ENG 100 Class Adopts a Family

Dawn Terrick's ENG 100 class adopted a family for Christmas 2008. Read an account of their shopping adventures, the lead story in "Tower Topics" Week of Dec. 8-14, 2008: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/towertopics/

The Start of "New Lit Out Loud"

On Friday, November 21 Western students, staff, and faculty gathered with community members at Cafe Acoustic for the first "New Lit Out Loud." This new open mic night was the first of many to come. Canvas staff members are planning for this event to take place once a week beginning next semester, Spring 2009. Check back for more details on "New Lit Out Loud" and other similar events.

Dana Andrews read an excerpt from his short story about a man who is forced to go through the porn possessions of his dead brother-in-law in order to spare his wife, the dead man's sister, from the truth.

Dawn Terrick read a creative nonfiction piece about sorority life from a not-so-enthusiastic sorority sister.

Meg Thompson read pieces from her hilarious series that considers life from a terrorist's point of view. After all, how might a terrorist feel on a first date?

Mary Stone read poetry and excerpts with topics ranging from relationships and love to working in an adult goodies store.

More on "New Lit Out Loud" later!

Alumna Opens Photography Studio

Melissa (Bitterman) Cox, who received her B.A. in English/Technical Communication from Missouri Western in 2007, is the proud owner and proprietor of a new photography studio in St. Joseph. See her work and contact her here: http://www.lifeshots.co.cc/

Congratulations and Good Luck, Melissa!

A Reading!

The creative spirits are planning another reading of poetry and prose at the following date and place:

Where: Cafe Acoustic, 2605 Frederick Avenue
When: Friday, Nov. 21, 6-9 p.m.
Who: Student, staff, faculty, and community writers.
Why: Because they can. They're writers. They do these things.

For more info, contact kstrasser@missouriwestern.edu

Faculty and Student Accomplishments

Four students involved in the Summer Research Institute presented their work at the national Convergence and Society conference in Columbia, South Carolina. Kallie Hartigan, a convergent journalism major, and David Hon, a Platte City senior who will be majoring in convergent media at Western next year, presented "Islands in the Streaming: Multimedia and Interactive Features on U.K. Daily Newspaper Websites." The team of Hartigan, Hon, video production major Sarah Noe and faculty supervisor Bob Bergland conducted the study of daily newspapers in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand and U.S. college newspapers during the SRI program in 2008. Bergland, Noe and Lisa Crawford, a journalism and BSE English major, presented their paper, "Multimedia Features of U.S. Daily Newspaper Websites: A 2007 Content Analysis," based on a similar study of U.S. paper websites in a 2007 SRI project. Bergland, Noe, Hon and Hartigan also presented "The Urge to Converge: A 2008 College Newspaper Website Analysis" at the National College Media Convention in Kansas City.

Dr. Susan Hennessy presented a paper, "Foreign Bodies" about midwifery in nineteenth-century France, at the annual Colloquium on Nineteenth-Century French Studies in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dr. Jane Frick represented the National Writing Project's State and Regional Networks Leadership team at the 2008 Fall Conference on Content Area Learning sponsored by the Kentucky Writing Project State Network at Murray State University, Murray, KY.

Prairie Lands Writing Project held its annual Saturday regional conference for educators, “Content Area Learning: Teaching in an Online World." Sixty-five teachers participated in keynote sessions conducted by Kevin Hodgson, grade six teacher in Southampton, MA, and technology panels and lesson presentations conducted by Prairie Lands Writing Project (PLWP) Teacher Consultants, including MWSU English faculty members Tom Pankiewicz, Patricia Donaher, and Meredith Katchen. Conference presentation handouts are published at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/08saturdayseminar/info.html. Also at the conference, PLWP's 2009 Invitational Institute cohort of 17 area teachers, including Patricia Brost, MWSU adjunct English instructor, were recognized for receiving their National Writing Project Teacher Consultant Certification. Jane Frick was this year's conference coordinator.

Dr. Ken Rosenauer attended the 57th Fall National College Media Convention in Kansas City sponsored by College Media Advisers and Associated Collegiate Press. Rosenauer, who is president of CMA, led two days of board meetings prior to the convention, which drew 2,040 media advisers, journalism educators, and their students from around the country. More than 400 sessions — covering all aspects of media — were offered to those attending. CMA represents more than 800 media advisers from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

Tips From Seasoned Teachers

The Student Affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (SNCTE) will be hosting its annual "Surviving the First Quarter of Teaching" panel on Monday, November 10 at 5:00 p.m. in Eder 223.

At this event, Missouri Western graduates in Elementary and Secondary Education return to share how they survived their first quarter of teaching. This year’s panelists:

Mark Henderson, a language arts teacher from Maur Hill-Mount Academy
Barbara Meyers, an art teacher from Spring Garden Middle School
Cindy McMurtrey, a special education teacher from Central High School
Ronald Knight, a sixth-grade teacher from Noyes Elementary School

This event is free and open to the public. Mark your calendars…and we look forward to seeing you there!

Hubert to become rare Griffon-Bearcat-Tiger

Lynn Hubert (English, Public Relations, `92) successfully defended her dissertation proposal titled, "Emerging Donors: Women's Philanthropy and Motivations for Giving to a Religiously Affiliated, Research I, Private University." Her doctorate will be granted through the College of Education (Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis) at University of Missouri-Columbia. She plans to defend her dissertation in Spring, 2009, and gradaute in May, 2009. Lynn is currently employed by University of Notre Dame as Director of Regional Development. Lynn received her MA from some university up the road from us.

Contact Lynn at lhubert@nd.edu.