Author Archives: Ann Aubry

Annual Conference Highlights Student Research, Creativity

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference will be held at Illinois Wesleyan University on Saturday, April 10 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. across campus, featuring keynote speaker and chemist Timothy Zwier.

The event is free and open to the public.

The day will be dedicated to student research, whether through poster and oral presentations, music performances or art displays. A unique opportunity for undergraduates to be recognized for their research endeavors, the 2010 conference will include presentations from a broad range of disciplines. In the past, these have included posters from students in fields such as economics, environmental studies, Greek and Roman studies, theatre, biology and business administration. Research posters will be displayed in morning and afternoon sessions along with 10 sessions of 15-minute oral presentations.

The day’s keynote speaker will be the M. G. Mellon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Timothy Zwier of Purdue University, who will speak at 1:30 p.m. in Anderson Auditorium of the Center for Natural Sciences (CNS) (201 Beecher St., Bloomington). His speech is entitled “The Happy Marriage Between Laser and Supersonic Expansion.”

Economic Downturn a ‘Teaching Moment’

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – While the current recession is causing financial woes, it is offering an opportunity for economics and business administration professors at Illinois Wesleyan University to connect with students.

“As they say in academia, this is a great teaching moment,” said Chair of the Economics Department Diego Mendez-Carbajo. “It is providing a wealth of real-life examples of what we have been teaching all along.”

Teaching about unemployment and inflation can be difficult in an economically successful country, said Mendez-Carbajo. “When you try to teach to our students that inflation is a problem, but the economy has been going for 10 consecutive years with low levels of inflation, no one believes you,” he said. “It’s ironic, but a recession can be perceived as a blessing for teaching economics because it can put things into perspective.”

The lessons being taught in classes have not changed, but the economic downturn is providing students with a new awareness. “I’ve always talked about the ups and downs of the business cycle,” said Professor of Business Administration Bill Walsh, who teaches courses on management and human resources. “The only difference now is that students aren’t thinking of these cycles in terms of history anymore.”

Illinois Sustainable Living & Wellness Expo to Explore How to Live Well, Live Green

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Sustainable Living & Wellness Expo will bring new opportunities for people to discover how to live well and live green. The Expo will include educational workshops, food demonstrations, music performances, a kids’ carnival, an artists’ venue, a mother/daughter class on Middle Eastern dance and the local premiere of the movie No Impact Man.

A kickoff for the Saturday event will be held on Friday when Jay Truty, founder of Ecosystem Capital, LLC, will be the keynote speaker. Truty, a 1996 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan, practiced environmental and natural resources law for almost 10 years before creating Ecosystem Capital in 2008, which specializes in providing assistance to landowners, corporations, financial institutions, conservation organizations and government entities to develop innovative and market-based ecosystem services. His kickoff speech, titled “Creating Ecosystems of Nature,” will be at noon in the Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington) on Friday, April 9.

The Expo, slated for Saturday, April 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be in the Shirk Center for Athletics and Recreation (302 E. Emerson St., Bloomington) at Illinois Wesleyan University and is free and open to the public.

May Term Travel Courses Offer Vivid Classrooms

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Biology Given Harper believes he knows the location of the best classroom on earth.

“On the edge of an extinct volcano, you can watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean with brightly colored toucans in the trees and howler monkeys calling around you. It is virgin rainforest,” said Harper, who has been leading a contingent of students to study the rainforest of Costa Rica on and off over the last decade. “It is a chance to experience the world’s most exquisite biodiversity in a National Geographic-like setting.”

The trip is part of a May Term travel course – a few weeks each May when several Illinois Wesleyan professors take students to places across the globe to bring the teachings of the classroom to life. This year, 11 professors will lead students to locations from the Sistine Chapel in Italy to the rainforests of Costa Rica to businesses in Latvia. For faculty, the travels affords the chance to make their teachings jump off the textbook page.

Alumna Receives Optometry Scholarship

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Lindsay Sicks, Class of 2006, was awarded one of five $2,000 scholarships given to optometry students nationwide by the Heart of America Contact Lens Society (HOACLS). She received a travel fellowship to attend the 2010 meeting of the HOACLS in Kansas City, Mo. held in February.

Sicks, a native of Orland Park, Ill. attends the Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) in Chicago. She was nominated for the award by the contact lens faculty at ICO and will be graduating in May with a Doctorate in Optometry.

