Lucas Fletcher performed an organ recital at First Presbyterian Church in Delavan, Illinois on Sunday, May 18th. Lucas’s performance was advertised in the Lincoln Courier, which also noted that “[t]he church’s Hinner’s pipe organ, manufactured in Pekin in 1914, became one of the largest in the region with the addition of components from the Wesleyan University chapel pipe organ in 1962.”
Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic society, is an undergraduate honors organization that recognizes excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
Rachel Branson and Joe O’Brien both won Liberal Arts Scholar Awards from Phi Beta Kappa this year. These awards recognize student work that engages, translates, and bridges academic disciplines and/or crosses traditional academic boundaries.
In the fall, Rachel and Joe will attend graduate school. Rachel will pursue a Ph.D. program in comparative literature at the University of Oregon, and Joe will pursue a master’s in studio art at Emily Carr University of Art & Design in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Nate Evans begins an internship with the Library of Congress in June. Nate was a double major in international studies and religion and will pursue a master’s degree in library sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
During a semester study abroad experience in Morocco, Nate worked to compile interviews and eventually published a story in Reporting Morocco, an online magazine. He credits his experiences in Morocco for his decision to pursue a career preserving history through library science.
Jeremy Duffee, international studies major and economics minor, was awarded the 2014 Technos International Prize, which recognizes a student who has excelled academically and has contributed to broadening international awareness and understanding.
Duffee spent his junior year at the University of Oxford through the Pembroke Program and was also a 2012-2014 John and Erma Stutzman Peace Fellow.
Illinois Wesleyan University celebrated the Class of 2014, one of the institution’s largest graduating classes, during the 164th Commencement ceremonies on May 4.
Alumnus speaker Deanna Jent ’84 told graduates to “Boldly write your story, but when another story starts to write you, surrender to that new narrative.” Class of 2014 graduates and their loved ones shared their excitement and well wishes on social media at #IWU2014.
You can view galleries of the ceremonies here. The list of 503 candidates for graduation can be found here. Three of those graduates, Jennifer Veitengruber, John Laughlin, and Jacklyn Morris, attended school together (mostly) since the first day of Kindergarten and were featured in the Pantagraph. Athena Cocallas, Hannah Smith, Josi Banales, Zach Smith, and Mary Jean Zyck were also featured in another Pantagraph article covering graduation.
Caitlyn Trevor and Akash Bhatia both co-presented with Dr. Joseph Plazak, assistant professor of music, at the national conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. Caitlyn presented on multi-modal music perception, and Akash on irregular meter preferences.
After completing senior-year research projects studying geographical patterns of reported criminal incidents in the Town of Normal, economics and political science double major Jake Bates participated in the national Undergraduate Ethics Symposium at DePauw University on April 10-12.
Bates has recently presented his work at the annual meetings of the Midwest Economics Association and shared his research with the police departments of Bloomington and Normal. He was also a member of the award-winning and national-qualifying Illinois Wesleyan Ethics Bowl team.
Sara Daley has been elected to the Capital One Academic All-District 7 Division III softball team and will be on the ballot for the Capital One Academic All-America Team, where All-America honorees will be elected later this month.
Previous experience as an archival intern at the McLean County Museum of History, Lauren believes, helped her win this prestigious MoMA internship.
Nora Peterson was selected to receive a summer scholarship for study in Alcalá de Henares, Spain at the Instituto Franklin-Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Peterson, an anthropology and women’s studies double major with a minor in hispanic studies, will study abroad for four weeks in July 2014 thanks to this scholarship through Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society.
