Benito Juarez Celebration

An event organized by the Spanish Club took place on March 20th. Alex Menendez, the club's president gave a presentation on Benito Juarez, the president of Mexico who led the struggle against Maximilian, the French-backed emperor, and achieved what is considered the second independence of Mexico. The event celebrated the 213th anniversary of Benito Juarez' birth.

 

Los Tres Amigos KC played traditional Mexican music while the audience enjoyed the food provided by the club.

 

 

High School Writing Day 2019

On Thursday, March 7, nearly 140 students from ten area high schools convened on Missouri Western's campus for High School Writing Day. The annual event is sponsored by Missouri Western's Department of English & Modern Languages, the Missouri Western State University Foundation, and the Saint Joseph School District.




The theme of the day was "Between the Lines," and students explored everything from "Writing Comics Between the Lines" to magazine and sports writing, poetry, horror, and more. The celebration of writing ended with an open mic session. Next  year's event will take place on Thursday, March 5. 

Stephaney Ferguson named MWSU's Robert J. Greef Award winner

The Robert J. Greef Award, given by the Missouri Council of Teachers of English each year to one outstanding graduate in secondary English Education at each Missouri university, was awarded to BSE graduate Stephaney Ferguson.  The daughter of Steven and Veronica Ferguson and a native of Saint Joseph, she graduated high school from Saint Joseph Christian School, then graduated cum laude from MWSU in December of 2018. Award winners were honored on March 1 at the Write to Learn conference in Osage Beach. 

Stephaney was a volunteer at the Prairie Lands Writing Project’s annual High School Writing Day where she assisted high school students attending writing workshops on campus. She was also an enthusiastic supporter of young writers in the MWSU’s English Education program’s partnership with Bode Middle School. She is currently teaching high school English at Bishop LeBlond High School in Saint Joseph, where she continues her commitment to teaching lessons and units which include themes of empathy and listening to silenced voices. This summer she plans to teach English in Japan and in the future hopes to purse graduate studies in linguistics and Asian languages. 

 

Congratulations, Stephaney!

 

Stephaney is the ham up front

 

MAS in Assessment is recognized as top ten in nation

The website Online Masters has listed the MAS in Assessment at Missouri Western as one of the ten best online Master's programs in Assessment and Measurement.  This includes the Special Education option, the TESOL option, and our very own MAS Assessment of Writing option.  They also designated the program as "Best in Real-World Training" for the category.  We're in some very good company, with programs like Kent State, Ball State, and Columbia University Teachers College. 

Thanks to everyone who contributes to graduate education in our department and everyone who cares about writing education at our university. 

Poet Kwame Dawes Reads at Missouri Western

On Wednesday, March 6, more than 200 students, faculty, and community members gathered in Missouri Western's Potter Hall Theatre to hear the Emmy-winning poet Kwame Dawes read.

This event followed in the tradition of annual major author events hosted by The Mochila Review and led by Dr. Marianne Kunkel, yet it had a new component: thanks to a grant from the Missouri Western Arts Society, student dancers choreographed and danced to two of Dawes' poems while he read them.

It was a wonderful night of poetry, dance, and cake. Thank you to others who made it possible: our English and Modern Languages department, our School of Fine Arts, Prairie Lands Writing Project, St. Joseph Public Library, and Rolling Hills Library.

Kwame Dawes with Marianne Kunkel