Category Archives: Features

Artists Explore Motivation and Mystery of Inspiration

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Many consider inspiration to be the phenomenon that both motivates the artist and serves as the greatest intrigue of their work. Artist Ginia A. Davis explains, “The soul of art is inspiration.”

At Illinois Wesleyan University, two professors and two students were posed the question, “What inspires you?” The answers from School of Art Director Miles Bair, Professor of Art Kevin Strandberg, as well as art students Leeya Jackson class of ‘13 and Riley Blindt class of ‘13, revealed surprising similarities.

Bair has painted for more than 40 years and teaches painting, art foundations and art theory and criticism. “There have been multiple inspirations in my development as a painter,” said Bair. “During the past 15 to 20 years my artwork has focused on landscapes and nature.”

For Bair, the woods are a great source of inspiration. “Any time I run out of ideas in the studio I head for places like Wisconsin, the Appalachian mountains, anywhere that’s green.” He then takes photographs of these places to capture a mood to communicate in his work.

Bair prefers to make artwork based upon what he has seen and added to with his imagination, rather than painting exact replicas of his photographs. “My winter paintings are created entirely from imagination. I just imagine what places would look like with snow and work from there.”

Power of Poetry Slams onto Campus

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When one thinks of traditional poetry courses, quiet classes spent analyzing meter, form, and imagery come to mind. However, there has been a relatively recent movement to educate people on contemporary forms of poetry, such as slam poetry.

Slam poetry, or the competitive art of performance poetry, originated in 1984 when construction worker Marc Smith started a poetry reading series at a Chicago jazz club, looking to breathe life into poetry. The experiment spread to other clubs in Chicago and eventually to Ann Arbor, San Francisco and other major cities with nation-wide slams throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Slam has been well publicized in the media through television shows such as HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and the 1998 film, Slam. Some people think slam is brash, perhaps even abrasive, but others find it moving and persuasive and “the obvious power of slam poetry puts to the test the power of other kinds of poetry,” said Associate Professor of English Michael Theune.

Unique Sculpture to Illuminate Campus

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Over a decade ago, in 1998, the Illinois Wesleyan School of Art was given an endowment gift of $2 million by B. Charles Ames ’50 to name the art building after his wife, Joyce Eichhorn Ames. Over the years, Mrs. Ames, class of 1949 and a former art student, wondered if anything could be done to distinguish the building, utilitarian in nature, as a recognizable school of art. The plans that followed can now be seen from the Robert S. Eckley Quadrangle – a glass rotunda entrance that houses a unique sculpture by artist Lyle London of Tempe, Ariz.

The more than 2,400-square-foot glass rotunda will serve as the new entryway to the school of art building. With a substantial amount of work finished on the outside of the rotunda itself, the sculpture can now be placed within, as art students and faculty, as well as London, began working together this week to suspend it from the center of the glass tower.

Funded by trustee emeritus Flora Harris Armstrong, class of 1943, as a gift to the University, the work is an abstraction, taking the form of three interwoven, tapering helices. It is constructed from stainless steel and dichroic glass.

Educators Find iPad a Useful Aid in the Classroom

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Since the creation of the chalkboard over 120 years ago, the classroom has seen significant changes, each invention revolutionizing the way students learn. Today, the classroom continues to evolve and has been introduced to a new type of technology – one that is touch sensitive, lightweight and compact – the iPad.

A tablet device released by Apple Inc. in April of 2010, the iPad has been praised by many for its ability to perform a number of the same tasks as a laptop, with half the weight and twice the portability. Shortly after the iPad’s premiere, companies such as Verizon Wireless and Blackberry, among others, released similar products.

Critics of the iPad first saw it only as a larger version of the company’s earlier product, the iPhone. What some perceived as just another gadget, however, is quickly becoming a valuable tool for educators, from elementary school teachers to college professors, including a few at Illinois Wesleyan University.

According to Professor Jeanne Koehler, visiting instructor in educational studies, the iPad enhances pedagogy and eases the administrative tasks of teaching. With a variety of educational applications, or apps, ranging from math and engineering games to word puzzles, students of all ages can be engaged in a fun, hands-on learning experience. Even one of the iPad’s most popular games, Angry Birds, can have educational purposes, according to Koehler, with the goal of the game achieved through manipulating angles.

