BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus Richard Spilman is the recipient of the Sacramento Poetry Center Award for his book In the Night Speaking (SPC Press, 2009).

The book is Spilman’s fourth publication to receive accolades. His collection of short stories, Hot Fudge, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1990. His chapbook Suspension won the New American Press Award in 2006. His most recent book, a collection of short fiction titled The Estate Sale, won the George Garrett Prize in December of 2009 and will be published by the Texas Review Press in 2010.

Spilman shared his memories of Illinois Wesleyan with Professor of English and Chair of the English Department James Plath on his blog.

Born and raised in Normal, Ill., Spilman graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1968. He earned a master’s degree from San Francisco State University and a doctorate from State University of New York at Binghamton. He now teaches creative writing at Wichita State University in Kansas.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus George Younts has received the 2009 Outstanding Theatre Educator Award from the South Carolina Theatre Association (SCTA).

A 1989 Illinois Wesleyan graduate with a degree in Theatre Arts, Younts was nominated by state theater professionals and endorsed by the association’s board. The award is given to theater educators at their respective educational levels who have done the most for theater students in South Carolina.

According to an article in The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.), Younts directs the Charleston County School of the Arts’ improvisational troupe and serves as technical director for the school’s theater. The School of Arts theater department produces more than 50 student performances each year.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Barbara Nathan was named the 2009 Healthcare Executive of the Year by the American Academy of Medical Administrators (AAMA). Nathan received the award during the 2009 AAMA Annual Conference in Las Vegas on November 19.

The award is the Academy’s highest and honors a candidate whose work has provided an environment for delivering the maximum level of quality care with dignity and human concern. According to AAMA, whose mission is to advance excellence in healthcare leadership, Nathan exemplifies this commitment to care.

Nathan graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1980, and 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. She facilitated the creation of the center, which covers the continuum of cancer care from community education on prevention and early detection, to treatment and survivor services. Over 13 years, Nathan raised more than $9,000,000, and significantly improved care processes, multidisciplinary treatment and increased the level of technology available to patients.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University alum Michael Lawton, a graduate of the class of 2008, was recently declared one of two winners in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition.

Last year, Lawton, currently a graduate student at the University of Kentucky (UK), was encouraged by his clarinet professor to memorize a concerto piece over the summer.

Lawton chose to perform “Premiere Rhapsodie” by composer Claude Debussy. Initially, Lawton said the piece did not captivate him, but as he began to practice and listen to recordings, he found he truly enjoyed it. “At times it is ethereal while at other times it requires great technical facility, moving seamlessly from one palette of color to the next. It’s really quite beautiful,” said Lawton.

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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.’”

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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.

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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.

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