Sue Beers (Gronemeyer) Improving Iowa Schools

Sue Z. Beers, nee Gronemeyer, a 1976 BS-English Education graduate, has published her sixth book with ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Sue's publications focus on teaching literacy across the content areas, designing and implementing professional development skills, and teaching skills for a the new century.

Sue is Executive Director of Mid-Iowa School Improvement Consortium, a collection of approximately 160 school districts in Iowa that works to improve student achievement. Sue also does presentations to educational groups across the country and internationally on literacy and teaching 21st Century skills.

In addition to her degree from MWSU, Sue has a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction from Iowa State University and her secondary principal endorsement from Drake University.

Sue can be reached at suebeers@netins.net.

EFLJ Host to Fulbright Scholar from China

Tiantian Zou has joined us for the academic year to offer classes in Chinese. This fall she is teaching three sections of CHI 100: Beginning Chinese I, which have a healthy enrollment. She will offer both 100 and the second course in the spring semester.

Tiantian has her BA and MA in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Sichuan University, which is located in Sichuan Province, the "hometown of pandas and land of abundance," as she says. She taught English for five years in Xidian University.
Home is the city of Xi'an, a city with a history dating 5,000 years (see picture). There she has a husband who awaits her return. They've been married for almost three years.

Tiantian loves mountain climbing (well, we have river bluffs for her), traveling, photography, and driving. She's been to more than 20 provinces in China as well as other nations in the region. "Dakar is my dream," she says. Tiantian says that she was interpreter for the World's Strongest Man Competition in 2005 and 2006, which was held in Chengdu and Sanya, respectively.


Unprompted and without the offer of a drive to Rocky Mountain National Park for some mountain climbing, Tiantian tells us, "I love this school. Students are curious about learning Chinese, and I enjoy teaching my native language and culture to them while I learn English from them. All the teachers and people around me are so nice, offering to help whenever possible. I feel lucky!"


So do we, Tiantian. Welcome to St. Joseph.

Welcome to Dr. Ana Bausset-Page

Dr. Ana Bausset-Page, assistant professor of Spanish, comes to us from Salt Lake Community College in Utah where she taught Spanish and Humanities. She has also taught at the University of Utah (where she earned her Ph.D.) and Westminster College.

Dr. Bausset-Page was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is married and has five children, two of whom graduated from Utah Valley University. The three youngest currently attend UVU.

"I am very excited to be here at Missouri Western, and I plan on getting involved in many activities here in St. Joseph. I enjoy acting and have done videos to promote education and communication among parents and teenagers. I love traveling. I just returned from Costa Rica before school started." Dr. Bausset-Page did not mention any pet peeves, embarrassing incidents from her past, or the possession of any sort of super powers. The staff of the EFLJ blog thought to make something up but thought better of it at the last minute.

Welcome, Dr. Bausset-Page!

Sue Ferguson Publishes Debut Collection

Sue Ferguson (B.A., English, 1985) has published her first collection of short stories with Nine Month Publishing.

Gaze: A Collection of Stories features sixteen stories that explore relationships with friends, family, and strangers. Several stories have been published previously in various literary journals, including New Letters, Mochila Review, Downgo Sun, and Chrysalis Reader.

You can read more about the collection, including critical reviews, and order your copy here.

Congratulations, Sue!

LeAnn Reilly publishes second novel

EFLJ alumna LeAnn Neal Reilly is publishing her second novel. Saint Sebastian's Head, a book of magical realism, is partially set in St. Joseph, MO.

Weeble has a secret so painful she’s hiding it even from herself. At ten, she meets Lauren Case, a book-loving daydreamer who offers Weeble refuge from the everyday degradations of life in her poor Midwestern family. Weeble fiercely protects Lauren, just as she protects her sister Annie. But there are forces at work she can’t withstand. When Richard Lee Grady arrives in town, he rips lives apart, including Weeble’s. Four years after college, Weeble has a new life, new friends, and the potential for love—if she can only admit what happened one hot July day in 1982.

ST. SEBASTIAN’S HEAD is a dark and riveting journey into the human heart, where fairy tales and incest, angels and demons, magical thinking and guilt, haunt one incredibly resilient woman.

For more information, view the trailer on LeAnn's website. The book is available online.

Congratulations, LeAnn!

Faculty Accomplishments this Summer

Mike Cadden made presentations on Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed at Joplin, Jefferson City, and Columbia public libraries as part of the ReadMORE program sponsored by the Missouri Humanities Council.

Jeanie Crain has been reappointed for another year to the AQIP Reaffirmation Panel. She will continue on the Advisory Council and on the Admissions Panel and will also continue to serve as a Peer Reviewer for Action Projects

Jane Frick was a certified scorer at the National Writing Project's (NWP) evaluation conference held in Chicago. She also participated in the National Writing Project's State and Regional Network's leadership team meeting, held in Cleveland, Ohio.

Susie Hennessy was named a Future Leaders fellow for the American Association of Teachers of French. The fellowship workshop took place at the association's annual meeting, held in Montreal in July. Hennessy also presented a summary of her teacher recruiting program at the conference. Her presentation was entitled: "The Academy of Future French Teachers: a Plan for Recruiting."

Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin delivered a paper at the 9th International Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment called "From Grief to Hope and Action: A Pedagogical Approach to Cross-Disciplinary Environmental Literature." She also participated in a seminar on Ecomedia for which she wrote and also presented a paper entitled "Blown, Burnt, and Swept Away by Nonfictional Realities."

Mary Stone Dockery publications

Mary Stone Dockery's poem "Pices Elegy" has been published in the on-line literary journal Blood Lotus. Read our fabulous EFLJ alumna's work here.

Mary has also published a non-fiction piece in Blue Print Review. She wrote the initial draft in Dr. Sawin's course on creative non-fiction.

Congratulations, Mary!