For the educator, the iPad also serves as a useful way to keep track of simple administrative tasks, such as taking attendance, recording student participation and creating seating charts. Apps such as Teacher Pal store all the information a teacher may need for the classroom. The convenience of having everything located in one place is an incentive for using the iPad, as Koehler has noted from personal experience.

Students Find Ways to Be a Best Buddy

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For the average college student, the many demands faced throughout the year – papers, presentations, exams – are more than enough. While each student finds his or her own way to deal with these stresses, some students have found enriching experiences through organizations such as Best Buddies International.

Promoting social inclusion and leadership opportunities through one-on-one friendships, as well as job opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), Best Buddies International is a not-for-profit organization found in all 50 states and 50 countries worldwide. Positively impacting nearly 700,000 individuals with and without disabilities, the organization was established in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver. What began with one chapter has now blossomed into a worldwide organization of 1,500 chapters, varying from middle schools, to high schools, to universities and communities through adult programs.

At Illinois Wesleyan, the chapter is comprised of students of all years and majors, and people with IDD, or buddies, from the community. Each buddy is paired with a college student; this year there are 14 matches and 19 associate members, who are not paired with buddies but still attend meetings and events. Recently, the group met in Buck Memorial Library for a Halloween party, which included trick-or-treating around the campus. Later in the year, they will attend a football game together and fundraise, as well. Outside of planned events, the group members and their buddies talk weekly and get together in order to create life-long friendships.

Students Ride Against AIDS

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Biking 4,000 miles across the United States in just three months may seem like a grueling task for most – a task possibly accompanied by dangerous weather conditions, rugged back-roads, and pure exhaustion. As rigorous of a journey as this may be, there are those few strong-willed and committed souls who attempt and succeed at this challenge.

Vadim Kogan and Michael Henry, both members of Illinois Wesleyan University’s Class of 2012, attempted this endeavor. This summer they participated in “Ride Against AIDS,” a cross-country bike ride for the organization FACE AIDS. Beginning in June, Kogan and Henry started their cross-country bike ride in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and completed their trip in Boston, Mass. in August.

FACE AIDS, an organization founded at Stanford University in 2005, “is a student movement geared towards fighting HIV/AIDS and global health inequality,” said Henry. The “Ride Against AIDS,” now in its fourth year running, is meant to raise not only funds, but also awareness about the FACE AIDS organization. “We raised over $50,000,” said Kogan. “Individually the riders came up with $26,000. Along the trip we raised about $3,000 and there was an anonymous donation of around $22,000 once we got to Boston.”

Accompanied by four other riders, Kogan and Henry’s 67-day journey consisted of stops in 20 states and 53 different towns. “We had around 35 host families,” Henry said. “So there were 47 days where we had a roof to stay under.”

Henderson ’12 Affirms Career Dreams in Unexpected Places

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – How many Lenscrafter, Sunglass Hut, or Pearl Vision locations have you driven past during your lifetime? Now pretend none of these places exist, what would you do if you needed a pair of eyeglasses? For many of us such a scenario is hard to imagine.

However, Erick Henderson, a senior biology and pre-optometry major at Illinois Wesleyan University, has not only imagined such a place but traveled to one. This past summer, Henderson traded in baseball games and family cookouts for – one could say – an eye-opening experience. In June 2011, he traveled to Lamu, Kenya, where he served as the optometric technician at the Lamu Center for Preventative Health (LCPH).

Founded by IWU alum Munib Abdulrehman ’02 and Rebecca Gearhart, associate professor of anthropology, LCPH is a non-governmental organization, which provides healing services and preventative health education to residents of Lamu and the surrounding islands. Although located abroad, LCPH is also represented on Illinois Wesleyan’s campus through a student-run organization by the same name. While LCPH offers many educational programs, an eye care-related program had not been developed – this is where Henderson and Gearhart would find a common goal.

According to Gearhart, LCPH was established to stand apart from other health organizations by focusing on educating the local community versus simply treating illnesses. LCPH initiatives have included: nutrition programs geared towards young children, CPR classes, and diabetes prevention and awareness. “Our goal is to disseminate information so that Lamu residents can rely on their gained knowledge to take care of themselves and their families,” said Gearhart. “We are constantly working with volunteers, the Red Cross, and sailing doctors to provide this community with tools to live healthy lives. The goal of LCPH is not to cure, but to heal.”