Students to Help Georgia Flood Victims on Alternative Spring Break

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – On March 13, at 5:30 a.m. approximately 40 Illinois Wesleyan students and four faculty and staff members will embark on a weeklong volunteer trip to Atlanta, Ga., to help with disaster relief in the community. The students are part of Illinois Wesleyan University’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB), an organization created through the Student Volunteer Center to give students the opportunity for a non-traditional spring break vacation.

The ASB students will be assisting in disaster relief after the flooding that took place in Atlanta this past September.

Assistant Dean of Students Kevin Clark is the director of the Student Volunteer Center. According to Clark, “Students will be rebuilding homes but also working in the local community center and helping with job placement of those who were unable to find work after the disaster. All work will be done on a day-by-day basis and we will do whatever is needed.”

Nursing Alumna Honored with Gale Keeran Spirit of Success Award

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Barbara Nathan was honored Tuesday, March 9, with the 2010 Gale Keeran Spirit of Success Award at the annual Women’s Health Night at the Interstate Center in Bloomington.

According to the award sponsor, the Illinois Heart & Lung Foundation, the recipient of the award possess a “spirit of success” that has made this community a better place to live. The honor was named after the late Gale Keeran, a community leader and former chair of the Bloomington Cultural District.

A 1980 graduate from Illinois Wesleyan, Nathan spent 15 years in nursing and hospital administration with BroMenn Healthcare in Normal. In 1996, she became the executive director of the Community Cancer Center and its Foundation, which has raised more than $9 million for a continuum of cancer care from community education on prevention and early detection, to treatment and survivor services.

Wesleyana Memories to Return for New Generation

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It has been a decade without seeing the smiling faces of Illinois Wesleyan University students gracing the pages of a yearbook. The last issue of the Wesleyana was printed in 2000, and then discontinued when no one stepped forward to take up the helm.

This year, the Wesleyana returns. The planned 160-page tome with its theme of “restart” is set to be printed in April, with sophomore Cameron Ohlendorf at the head. A business major from Beecher, Ill., Ohlendorf said he felt something was missing on campus without the Wesleyana. “Where is the history of what our classes are doing? There really isn’t one right now,” he said.

Sitting in the sparse Wesleyana office in the Memorial Center, Ohlendorf flops open a 1985 yearbook to answer the question of what inspired him to resurrect the publication. “Those are my parents,” he said, pointing to a smiling couple in the glossy pages. Greg and Melissa (Packard) Ohlendorf were both editors of the Wesleyana when they attended IWU. “They got me interested in yearbooks in high school, and when I got here I figured it was something I could restart,” said Ohlendorf, who notes his parents have been proud of his efforts.

Alumni Mark Celebration for 50th Anniversary of Nursing Degree

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In April, the Illinois Wesleyan University School of Nursing will host an event that celebrates more than an anniversary. It will celebrate the field of nursing. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Illinois Wesleyan offering a four-year bachelor of science degree in nursing. To commemorate that date, the school is hosting “Celebrate Nursing, Celebrate Gold,” a day of events on campus on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

“We wanted to create an event that will not only allow our graduates and current students to look back, but also allow them to look towards the future,” said Vickie Folse, director of the School of Nursing.

Registration for the event is due by March 30. For registration information, go to the School of Nursing Web site.

Bulgarian Tradition Brings Hope for Spring

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Though Illinois Wesleyan University’s campus may not yet be covered in budding trees and flocking birds, students who are aware of the Bulgarian tradition of the martenitsa will be ready to embrace these signs of spring.

The martenitsa is a small piece of adornment made from yarn that is worn starting on March 1. This day marks the Bulgarian holiday Baba Marta, which means Grandmother March, and celebrates the beginning of the end of winter. Friends tie martenitsi to each others’ wrists while making wishes. Wearing it brings the hope that winter will pass quickly and that removing it will bring health and good luck. These martenitsi are red and white to symbolize blood and purity, which combined, mean health. They are worn until the first time an individual sees a stork, swallow or budding tree. When any of these symbols of spring are spotted, the owner of the martenitsa either ties it to the tree that they saw in bloom or puts the martenitsa under a stone in the area they saw the forementioned bird. This is symbolic of passing one’s own luck onto the surrounding nature.

Seniors Stefan Stoev and Teddy Petrova are both senior economics and finance double majors from Bulgaria; Stoev is from Plovdiv while Petrova is from Silistra. These Illinois Wesleyan students celebrate the coming of spring by bringing martenitsi to the campus.

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