Category Archives: Features

International Students Help Peers in China Discover Their Passions

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University sophomore Li Haoda spent the first 10 years of his life in a small village in China before he moved to a nearby city of Guangzhou. Years later, when he returned to visit to the rural village, he realized his childhood friends had few educational opportunities.

“The people I went to school with [when I was very young] were just as smart as I was, but about one in five of them dropped out of school,” said Li. “The rural schools just did not have the opportunities that were available in the city.”

The disparity of educational opportunities spurred Li to join the Peer Experience Exchange Rostrum (PEER), a not-for-profit organization geared toward bringing educational equality to China. The group recruits Chinese students studying abroad to volunteer at summer tutoring camps for students in rural, impoverished areas of China.

“We dedicated ourselves to a seemingly impossible mission: to provide resources for disadvantaged children in China, supporting their continued education to change their lives,” said Li, who joined PEER in 2008 when the organization only had 10 volunteers. “We faced obstacles in our work, such as enduring an eight-hour bus ride to a remote rural school, and coordinating multi-national volunteers in nine-hour online meetings, but with each minute devoted to my work, I better prepare volunteers, thereby helping the poor students gain more from our summer camps.”

Now in is third year with the group, Li became executive director last year. “When you create opportunity, people can discover their passions,” said Li, an Illinois Wesleyan sophomore with a double major in political science and economics. “That works both for those getting help, and the volunteers providing it. People can have a passion, but no opportunity. This is an opportunity.”

Students Explore Collaborations with City, County

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Two Illinois Wesleyan University classes are taking advantage of a wealth of information from local sources in Bloomington, and returning the favor by providing new insights on the data – all part of a collaboration with the city the University calls home.

“I really wanted my students to get into the local community,” said Associate Professor of German and Eastern European Studies Sonja Fritzsche. In her German 488: Von Demokratie zur Diktatur (From Democracy to Dictatorship) class students are introduced to the concept of German immigration by translating old, German-language newspapers from the Bloomington-Normal area that are housed at the McLean County Museum of History’s archives.

For Associate Professor of Economics Diego Mendez-Carbajo, the idea of using real data from the City of Bloomington for his new class titled Economics 370: Time Series Analysis was more than a good way to study financial and economic variables.

“Quantitative analysis skills are one of the comparative advantages that business and economics majors bring to the job market,” said Mendez-Carbajo, who noted students who take the class should be able to look at a long series of observations and discern the patterns. “I wanted students to learn about the data-gathering process itself. At the very least I would like them to be the one person that steps forward when their future boss or supervisor asks ‘can anybody make sense of these numbers?’”

Students to Join Study of Dark Energy

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – This fall, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois Wesleyan University plans to have students help research one of the biggest questions facing science today: What is dark energy?

According to Assistant Professor of Physics Thushara Perera, studies involving dark matter and dark energy are showing there is more that is unknown in the universe than known. “Everything we know about the universe is probably 5 percent of what is really out there,” he said. “Dark matter is maybe 25 percent, and the other 70 percent is probably dark energy.”

Highly sensitive cameras, filled with detectors, are set in dry places at high elevation in an attempt to reveal the nature of dark energy and the history of the universe. Perera has spent years working on such a camera, known as the Astronomical Thermal Emission Camera (AzTEC), which was mounted on a telescope in the mountains of Chile. “The data from AzTEC helps answer fundamental questions about early galaxies and how they formed.”

Hart Career Center Helps Students Plan Their Futures

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan’s Hart Career Center provides four main areas of support to assist students in planning for their futures. The Center, located in the Minor Myers, jr. Welcome Center (1211 Park St., Bloomington), offers aid in the areas of career guidance, internship planning, graduate and professional school preparation and job search assistance.

Career Guidance

For those who are still unsure of the path they would like to take, the Hart Career Center offers online and in-office assessments to guide students in the right direction. Throughout the academic school year, seminars and programs are held that focus on different careers to highlight options within a given field.

The Center also houses its own library filled with career information resources. The library is open for students to browse reference materials and learn more about career options available to them. According to Warren Kistner, director of the Hart Career Center, the Center provides students with the opportunity to schedule individual meetings with a staff member to discuss possible directions they might take in their future careers.