ITS Helps Campus Navigate Technology

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – While in the process of adding a few finishing touches to the grade-determining final project that has taken all semester to complete, suddenly the laptop screen goes black and the computer refuses to start.

For many college students, this nightmare scenario rings a bell familiar enough to evoke waves of paralyzing terror and accompanying nausea.

In situations where computers seem to become the enemy, Illinois Wesleyan University’s Information Technology Services (ITS) staff members are on-hand to remind the campus community it’s possible to “become friends with technology,” said ITS Coordinator Lisa Caughron. “We’re very empathetic to crises such as these, so we already have strategies in place to deal with them. Computer problems can be frustrating; as much as it’s possible to do so, we try to plan for those situations.”

At Illinois Wesleyan, ITS works toward its mission to “create a culture of life-long learning” and “provide the best information resources possible” by working as partners with the campus community. “Once upon a time, ITS was just come in and ask questions,” said Caughron. “But we’ve started focusing on the big picture, on showing you technology is not something that has to impinge on your lifestyle. We want people to understand that technology can be a tool that really enhances your life.”

The ITS Help Desk staff provides service to the campus community in the form of guidance, resources and advice, and the Service and Repair staff provides diagnostics and personal computer repairs at no charge for Illinois Wesleyan students, staff, faculty and retirees. Services are available via telephone at (309) 556-3900, email at it@iwu.edu, online at both the ITS website and blog and in person at the HelpDesk center at the ITS House, located across from Shaw Hall at 1311 N. Park St.

SALSA Students Running Marathon to Benefit Charity

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Five Illinois Wesleyan students will run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 9 in order to raise money for the charity Casa de los Angeles.

Janette Abbasi and David Dimas of Chicago, Melissa Ramirez of Los Angeles, Vanessa Rodriguez of Round Lake Beach, Ill. and Jairo Rosales of Melrose Park, Ill., all class of 2014, are members of Illinois Wesleyan’s Spanish and Latino Student Association (SALSA), a campus organization dedicated to promoting and celebrating Latin American culture, heritage and diversity. The students chose to run with Casa de los Angeles, a daycare, community center, transitional housing and medical clinic program in the city of San Miguel de Allende, because of its specific focus on the Latino community.

According to Kevin O’Donnell, coordinator for the Marathon’s Team Casa, Casa de los Angeles is one of only two or three Marathon charities working in Mexico. “Many of our volunteers are college students who come to Mexico for a winter, spring or summer break and take advantage of the experience as a language or cultural immersion,” he said. “I think one of the great benefits students glean from involvement with Casa particularly is insight into a meaningful response to poverty.”

Triplets Turn Titan: DeSalvos Begin College Journey Together

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When Meagan DeSalvo ’15 fell in love with Illinois Wesleyan University on a campus tour during high school, she had no idea her brothers Matt and Don, ’15, would follow suit.

Call it serendipity: On August 22, all three DeSalvo siblings will begin their college careers at Illinois Wesleyan—an outcome they attribute almost entirely to coincidence.

“It took my brothers a long time to even consider IWU,” said Meagan, who applied to two other universities but had “no intention” of attending any school other than Illinois Wesleyan. “I made my decision by myself, without anyone else’s influence. We never really thought we would end up at the same school; it just kind of happened.”

Don, who during his college search focused on schools that could provide him with a quality education and place him well in the job market, shares the sentiment. Although he admits Meagan originally introduced him to Illinois Wesleyan, Don’s “final decision came down to the fact that I could envision myself at IWU,” he said. “I felt like it was where I belonged as well as where I could get the best education. I am still surprised we all ended up going to the same school, because we definitely didn’t choose to go to college together.”

Matt also applied to a few other liberal arts colleges besides Illinois Wesleyan, but was ultimately attracted to the family-like campus community as well as the warm welcome he received from members of the IWU cross country team. “At first I looked at bigger schools, but later in my search I became more interested in smaller schools that offered individual attention from professors,” he said.

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