Author Archives: Ann Aubry

Portfolio Class Worth a Million to Students

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Studying the market trends, researching companies on the S&P 500, considering long-range performance – these are all practices of any investment analyst. The only difference in this case is that the analysts are students.

The Illinois Wesleyan University class in Portfolio Management challenges students to research and evaluate an investment portfolio. Unlike other college portfolio classes, the stocks these IWU students manage are real.

“Students learning to understand investing through classes is growing throughout universities across the country, but many of them have undergraduate students use phantom funds,” said Elisabeta Pana, assistant professor of finance at IWU. “Our students have made educated suggestions to an actual Client Board. This is not a hypothetical situation.”

The portfolio fund at Illinois Wesleyan is in the form of an endowment, donated in the early 1990s by Savannah, Ga. businessman C. Leroy Benner, who learned of IWU from his friend, 1949 alumnus Jack Liston. The two decided to provide more than $100,000 for a fund where students could learn the real impact of investing. Other donations followed, including a recent gift from the Benner estate. Students began analyzing the portfolio in 1995, and after 12 years of student management, the fund now tops more than $1 million.

“This is a great opportunity,” said senior business administration major Michael McQuillan. “I’m looking forward to going into job interviews and telling them I’ve already worked on a million-dollar account.”

Alumnus Honored by NAACP

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Erwin Davis, a 1980 Illinois Wesleyan University graduate, has been named the recipient of the 2007 Community Service Award for the Bloomington-Normal Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was honored Thursday at the annual Freedom Fund Banquet in Bloomington.

“Really, the honor has not sunk in,” said Erwin, speaking on his cell phone last week as he stepped off an elevator in Washington, D.C., where he was working with legislators on behalf of the National Urban League. “I think of the work I’ve done as being part of a group effort, and we all have good reasons for giving back.”

Davis, a manager with State Farm Insurance Companies in Bloomington, said he has four good reasons for giving to the community – his four children. “I take education personally because of my kids,” said Davis, who sits on the Bloomington-Normal Education Achievement Gap Task Force, and serves on the boards for the McLean County Urban League and Tri-County Urban League. “I consider education the key to one’s success. An intelligent ability in today’s society is critical. I wanted that for my children, and that’s why I have always put an emphasis on educational achievement.”

Scholar At Risk Joins Illinois Wesleyan Faculty

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— When militaries overrun governments and dictators rise to power, it is most often the universities and centers of learning that are the first to become targets, said Taye Woldesmiate, visiting associate professor of political science at Illinois Wesleyan University. “Education is key to any democratic process. Education leads to questions and to knowing your rights. Autocrats are always against education. It is their way of defending their powers.”

Woldesmiate should know. He spent six years in an Ethiopian prison after speaking out openly against the government, and now comes to Illinois Wesleyan as a Scholar at Risk (SAR). “Any armed group who comes to power is not going to give it up with an election,” said Woldesmiate, who joined the IWU faculty this fall as a visiting professor. “They can always try to come back with a bogus election, but an educated electorate will refuse that. That is why autocrats are afraid of education.”

Illinois Wesleyan is a founding member of the Scholars at Risk Network, an international group of over 80 colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world that promotes academic freedom and defends the human rights of scholars worldwide. Scholars at Risk institutions provide sanctuary for persecuted educators, such as Woldesmiate, by hosting them as visiting professors, lecturers, researchers or students.

Alumna Fighting Disease One Germ at a Time

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Emily Richter admits her childhood fantasies differed from other children. “I’ve been thinking about going off and fighting diseases since I was about nine years old,” said Richter, a 2005 Illinois Wesleyan University graduate with a degree in biology. Unlike many who dreamed of being ballerinas or rock stars, Richter’s dream is coming true.

Currently a graduate student in microbiology at Arizona State University in Tempe, Richter is part of a team at the Biodesign Institute housed at ASU, which is studying the effects of Salmonella typhimurium, the bacteria known for causing food poisoning. The team, headed by Dr. Cheryl Nickerson, recently made international headlines with research that sent samples of the bacteria aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Recently published data found the bacteria became more virulent after the trip into space.

