Sundeep Mullangi is featured in the Fall 2013 IWU Magazine as the New Alumni Association Board of Directors President.  To find out more about Sundeep’s vision for the Alumni Association you can click here.

Prisma, the Phoenix-based full-service marketing firm specializing in cost-effective print and digital solutions, recently named four Directors to lead the company’s strategic service teams including Andy Matznick, creative director.

Andy Matznick is an award winning graphic designer that began his career Illinois shortly after earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1997. Matznick then moved to Arizona and joined JWT Specialized Communications as an Art Director, where he developed campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. He continued honing his skills as Senior Graphic Designer and Art Director for almost a decade and earned a number of industry accolades for his work before joining Addison Clark as a Principal and Creative Director in 2007. Recently named Creative Director for Prisma, Matznick will lead the design team, guide aesthetic direction for Prisma’s clients and manage third party partners.

To learn more about Prisma call (602) 243–5777 or visit prismagraphic.com.

About Prisma
Founded in 1980, Prisma, headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz. is a full-service marketing solutions provider with an emphasis on commercial printing, specializing in online marketing supply chains. Prisma’s more than 170 employees work in a state-of-the-art 145,000-square-foot facility and offer a range of products and services, including heatset web, sheet fed, large format and variable digital printing; creative design; data analytics; warehousing; fulfillment; and complete in-house mailing. Prisma is repeatedly recognized for Print Excellence and has been voted #1 in Ranking Arizona magazine for the last six years. To learn more about Prisma visit prismagraphic.com.

Source:

http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/427252-1381348244-prisma-adds-to-team-appoints-directors.html

If you turn the tv on and happen upon FOX, you might recognize Justin Williams. Since graduating IWU Justin has had a remarkable reporting career, and says, “new challenges await … stay tuned.” To read Justin’s story please click here.

On July 17, over 2,500 alumni and friends made gifts to IWU totaling over $450,000. Unless otherwise specified by donors, all the money raised went to student scholarships and financial aid.  The “All in for Wesleyan” challenge began when Illinois Wesleyan Trustee John Horton ’82 and his wife, Joann, offered a gift of $100,000 if alumni and friends could raise $50,000 in one day.  When that challenge was met, several more challenges followed — and each was fulfilled.  Howard ’60 and Sharon ’60 Fricke offered a $10,000 gift if 600 donors participated.  Ed ’62 and Lin Phelps then offered $25,000 for 1,000 total donors.  Korey ’00 and Heidi Coon offered a $15,000 challenge for 1,200 donors.  Dr. Mike Sombeck ’83 offered $25,000 if we could reach 1,500.  Finally, at the end of the day, Dr. Randy ’73 & Jodie Reed offered $25,000 and Ed ’62 & Lin Phelps added $10,000 more to match every new gift, dollar for dollar…up to a total of $35,000 in gifts before midnight.

It was an exciting day to be a Titan.  The challenge became about so much more than numbers and dollars and donors.  It provided our alumni and friends with a chance to share their pride and explain how much IWU means to them.  If you weren’t following these conversations on social media, you can click here to read them now.  THANK YOU to all of our loyal alumni and friends who made July 17 an incredible day for our school and our students.

Melanie Keller ’97 was recently honored as best actress at the Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards (The Jeff Awards) in Chicago.

Keller was named Best Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for her work in “East of Berlin & The Russian Play,” a production of two plays by Hannah Moscovitch at Signal Ensemble Theatre.

The Jeff Awards acknowledge excellence in theatre in the Chicago area, evaluating over 250 theatrical productions for awards announced twice annually.

Daniel Kelly ’97 discusses the character and evolution of disgust in his book Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust (MIT Press), taking the reader on a journey from understanding why humans naturally avoid rot and toxic foods to the question of why we avoid certain people.  Now an associate professor of philosophy at Purdue University, Kelly became interested in the topic, in part, after a conversation with his graduate adviser over a Chinatown meal of blood tofu and duck tongue soup. His adviser savored the food; Kelly, not so much.

Kelly drew from numerous disciplines – from cognitive neuroscience to normative ethics – to explore the emotion.  Disgust was formed from two previously distinct psychological systems, according to Kelly. One system was designed to protect humans against consuming poisonous foods, and the other was designed to protect against catching infectious diseases. These two systems have fused into what is now recognized as a single emotion, according to Kelly.

Kelly’s interest in philosophy hearkens back to his first year at Illinois Wesleyan. “I came to Wesleyan as a computer science major, and one of the things that was so great was that I had a chance to take classes in topics I was genuinely interested in,” Kelly recalled. An introductory philosophy class resonated with Kelly, who eventually double majored in philosophy and English literature.

“At Wesleyan you could engage in the frank discussion of ideas, and professors were very much a part of creating that environment,” Kelly added. “It was a real joy to be able to argue with friends about things ranging from Hamlet’s soliloquies to scientific realism to the best Beatles album  – and a lot of those conversations continue intermittently today.”

Yuck! grew out of Kelly’s dissertation at Rutgers University, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 2007. “The project provided a perfect opportunity to do important philosophical work, weaving together the conceptual resources of several different approaches to explaining the operation and evolution of human cognition,” said Kelly.

On May 19 and 20, 2013, Maestro Sung Jin Hong conducted One World Symphony’s season finale concerts in NYC to critical acclaim. The symphonic program included all living composers such as John Adams, Andre Previn, and John Harbison, and concluded with the world premiere performance of Sung Jin Hong’s own original composition Edge (2013). Edge Is a monodrama for vocal soloist and full symphony based on Sylvia Plath’s final poem. The reviews can be found on http://www.oneworldsymphony.org/. 

Also, The Harlem Sound Project (HSP) commissioned Sung Jin Hong to compose a new work for a symphony of brass, percussion and saxophones. On May 5, 2013, HSP invited Sung Jin Hong to guest conduct the world premiere of his Harlem Fanfare (2013), which is inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem Harlem – Dream Deferred.