon and Jason Brown

Web Page

Third Place: thegriffonnews.com

Best Overall Newspaper

Honorable Mention: The Griffon News

Congratulations to Dr. Bergland and the staff of The Griffon News!

Department Scholarships Announced

2013 Scholarships

Francis Flanagan Book Scholarship

Roxanne Chase

Hayes Bagnall Literacy Scholarship 

Amber Thorp

Etienne Ntahouri

Richard B. Taylor Memorial Scholarship

Lauren Dillon

Jennifer A. George Scholarship

Hanna Greenwell

Jennifer Heater

Joseph and Minnie Doherty

Roxanne Chase

Betsy Lee

Jennifer Heater

Danielle Johnson

Alexa Adams

Isabel Rice Recognition Scholarship

Casey Leslie

Amber Stice

Sandra Jacobs Recognition Scholarship

April Buntin

Rosemary Hoffman Scholarship for Study in France

Natalie Spivey

James McCarthy Scholarship

Joseph Tucker

Alayna Mazzeffee

Sandra J. Stubblefield Memorial Scholarship

Roxane Chase

Irene Ertman Travel Award

Katie Walkup 

Congratulations to our 2013 scholarship recipients!

Sigma Tau Delta Initiation

On Wednesday, April 18, Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honorary Society, initiated the following majors and minors: Matthew Ausberger, Laura Ryckzek, Erin Cordonier, Mindy Erickson, Kayla Wiedmaier, Brian Ramsay, Andy Garrison, Caitlin McKinney, Bethany Hanson, Natalie Root, Stacey Weidemann, Jennifer Heater, and Alexa Adams.

2013 Sigma Tau Delta initiates and officers.

Initiation into Sigma Tau Delta requires a major or minor in a field of English studies, including Journalism and Convergent Media, a 3.0 GPA, and the completion of at least three courses in their degree program above general studies requirements. Tau Mu Chapter President Katie Walkup, Vice President Roxanne Chase, and Secretary Rochelle Whitman presided over the initiation. Missouri Western's chapter of Sigma Tau Delta is sponsored by Drs. Bergland, Roberts, and Donaher of the Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism.

Ken Rosenauer Retirement and Student Awards Reception

Yesterday we gathered to honor our outstanding graduates and celebrate the 34-year Griffon career of Dr. Ken Rosenauer.

Matt and Dr. Fulton

Dave and Dr. Bergland

Students were honored to start the afternoon. The outstanding graduates in English (Staci Hersh), Convergent Media (Dave Hon), French (Donnie Hughes), Spanish (Eric McCrerey), and Education (Sarah McClure) were given their due, as well as the Sandy Jacobs Literature award winner (Matt Ausberger). Faculty close to each graduate presented the awards, citing the each student's numerous accomplishments and virtues.

Staci and Dr. Donaher

After the testimonies were given by faculty regarding the outstanding accomplishments of the graduates, we turned our attention to Ken. In his time here, Ken created our convergent media degree; he was a founding member of the AIM graduate faculty, leading that group for a time; he was EFLJ chair for six years (2 terms); he was newspaper adviser for 14 years, and he was yearbook adviser for 3.

Sarah with Ms. Terrick and Mr. Pankiewicz

Eric with Dr. Castilla-Ortiz

Ken has been honored with the Mehl award for scholarship, which recognizes his three textbooks on journalism. Ken was very active in the national College Media Advisers organization, serving as its president, board member, as well as its newsletter editor and conference planner. Ken is a recipient of the Goldon Key award from Columbia U. and is in the College Media Advisers Hall of Fame for his outstanding work teaching college journalism.

Donnie and Dr. Hennessy

 

Ken with Sandy Jacobs and Barb Scheidegger. Sandy and Barb served as administrative assistants when Ken was chair.

The Scanlon service award was awarded him for his outstanding, varied, and long-standing community service.  Of special note is his service as president of the Apple Blossom parade since 2000 and serving on the Savannah school board. Ken even did a term as mayor of Savannah from 87-91. 

Dr. Cadden presents Ken with his gift

Plenty of Three Stooges to fill Ken's retirement time!

Thanks to Bob Bergland for putting together a slideshow of Ken's time at MWSC/U, which features Ken with an enviable mustache that itself is worth the price of admission.

President Vartabedian chats with Ken

Congratulations to our graduates and to Ken for your hard work, accomplishments, and distinction.

2013 ENG 100 Reading and Reception

Dr. Vartabedian welcomes guests

On Wednesday, April 10, 2013, Dawn Terrick, Director of Developmental Writing, hosted 85 people at the annual reception for the ENG 100 student publication Discovering the Student, Discovering the Self.  Dr. Vartabedian kicked off the reception. Then students received certificates and awards and read their original work. Students were joined by their family and friends as well as MWSU faculty, staff and administration and all enjoyed an afternoon of celebration.  

Another big crowd for the ENG 100 Reading

Director Dawn Terrick hands out awards

This is the seventh edition of Discovering the Student, Discovering the Self.  The essays that appear in this publication were selected by the English 100 Committee from submissions from English 100 students from the Spring and Fall 2012 semester.  These 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.  Furthermore, these essays reflect the diversity of our English 100 students and the uniqueness of this course.  Our students are entering college straight out of high school and are returning to the classroom after years of work and family, come from urban and rural areas, and represent different races and cultures.  And this work is truly their work -- the committee has not made any revisions or corrections to the essays.   

We invite you to read these essays on our website and 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.