According to the research, spaceflight conditions, including fluid shear dynamics, can affect the genetics of the bacteria, making it more virulent. “When you get into space, there is less gravity, so there is nothing pressing on the sides of the bacteria,” said Richter. “Bacteria tends to grow in the intestinal track for the same reason, there is less fluid shear on the bacteria slowing it down. In space, without that weight of gravity that pulls on all human, the fluid shear is even less, and the bacteria can grow faster.”

Richter, who utilizes novel 3-D tissue culture models to study how Salmonella attacks human tissues, revels in the chance to work on the team. “This is an incredible experience, both with the research and meeting people who work in the space program,” she said. “Dr. Nickerson’s work is so fantastic and has a chance for a real, global impact.”

National Science Foundation Grant to Expand Psychology Studies

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- The National Science Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to Joseph Williams, associate professor of psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University, which will go toward purchasing an EEG acquisition machine, or electroencephalography machine, to expand research within the Psychology Department.

“EEG technology can help us understand how the brain processes information, and why problems might arise in memory or critical thinking,” said Williams, who teaches courses in behavioral neuroscience. “For instance, we can map out how changes in brain activity allow us to better encode and recall visual information or how changes in brain activity relate to mistakes in remembering information. The new EEG recording system will allow IWU students more in-depth exploration of the complex interaction between brain and behavior.”

EEG readings record cellular activity in the brain, which allows us to see how the brain actually processes information. “We know what can affect behavior before the tests begin – influences such as self-esteem, age, even physical fitness. We can also observe decisions. Using the EEG machine fills in the blanks in the middle, allowing us to watch subjects’ brain activity as they make decisions,” said Jason Themanson, assistant professor of psychology at IWU.

Currently, the University has an EEG acquisition machine, but Williams said its capacity is limited. “The EEG acquisition machine we have can analyze three regions of the brain at once. The new machine will be able to look at 64 regions at once,” said Williams. “This is a giant leap in our ability to answer important research questions that our students are interested in studying.”

Beam Signing at Minor Myers jr. Welcome Center to be Part of Homecoming Festivities

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – During the Illinois Wesleyan University’s Homecoming festivities there will be a unique opportunity to leave a mark on part of Wesleyan’s campus. Two 13 foot steel beams, which will be used for the construction of the Minor Myers jr. Welcome Center (MMWC), will be available to be signed by students, faculty, staff, and alums throughout Homecoming weekend.

Painted IWU green, the beams will be positioned on the south lawn of Evelyn Chapel on Saturday, October 20 at 11 a.m., and will remain there until Monday October 22 at 6 p.m. The beams will be available to be signed that Saturday through Monday October 22 from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

On Saturday, after the winners from 8th Annual Classic Car Show are announced on the Eckley Quadrangle, a ceremony will be held at the site of the future Welcome Center, prior to the beam signing. The ceremony will begin at 10:55 a.m. Speaking at the ceremony will be President Richard F. Wilson, Dean of Enrollment Management Robert Murray, and Career Center Director Warren Kistner.

The beams will be positioned in the front of the MMWC as it is constructed, and eventually will be part of the roof structure.

New Fellows Program Supports Peace Studies

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A new fellows program at Illinois Wesleyan University is helping students discover new avenues for peace. “Peace is not the absence of war. It is something much greater, that takes much more work,” said Erma Stutzman, who, with husband John Stutzman, is sponsoring the new Peace Fellows Program at Illinois Wesleyan, which will offer student fellows mentoring and financial support for studies that forward the idea of peace and justice.

“We all live in a fractured and violent world, not just internationally, but at all levels of society – in business, homes, marriages, personal contacts and the community,” said John Stutzman, a retired urologist who has volunteered in violence-torn nations such as Haiti. “The idea of the program is to promote peace, justice and reconciliation.”

A former member of the University Board of Trustees, Stutzman said he and his wife thought Illinois Wesleyan would be a strong place to start the Peace Fellows Program. “The number of colleges and universities instituting peace studies programs is increasing,” he said. “We knew Illinois Wesleyan would be a good platform for a program here.”