20th Anniversary of Gospel Festival Prompts Look Back at King Speeches on Campus

For two decades, voices have been lifted in song as a tribute to the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Gospel Festival on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University on January 18.

Founded by the late Corine Sims and her husband, the Rev. James E. Sims, the festival found a home at Illinois Wesleyan, and attracts gospel choirs from all over the state. The University was seen as a fitting place for the festival, as it was the place that King graced twice.

“[In the early 1990s then-Illinois Wesleyan] President Minor Myers, jr. said Wesleyan would be the perfect place to host the event, because of Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. spoke at the University,” said Barbara Sims Malone, daughter of James and Corine. “He saw the festival as a special opportunity to invite the community to Illinois Wesleyan.”

King came to speak at Illinois Wesleyan at two important junctures during his short but illustrious life. The first in 1961, when standing on the cusp of international recognition, and the second in 1966, when his reputation as a proponent of non-violent protest for the Civil Right Movement was known throughout the world. King’s visits to Illinois Wesleyan reveal the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement and his place within it.

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.

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.

The Ames Library Offers Resource Gems

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The school year is in full swing and students are aiming to make the best of their campus resources. At Illinois Wesleyan University one of these assets is The Ames Library, which offers a prime selection of well-known resources as well as some “hidden gems.”

The intellectual hub of the campus, The Ames Library is a five-story, 103,000 square feet building which houses approximately 335,000 items with access to 75 on-line databases, 1,100 journals in print and 33,000 journals online. The library also has seating for 500 readers and houses over 100 computer workstations as well as 16 study rooms. Yet some of the best gems are the people behind the desks.

According to University Librarian and Professor Karen Schmidt, one of the library’s best services is that it offers personal research assistance to all students.

“Library faculty provide in-depth research assistance for students and can be the untapped resource that moves a student to excellence and earning an ‘A’ on that challenging research assignment” said Schmidt. She encourages, “look for the AskAmes logo on the Web site or stop by the Information Desk to find out how to access this free and valuable resource.”

The library also offers informational sessions for classes, such as Gateways, to introduce students to the many services provided. Academic Outreach Librarian and Associate Professor Lynda Duke leads many of these sessions. They include introductions to library resources and services, as well as an introduction to the research process.

New Name for Bloomington Street Reflects Titans’ Drive

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A portion of a Bloomington city street will now reflect the Illinois Wesleyan spirit. Kelsey Street, from the Illinois Wesleyan Stadium at Wilder Field, to Fell Avenue, is being renamed “Titan Drive.” The renaming of the street became official this month.

“The name not only honors the students and alumni who contribute so much to the Bloomington community, it also infers the great drive and initiative the University inspires,” said Carl Teichman, the University’s director of government and community relations who submitted the request to the Bloomington City Council this summer.

The request for the name change came from the University’s Homecoming Planning Committee. “Titan Drive is just one example of how a working committee representing so many facets of the University can help channel the excitement and creativity of an event,” said Director of Alumni Relations Ann Harding, whose office oversees Homecoming on campus.

20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most famous symbols of the Cold War.

Before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, artists decorated the western side with graffiti of protest, while the eastern side remained untouched.

“The city of Berlin [which was separated by the wall] has been holding celebrations all year, leading up to the anniversary on November 9,” said Sonja Fritzsche, associate professor of German and Eastern European Studies at Illinois Wesleyan, who was in Berlin working on research at the Humboldt University in Berlin this summer.

Illinois Wesleyan University will honor the anniversary with an international film series on the wall and talk by Visiting Professor Bill Brown from Oct. 4-8, following German Reunification Day (which is Oct. 3). Details are available on the German Studies site.

The Berlin Wall amounted to more than 80 miles of concrete and wire built in 1961 under the Soviet leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Constructed to stem the tide of emigration from the east, the city of West Berlin was encircled by the wall. In 1990, the former Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) reunified on October 3, nearly a year after the fall of the wall.

Now that 20 years have passed since 1989, it might seem as though the events of that November could be relegated to the pages of history. Like all history, however, the ramifications of an event reverberate through time.

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