Author Archives: Ann Aubry

Vock Named Lincoln Laureate

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Emily Vock, a senior political science and history double major from Wheaton, Ill., has been named Illinois Wesleyan University’s recipient of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate Award. Each year, the academy honors seniors from each of Illinois’ higher learning institutions who have excelled in academics or extra-curricular programs.

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois honored the student laureates for their contributions to Illinois society with a ceremony held on Nov. 7 at the Old State Capitol in Springfield and a luncheon in the Governor’s Mansion, where they received a certificate and a medallion.

A committee chose Vock from a pool of Illinois Wesleyan seniors in late October. Said Vock, “I feel so honored to have been named the Lincoln Laureate. I am surrounded by incredible students who simultaneously excel in the classroom and work to improve our campus and community through extracurricular activities and involvement. To have even been considered for such an award among our amazing student body is a very humbling experience.”

Alumnus Bikes Latin America to Educate Urban Youth

After graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University, alumni depart on many different paths, some settle into comfortable corner offices, while others are pushing pennies to make it through graduate school. Still others, like 2005 alumnus Doug Pietrzak, take the path less traveled.

Currently, Pietrzak is biking through the winding mountains of Nicaragua with three other volunteers as a part of an eight-month, 5,000-mile bike trip through Latin America for the Reach the World education program. The not-for-profit organization funds environmentally friendly global journeys to help educate students in under-resourced schools in the cities of New York and Chicago. Their goal is to expand the power of learning beyond the classroom, and bring other cultures to life within the classroom.

For this trip, there are 12 Chicago schools, or about 2,500 students following the adventures of Pietrzak and his three fellow travelers. The students from these select schools experience the trip through pictures, blogs and articles written by the travelers. In class, the students respond to questions posted on the Web site and ask questions about the various cultures.

Pietrzak volunteered to join the organization after teaching for three years in under-resourced schools in Chicago. The alumnus, who bikes to work year round, jumped at the opportunity when he discovered it on the couchsurfing Web site. “I saw the post entitled biking/teaching/traveling and thought, ‘I have never seen a job more perfect for me.’”

Visiting Professors Make Journey a Family Affair

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It is a brisk morning on the Illinois Wesleyan University campus. Two professors, Saloua Zerhouni and Driss Maghraoui, prepare for classes in an office on the first floor of the Center for Liberal Arts Building on Beecher Street.

“Is it usually this cold this time of year?” asks Zerhouni, the Fulbright Visiting Professor this fall at Illinois Wesleyan. Zerhouni’s husband, Maghraoui, smiles.

The weather today is colder than the mild temperature you could find this time of the year in Morocco, where Zerhouni and Maghraoui teach. She is an assistant professor of political science at the public Mohammed V University, Souissi, in Rabat; and he is an assistant professor of history at the private Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. They are teaching this semester at Illinois Wesleyan with the help of a grant from the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. Though they have both worked in the United States before, this time is different.

The couple, who have been married since 2000, brought more than their academic expertise to Bloomington. They brought their family – Adam, age 7; Ayoub, age 4; and 11-month-old Nouha – in the hopes of creating a greater cultural understanding.

Rock Show Posters and Easter Eggs at Art Galleries

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Exhibits by artists Jennifer Crescuillo and Burlesque of North America will be on display at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Merwin and Wakeley Galleries beginning Tuesday, Nov. 10 with an artist’s lecture to take place from 4 to 5 p.m. and an opening reception for both shows from 5 to 6 p.m. in the galleries (6 Ames Plaza, Bloomington).

All exhibits and events are free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. The galleries will be closed Nov. 24 through Nov. 29 for Thanksgiving Break, as well as closed Dec. 1.

The Merwin Gallery will feature Burlesque of North America, a graphic design and screenprinting studio based in Minneapolis, Minn. The studio is formed by a group that once worked on the no longer existent graffiti magazine, Life Sucks Die. Burlesque, lead by creative directors Wes Winship and Mike Davis, has since created album artwork, logos, T-shirt graphics, and concert posters for such groups as The Arcade Fire, Phish, and MGMT. Their Merwin Gallery display will focus on the rock show posters and art prints which have been published, designed and screenprinted at the studio.

Honor Society to Install New Chapter at Illinois Wesleyan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Mortar Board has announced that Illinois Wesleyan University has been selected to host the 228th chartered chapter of Mortar Board, a prominent national honor society for college seniors.

The group will officially become a chartered chapter at a special installation ceremony held on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. in the Davidson Room of the Memorial Center (104 E. University St., Bloomington). Twenty-two collegiate members and will be inducted into the society.

Mortar Board is a prestigious national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. Since its founding in 1918, the organization has grown from four founding chapters to what will soon be 228 chartered collegiate chapters with nearly a quarter of a million initiated members across the nation. The chapter will be named “Egas,” in honor of IWU’s inactive senior women’s honor society, established at the University in 1937. All of the chapter’s 220 former members will also be invited to become full members of Mortar Board at this time.

Pratt Scholars Travel to White House

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Pratt Music Scholars of Illinois Wesleyan University’s Preparatory Music Program have been invited to the White House on Nov. 3 and 4 to participate in activities surrounding the Classical Music Performance. The performance is a part of the White House Music Series organized by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Members of the community are encouraged to attend the trip’s send-off on Nov. 3 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Supporters will meet in the Bloomington-Normal Airport visitor waiting area where there will be a banner, signs, balloons and treats. All are encouraged to wear something red, white or blue to help students identify their supporters.

While in Washington, D.C., the students will take lessons from musicians Awadagin Pratt, Joshua Bell, Alisia Weilerstein and Sharon Isbin, after which they will attend an afternoon concert at the executive residence.