Formulated this spring, two students were selected to be the inaugural Peace Fellows. One of the students, junior Holly Aldrich of Elmhurst, began her studies this fall. “One of the reasons I chose Illinois Wesleyan is that it affords personal growth and the pursuit of that which I am passionate in a very challenging academic setting,” said Aldrich, a Women’s Studies major, who plans to expand her studies of involuntary female circumcision, and may use her fellowship to work in Africa. “What we have at Illinois Wesleyan are the tools for social change,” said Aldrich. “We have a student population here that is responsive.”

From Dante to Hogwarts: IWU to host MUSE Undergraduate Literature Conference

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University will offer 35 students from 19 academic institutions the opportunity to present undergraduate work in literature during the third annual MUSE Undergraduate Literature Conference on Saturday, Oct. 6, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. and the first of three sessions to begin at 9:00 a.m. in the Center for Natural Science (CNS) (201 Beecher St., Bloomington).Wendy Wall, chair of Northwestern University’s Department of English, will deliver the keynote address titled “At Home with Shakespeare” at 12:30 p.m. in CNS E101.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by IWU’s Alpha Eta Pi chapter of the international English honor society Sigma Tau Delta (STD) with the assistance of Illinois State University’s Lambda Delta chapter of STD and IWU’s Department of English.

Expanding significantly after its first two years, MUSE features students from IWU and ISU in addition to students from as near as Knox College and St. Francis University to as far away as the University of Pittsburg and the University of Montenegro.

Students will present works of literary analysis and criticism at MUSE that range from classic (“‘Stolen Rolls’ and Different Souls: An Examination of Plato’s Theory of Forms in the Lives of Levin and Oblonsky”) to contemporary (“What’s Wrong With Hogwarts?”) to seemingly bizarre (“‘A Backward Glance’ at The House of Mirth: How Future-consciousness is Necessary for the Creation of Fictional Memory”).

The conference will also feature a panel devoted to post-graduation options for literature students, including information on professional and graduate school opportunities, as well as careers in education.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Addresses Convocation

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder asked Illinois Wesleyan University students to be more inspired than he was in his youth.

“Now, I’m 61, it’s too late for me,” joked Kidder, addressing the IWU President’s Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 26, in a speech punctuated with humor and a message – do what you love and use it to change the world. “For most of you the question of what you’re going to do with your lives has not been answered, though it is the one question you cannot stop asking yourself.”

Hear the address.

Kidder’s speech, titled “One Way to Live a Meaningful Life,” followed the subject of his novel Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Could Cure the World. The book was the focus of Illinois Wesleyan’s 2007 Summer Reading Program, which all first-year students were assigned.

“Dr. Farmer’s message, it would seem to me, is a plea that we pay attention to the world as it really is,” said Kidder, who followed Farmer for several months as the world-renown physician worked tirelessly to fight illness and establish “poverty with dignity” for people in Haiti, Moscow and Peru with clean water, livable housing and medical attention. “If we see a bag lady or a drunk sleeping in a doorway, our first reaction is to get as far away from them as we can,” said Kidder. “Farmer’s message is don’t do that. Don’t join what seems to be America’s collective amnesia to human suffering.”

Telling stories of Farmer’s adventures, Kidder spoke of his eclectic upbringing, his days among the wealthy at Duke University and his struggles to create Partners In Health, a not-for-profit organization. Contending that Farmer, with his boundless energy and determination, is unique, Kidder still believes he is an inspiration to guide students not to “forget the forgotten people” of the world.

I-Society and International Office to Launch “World Piece”

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In a joint effort, the Illinois Wesleyan University International Society Student Organization (I-Society), and the International Office will launch “World Piece,” a series of hour-long student-led discussions focusing on current global issues.

The first discussion, on Monday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m., will be led by junior international studies major Anna File, who studied in China last year. It will take place at the International House (Kemp Hall, 1207 N. Main St., Bloomington). IWU students, faculty and staff, as well as members of the community are invited to attend.

I-Society is a student organization that promotes cultural awareness on the IWU campus, brings together students of various ethnicities, and encourages IWU students to study abroad. I-Society also sponsors the I-Carnivale, an annual festival that celebrates the multiple cultures on campus.

President of the organization, Hoang Nguyen said, “With an increase in international students [at IWU], the time is right to expand the scope of I-Society. In recent years, we have focused our energy on the I-Carnivale in the spring, but we’re taking time this year to do other activities and ‘World Piece’ is one of them.”

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