Category Archives: Features

Alumni Forge Careers in Emerging Media

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – E-blast, pay-per-click, tweet, update, blog – all of these are tools of social media marketers, a job that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. Now many people, including some Illinois Wesleyan University alumni, are using the Internet and e-communications as an integral part of their careers.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know this area existed when I was studying in school,” said Kyle Brigham, a senior search marketing manager at L2T Media in Chicago, an agency that specializes in helping businesses market through online media. Brigham said he planned for a career in media marketing after graduating from Illinois Wesleyan in 2006 with a major in business administration and a minor in music. Though he began as a promotions director for a local radio station, he was soon offered a job with L2T Media, where he assists clients in setting up and managing profiles on Internet-based media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. “I was looking for something big,” he said.

Social media marketing is an expanding field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a continued growth in public relations, especially with the emergence of social media. Social media sites, like Facebook, boast millions of users, which means millions of people for businesses and organizations to reach.

Summer Enrichment Program Opens Doors to Success

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For most college students, summer is an opportunity to relax, forget about school and spend time with friends and family. Barbeques, pool parties and excursions to the beach dot the schedules of formerly stressed-out students. However, this summer nine Illinois Wesleyan University students have opted for a slightly different course, participating in the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP).

The rigorous 10-week program, open to all IWU minority students, focuses on three major areas; professional, academic and personal growth of the participants. As a part of the program, the students will receive formal professional training, learn from diversity workshops, have an internship and participate in volunteer activities, including a final social service project.

“Our aim this summer is to make the students into cultural mavens,” said Roshaunda Ross, director of the SEP and multicultural affairs, who chose the 2010 theme of ‘mavens in the making.’ A maven, as defined by author Malcolm Gladwell is “a trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass knowledge onto others.”

Students Take Poetry Off of the Page

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A class at Illinois Wesleyan University recently pulled poetry off the page and placed it into the community.

One of the May Term sections of Introductory to Creative Writing challenged students to not only write poetry and fiction, but to come up with ways of sharing it in the community.

“In the class, we talk a lot about why creative writing is important, and why it is out there. I wanted the students to have the chance to see more than just their own responses to the work,” said Brandi Reissenweber, an adjunct faculty member who was the instructor of the four-week class. May Term is a time when students can take intensive classes within the compressed time period, as opposed to the usual 16-week semester.

The project, called Act of Art, required students to write several works individually, then come together in groups to decide what pieces should be presented to the public, and how their work should be disseminated, said Reissenweber.

Several ideas came to fruition – including plastering a car with poetry and fiction and parking it in various spots around town; and holding a lemonade stand on the Constitution Trail with poetry pasted to the cups. “We thought that a lemonade stand would be a good idea since it was a hot month of May,” said Elise Anderson, a sophomore from Wheaton, Ill. She and fellow student Nicole Taylor led a group of students who wrote poetry in chalk to draw people to the stand, and then gave out lemonade with their poetic creations attached to the cups. “Most people who approached us seemed very interested in our project. They liked to ask questions. Some people even saved the poems that were on the cups.”

Taylor, a sophomore from Lake Zurich, Illinois, remembered one man who came up to to the table after he had his lemonade. “He walked past us after throwing away his cup and held out the part of my poem that was taped on his cup and he said, ‘I am going to pin this on my wall. This is a really good thing you guys are doing,’” said Taylor, who is a biology major. “We all thought that it was really special how he was impacted by our work and appreciated what we were doing.”

Travel Courses Teach Business Abroad

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It is one thing to learn about Asian Economics in a classroom, however learning about it while visiting the Caterpillar factory in Singapore provides an entirely different business experience. Such opportunities have been made possible by Illinois Wesleyan University, as well as professors such as Associate Professor of Business Administration Fred Hoyt, who has traveled to approximately 30 countries with students during various business study-abroad courses.

Hoyt began taking students on month-long study-abroad trips in 1993 with destinations such as Europe, Asia and Australia. The trips provide both the chance to travel and a business course abroad. Before their departure, students must first study and read about business practices in the countries they will visit, as well as write a comparative essay about their readings. Then while abroad, the students visit international businesses, receive tours of foreign companies and even meet with expatriates living overseas.

Writing Center Assists Students with Assignments

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Spring semester is in full swing at Illinois Wesleyan University and many students are busy researching and writing papers for finals. While students may feel overwhelmed with their studies and writing requirements, the University provides assistance. If students would like their papers read by trained eyes or even need help starting their research, they can visit the on-campus Writing Center, available for consultation on papers and projects of any topic.

Joel Haefner, director of the Writing Center, says the main goal is “to help students see how they can help themselves” not just on a particular paper, however, with their writing in general. Many Gateway professors (small, discussion-oriented classes designed to develop students’ proficiency in writing) have taken advantage of these services, either bringing their classes into the center or requiring that students visit the center for a certain number of papers.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Virtual Worlds Offer a ‘Sandbox’ for Learning – and Earning

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – There are worlds where dinosaurs can talk with tigers, and gravity is only a suggestion to those who fly from island to island. This is not a world of literature, but a virtual world, accessible to anyone with a computer.

One of the most successful virtual worlds, Second Life, recently announced a new interface that could offer a more user-friendly door into these computer-generated worlds. That development could mean more educators will be able to take advantage of the virtual world with much greater ease, said Sascha Vitzthum, Illinois Wesleyan University’s assistant professor of business administration.

“Right now in the virtual world, everything has to be done by key strokes – every gesture, every move,” said Vitzthum, who teaches a course on emerging technologies and working on creating the information systems concentration in business administration at Illinois Wesleyan. “Whether the virtual world becomes user-friendly enough to let people behave the way they want to behave will be the key, but I believe it is going to get there.”

According to Vitzthum, there are around 80 virtual worlds currently operating on the Internet, which allow participants to create an online version of themselves, known as avatars, and interact with one another in the computer-generated world. People from across the globe “meet” in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where they can talk, play, shop and learn.

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