Awadagin Pratt, the award-winning concert pianist with roots in Bloomington-Normal, helped arrange for the students to be invited to the event. He founded the Pratt Foundation in 1997. The Pratt Music Scholars are supported by funds provided by community members as well as corporate sponsor State Farm® and the foundation has raised about $200,000 to date. These funds provide music lessons with Illinois Wesleyan music instructors through the Illinois Wesleyan Preparatory Music Program as well as make certain that the students have music and instruments as needed.

Alumnus Explores What Makes National Constitutions Work

The idea of a national constitution may bring to mind images of stately leaders inscribing the words that will steer the course of a country for centuries. That image is a myth, said Illinois Wesleyan University 2003 alumnus James Melton.

A new book co-written by Melton aims to dispel notions of a constitution as something unchanging or permanent. “We tend to look at constitutions as if they are written in stone, yet the expected lifespan of a country’s constitution is around 19 years,” said Melton, who offered his insights to the Illinois Wesleyan campus at a lecture recently in Beckman Auditorium of The Ames Library.

Melton discussed the book, The Endurance of National Constitutions (Cambridge University Press, 2009), co-written by law professors Tom Ginsburg of University of Chicago Law School and Zachary Elkins of the University of Texas at Austin Law School, and Melton. For the past five years, the three scholars, along with a team of researchers, have been collecting data on all formally written constitutions of independent nations since 1789. Their observations and findings make up the new book, which was released this month. Speaking about The Endurance of National Constitutions brought Melton back to Illinois from the ancient city of Lucca, Italy, where he now works as a postdoctoral fellow with the IMT (Institutions, Markets, Technologies) Institute for Advance Studies.

In the book, the trio explores what political conditions create an enduring constitution. Each constitution is set against an extensive 669-question survey to analyze how well it meets the book’s criteria for a lasting constitution, which includes how flexible the constitution is for future change, how ideas were included in the drafting process and throughout the life of the constitution, and how great the level of detail was in created the groundwork for the document.

Student Witnessed Iran Elections

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Iranian presidential election was a topic of international discussion and dispute this summer. The election garnered worldwide attention, especially after protestors took to the streets of Iran disputing the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Information about the election was limited for international observers. All foreign press was expelled from Iran during the election. While the election proceedings were closed to the rest of the world, Illinois Wesleyan University junior Sara Ghadiri was able to spend the summer in Tehran and witness first-hand the election fervor.

Ghadiri, whose father was born in Iran, claims dual-citizenship and was therefore able to vote in the presidential elections. As a political science major, Ghadiri was excited by the amount of political activism that occurred in Iran during the election. “People of all convictions, all social classes and all beliefs came to the polls. I was so amazed to see the mass turnout, what ended up being over 70 percent of the eligible voting population,” said Ghadiri.

Iranian citizens also became active in the campaign process. “Pre-election, I can tell you that the atmosphere was absolutely electric. There were people in the street every night handing out posters and flyers,” said Ghadiri, “So many people were involved in campaigning that it was impossible to walk down the street in Tehran without seeing someone handing out literature, a newspaper or a green piece of ribbon or cloth.” Green was the color of Mousavi’s campaign advertisements, while Ahmadinejad chose red.

Ghadiri collected many of these campaign materials and brought them back with her to the Illinois Wesleyan campus in order to analyze them. “My research is still in data collection phase now. I have collected, cataloged and translated everything I brought back,” said Ghadiri. Her ability to read and speak Farsi, the official language of Iran, has been helpful in her analysis of campaign materials. “I am now working on a thesis synthesizing my research. I have been working with both Professor Jim Simeone and Professor Kathleen Montgomery on the project, so it’s still evolving,” said Ghadiri.

Alumnae Make Broadway Debut in Ragtime

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Numerous alumni of the Illinois Wesleyan University music and theatre departments have made the transition from the cozy, quaint McPherson Theatre and the ornate, chestnut stage of Westbrook Auditorium, to the lights of Broadway and the red carpet of Hollywood. This year the departments boast two more successful alumnae, recent graduates Lisa Karlin ’06 and Bryonha Parham ’07.

On Nov. 15, the young women make their Broadway debut in Ragtime revival at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City.

The musical transports its audience back to the early 1900’s and intertwines the lives of three distinctly different groups of people. In the performance, Karlin plays a female swing lead, covering multiple female roles and Parham plays the friend of the female lead.

Both alumnae graduated with bachelors of fine arts in music theatre and spent their four years at Illinois Wesleyan immersed in the theatre department.

West Bloomington Revitalization Partnership Receives Award

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The West Bloomington Revitalization Partnership (WBRP) will receive the American Planning Association Award for their strategic plan in improving the neighborhood of West Bloomington. The award will be presented at the city council meeting Monday, Oct. 26.

> Read the plan (pdf)

The honor acknowledges the hard work of multiple community organizations, members of the Illinois Wesleyan University faculty and staff, as well as 13 IWU Action Research students who are working to improve the West Bloomington neighborhood.

Illinois Wesleyan has worked with the WBRP since it’s inception in the spring of 2008, and placed two summer interns with the association, senior sociology major Aaron Massey and senior political science major Mike Kotz. The Action Research Seminar class in the fall of 2008 also contributed to the program, focusing their research on the youth on the Westside. Currently, junior sociology major Bianca Spratt and junior business administration major Brittini Gray are working for the organization.

The WBRP developed after community members identified West Bloomington as a concern and in need of intervention. After surveying a portion of the neighborhood and obtaining feedback, the partnership created an improvement plan with six key components; Greening, Youth, Safety, Economic Development, Housing and Education. Each topic has a list of short and long-term goals that will be implemented in the coming months and years.

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